December 12

“[O]ur global rock star, Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Laughter.)”

--Assistant Secretary P.J. Crowley, referring to Secretary of State at a press briefing; image from

THE COLD WAR MUSEUM TO LOCATE AT VINT HILL

VINT HILL, VA: December 11, 2009— Francis Gary Powers, Jr., the Founder of The Cold War Museum (http://www.coldwar.org/), announced today that the museum had found a physical home.

The Cold War Museum will lease a modest size two story building and secure storage facility at Vint Hill, located in Fauquier County, Virginia, less than 30 miles from Washington Dulles International Airport. The lease was signed on December 1, 2009 with the Vint Hill Economic Development Authority (http://www.vinthill.com/), the owner of the 695-acre former US Army communications base. Courtesy MC. Image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Remarks at the First Diplomacy Briefing Series Meeting, Focused on the Issues and Challenges of U.S. Relations With Latin America Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State Washington, DC December 11, 2009 – U.S. Department of State: Clinton: "We’re enlisting a lot of different voices and some of the best minds in the public and private sectors to work on regional and global challenges like climate change. The Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas announced by President Obama in Trinidad and Tobago earlier this year will help to harness our collective ability to promote renewable energy and reduce emissions. We’re also trying to reach deep into societies to promote public diplomacy. The Alliance of Youth Movements, launched in Mexico City in October with the backing of the State Department, is helping young leaders drive positive change in their own societies, starting with little more than a cell phone and an idea."

Obama's Lincolnesque Nobel Peace Prize - William Bradley, Huffington Post (blog) - "‎Setting aside the possibility that Obama was selected because he's not George W. Bush, I think the president got the Nobel for his great speeches. Principally, his outstanding speech to the Islamic world in Cairo six months ago.


It's terrific outreach and a fine repositioning of America after, well, eight years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. As public diplomacy, it's brilliant. Yet it's very incomplete. … This is a president who believes in soft power and hard power, and sees them both on the same continuum." Image from

"Social Media Improves Political Information Cascades" - Joshua S. Fouts, The Imagination Age: "I encourage readers of this blog to check out Clay Shirky's latest essay 'The Net Advantage' in the UK Prospect. The article, which responds to an earlier article by Evgeny Morozov is a great example of the democratizing power of the Internet, especially social media. We view this as foundational in illustrating the power of these venues for augmenting cultural relations and cultural diplomacy. But where Shirky gets it especially right, is his comment that the solution is not to 'just add Internet.'" See also.

U.S. Diplomacy in the Age of Facebook and Twitter: An Address on 21st Century Statecraft - cb3blog.wordpress.com: "The current revolution in communications technologies and the emergence of new media platforms are transforming the practice of American foreign policy. Today’s diplomats are seeking ways to exploit new tools such as social media, short message service (SMS), and other mobile applications on the more than 4.6 billion mobile phones in use around the world. To respond to this changing environment, the U.S. State Department, under the leadership of Secretary Hillary Clinton, is exploring new avenues in 21st century statecraft, seeking to maximize the potential of these technologies in service of America’s diplomatic and development goals. On December 17, the Brookings Institution will host Alec Ross, the secretary of state’s senior advisor for innovation, for a discussion of these new tools of diplomacy. Before joining the State Department, Ross served as convener for technology, media and telecommunications policy for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. Previously, Ross helped lead One Economy, a nonprofit organization addressing the digital divide."

Unwelcoming house - Llewellyn King, timesunion.com: "At Voice of America headquarters, you have to produce a driver's license and have your picture taken each time you enter the building.

Taking pictures of all visitors is something even the White House does not require. So which national secrets is Voice of America hiding that the White House is not?" Via; image from

Английский язык, хоккей и пляжный волейбол оживят российско-американские отношения [English, hockey and beach volleyball

enliven Russian-American relations], Ambassador Beyrle's Blog, U.S. Embassy in Moscow: Describes US-Russian meetings on expanding cultural relations held in Moscow December 7-9.

Beach volleyball image from; meeting image from article

Polish-American SOFA signed in Warsaw – Eastern Europe Watch: "The Polish-American Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) has been signed in Warsaw today. SOFA allows for the United States military to station American troops and military equipment on Polish territory. During the signing ceremony, Polish Minister of Defense, Bogdan Klich, said that, for Poland, the agreement means a strengthening in the country’s national security. ... The majority of the Polish population will have hardly taken any notice of this, apart from politically ware [sic] types who even then often get het [sic] up by the usual 'public diplomacy' surrounding the purchase of Patriot Missiles."

