April 11

"The normal situation of the Church and the Vatican is to help the people to understand the teachings of the Church and the documents of the pope and not to sell particular products."

--The Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman; cited in Michelle Boorstein, "Lack of Vatican communications strategy on scandal baffles pope's U.S. defenders," Washington Post; image from, with comment: "Needless to say this Pope on a rope (worryingly available in used and new) is not an official Vatican product."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Kyrgyzstan: Washington Reaches Out To Bishkek - eurasianet.org: "By all appearances, the United States faces a serious public diplomacy challenge in Kyrgyzstan. Washington’s sluggish initial response has enabled Russia to take the early lead in what is shaping up as a race to cultivate the goodwill of the Kyrgyz provisional government. That race, in turn, may well exert influence on whether the United States retains access to the transit center at Manas Airport outside of Bishkek, an important logistics hub for the US and NATO war effort in Afghanistan."

Deploying Soft Power - Restructured, Larger Civilian Force Needed for Crises - Patrick Cronin and Kristin Lord, DefenseNews: "America remains strangely ill-equipped equipped to combine hard power and soft power.

The U.S. military filled this void over the last nine years while fighting two wars, but it is time to fix what is broken. Unless the U.S. government strengthens its diplomatic, informational and economic tools of power, this admirable new commitment to soft power will fail. A key challenge is to integrate the elements of power consistently, and not just in Washington strategy sessions but also overseas. We offer four steps forward [including]: ... We need to create civilian-led equivalents of military combatant commands that can unify our diplomatic, development, public engagement and defense efforts. The military has taken on new development and public diplomacy missions because it has the ability to integrate these tools, the operational capacity to use them and a broad regional focus - but it is neither enthusiastic nor best-positioned to carry out these tasks. ... Though a unique coalition of military and civilian leaders now support using American soft power more effectively, we need to move urgently from strategy to action and permanently build the civilian capacity to wield soft power well. The alternative to soft power is not only less effective hard power, but less power, period." Image from

Don’t Shoot the Messenger! - Mark Dillen, Public Diplomacy: "[T]hanks to the whistle blowers at WikiLeaks, U.S. military video footage, purloined or leaked, showed up on the Internet last week, and revealed in chilling detail a U.S. helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007 that shot at and killed two Reuters journalists. ... As difficult as it is to admit mistakes — and wartime mistakes are the most consequential of all — the effort to cover them up almost always turns out badly."

Passion for Public Diplomacy - Naomi Leight, Public Diplomacy Corps: "Being in the PD world for the past two years (officially) and a bit longer (unofficially) has solidified my belief in public diplomacy as a way to change the way people and governments around the world interact with each other. PD as a future career for me is not a job, but a passion.

This question goes out to all of PD Interactive: What sparked your passion for public diplomacy? My passion for PD started small - the desire to bring my friends together and to listen and understand each other so we wouldn't get in typical adolescent fights. It grew to trying to understand what causes conflicts and how to resolve them. Then it moved into realizing that by being able to listen, learn and try to grow as a person, I could be a citizen diplomat for the US and change attitudes - one individual at a time - with my actions. Now PD is a lens through which I view the world and hope to facilitate the growth and institutionalization of PD throughout my future career. Share with us your PD story..." Image from

George Bush Throws a Cyber-Dissidence Conference - Nancy Scola, techpresident.com: "The Conference on Cyber Dissidents: Global Successes and Challenges is the inaugural event of the The George W. Bush Institute’s Area of Focus on Human Freedom, and includes the Institute’s first two Visiting Fellows in Human Freedom: Oscar Morales, from Colombia, and Mohsen Sazegara, from Iran. The Conference deals with political movements in repressive societies seeking to promote greater freedom of speech, religion, political and economic participation. … While 'George W. Bush' might not be the first person that pops into your head when you think about cyber dissidence, there's some sense to it. For one thing, you can see this approach mesh well with the sort of hand-on democracy promotion he leaned towards at times during his terms. More directly and perhaps more importantly, the executive director of the GWB Institute is James Glassman, who was aggressive on the public diplomacy front at State during the Bush years."