US Announces Big Package For Liberia - The Inquirer:

"The United States government and her Liberian counterpart have signed a bilateral agreement with the United States government promising to provide nearly US$220 million to Liberia to boost the country's Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS). ...Those from the US Embassy that also graced the occasion were the Country Director of USAID and other officials of USAID and the Public Diplomacy Section." Image from

Nation branding must be a substantive component of any competitiveness strategy – E. B. John, Letter to the Editor Stabroek News: "In short the nation [Guyana] needs to re-brand itself. The whole concept of branding is as critical to our economy as it is to our people development. It involves a conscious national effort to identify the country and differentiate it from other countries. ... Consequently, in addition to export promotion, investment attraction and tourism promotion, there is what may be considered the over-arching function of public diplomacy which cannot be overlooked, and indeed should be proactively conducted."

MND Grad Goes Around the World and Back - Cheri Lehrter, Cincinnati.com: "When Vanessa Beary, formerly of Montgomery, graduated from Mount Notre Dame [High School] in 2000, her teachers knew that she would go on to achieve great things. ...

In 2007, Vanessa was hired by the U.S. Department of State and relocated to Wasit, Iraq, as a Public Diplomacy Officer. In the year she spent in Wasit, the work Vanessa did made lasting differences in the region: Vanessa helped to organize the first apolitical, non-religious cultural event in Wasit since the fall of Saddam Hussein; she helped to integrate new teaching methodologies at the University of Wasit and was one of the first Americans to step foot onto that campus since the beginning of the Iraqi War; she established five internet centers within the city and secured more than $2.5 million in funding to be used for educational, cultural and media training projects. 'My time in Iraq was life-changing. It was incredibly rewarding, but I also saw things there that will never leave me,' Vanessa emotionally shared with the group of MND students. 'My time there was incredible, but after 15 months, I was ready to come home.'” Image from article

Tilting at windmills – Paul Rockower, Levantine: "Having conquered his last windmill of the season, Don Pablo Quijote stood out on the porch of his fair castle and sized up the moment. Under the cloudy grey sky of La Mancha de Los Angeles, he peered out as the sound of church bells rang in the distance.

Already, he began making deigns and designs on his next adventure, the public diplomacy road show and public health extravaganza on the great trek south to the canal of Panama. In a fortnight, our hero will begin a new adventure; for now, he smiled contentedly as he ate homemade sweet Vietnamese chicken wings (Hanoi Wings) that would give Buffalo a run for its dong, and sipped black tea as the smell of spiced cloves wafted in the cool air." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

A sharp turn toward another Vietnam - George McGovern, Washington Post: By closing down the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, we can divert the vast sums being spent there to revitalizing our own nation.

The dirge after the surge - Clifford D. May, Washington Times:

Just before the president took the stage at West Point, Mullah Omar issued a message calling upon his fighters not to be discouraged but to continue the jihad until every American and European troop is driven from Afghanistan. Ahmed Rashid, the well-known Pakistani journalist, called the 10-page message, delivered to him and some other reporters by e-mail in English and two Afghan languages, "an unprecedented propaganda blitz." Image from

Why we fight - Victor Davis Hanson, Washington Times: If our leaders today could consult great generals like the Roman Scipio Africanus or William Tecumseh Sherman - who won what were once near-hopeless wars - they might receive the following advice: • Prepare the public to shoulder human and financial costs. • Be candid about why enduring the horrors of war now is preferable to risking even costlier violence later. • Talk always of winning, never leaving or quitting a war. • Have no apologies for crushing the enemy. The quicker the enemy loses, the fewer get killed on both sides. • Inform the public of the other side's losses just as you do your own. • And be magnanimous to the defeated - after the war, not during the fighting.

US propaganda against Venezuela and Iran never ceases - Kenneth T. Tellis, vheadline.com

Taliban contradicts itself in own propaganda - Tony Prudori, Threat Matrix

He Was No Wilsonian – Beverly Gage, New York Times:

Today, the only major public figure who seems to be interested in Woodrow Wilson is the Fox News host Glenn Beck, who traces the roots of our current “socialist” predicament back to the dark era of Wilsonian income taxes, war propaganda and obscure monetary symbols. Image: Lucy Wilson

Billboards criticizing US aid to Israel return to Albuquerque - Adam Horowitz, Mondoweiss.net: Last April, we followed the story of a grassroots coalition in Albuquerque, NM who paid to have 10 billboards criticizing US aid to Israel displayed around the city only to have them taken down under pressure. Today, the Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel, which represents 14 groups from the Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim communities of New Mexico, contacted us to let us know that at least one billboard is back up.

Image from article

IMAGES

Elevator mural casts you as Adam on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, Boing Boing