The 2010 FIFA World Cup and global public relations - andinarvaez.com: "• The 2010 FIFA World Cup is the greatest sport tournament in the world to me. ... FIFA has a hospitality program set in place, ready to welcome everyone who comes to South Africa for the World Cup. This the the first time an African nation is hosting the World Cup and FIFA

is making the most of this opportunity by showcasing a culture and embracing everyone who will come into contact with it for the very first time. • Over the past few years, the most amazing stadiums have been built for the soccer matches. South Africa’s infrastructure has benefited from this event. Jobs were created. Tourism will bloom. And that, folks, is how a soccer tournament becomes a public diplomacy mission." Image from article

CULTURAL DIPLOMACY

Arts advocates head to Capitol Hill to ask Congress for bigger NEA budget - Los Angeles Times:

"[R]etired Army Brig. Gen. Nolen V. Bivens … is expected to testify about the role of cultural diplomacy in furthering America's foreign policy and national security interests, with hopes of a bigger appropriation toward that end for the State Department." Bivens image from

Cultural Diplomacy in Africa: A Forum for Young Leaders - SEM Contributor, Sierra Express Media: "The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin presents: Cultural Diplomacy in Africa: A Forum for Young Leaders 'The Development Game: Solving Problems and Creating Opportunities for a Stronger Continent' The CDA Week-long Seminar will take place in Berlin 11th – 18th June 2010 In addition to looking in greater detail at the history and development of cultural diplomacy, the CDA Week-long Seminar will focus on current and future issues facing Africa."

Indian media is an independent entity: Krishna - The Hindu: "External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Tuesday said China should be guided by India’s official stand on issues concerning bilateral ties and not by the reports in the Indian media, an 'independent entity' which takes a critical stance on various issues. 'We have an independent media which is very articulate, which is sometimes extremely critical not (only) on India-China relations, but also on various internal and external factors,' he said when a Chinese journalist asked him about 'adverse' reports in the Indian media last year. … Mr. Krishna will formally kick-off celebrations to mark the establishment of 60th year of diplomatic relations between India and China tomorrow. … He said Indian cultural events would be held this year in 33 towns and cities in China to mark the celebrations. … He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attached great importance to the 'cultural diplomacy.' Inviting the Chinese to visit India, Mr. Krishna said, 'There should more opportunities for students and fold artists to visit each other countries. Like China, India also has a number of scenic spots.'"

RELATED ITEMS

Window on Eurasia: Russians Again View Their Country as a Great Power But One Lacking Some Qualities Needed to Attract Respect, Polls Show - Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia: According to the poll, Russians' interest in acquiring a Western lifestyle has grown even as more Russians say they want their country to pursue its own course. Courtesy LB

Alloy Orchestra’s Man With A Movie Camera: Propaganda You Can Dance To - "Here are the basics of Alloy Orchestra performances: three musicians play original scores to classic pieces of silent film–it’s part live concert, part movie screening, all awesome–and their score for Dziga Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera

is nothing short of synesthetic genius. ... The director and his 1920s contemporaries, known as the Kinoks (literal translation: cinema eye), believed that the only true film was documentary, and that the camera’s purpose was as an eye for recording life caught unawares. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in Vertov’s view comes with a stupefying level of artistry that creeps into this theoretically objective portrayal. Sweeping over the Soviet city of Odessa from dawn to dusk and cradle to grave in the span of a day, he forced the contemplation of the camera’s ability to go anywhere and everywhere ... . The film, intended as a Russian propaganda piece, was censored in its country of origin for decades." Image from

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Television is at its most compulsive when least intentional -- a fleck of foam in the corner of a mouth, a blocked nose, accents, hair, a flicker of doubt. That tie."


--Hugo Williams, Freelance, Times Literary Supplement (April 2, 2010), p. 16 (no link); image from