January 24

"a kind of Middle East Disney World under martial law"

--The US vision for Iraq, according to American diplomat Peter Van Buren; image from

ON THE INTERNET

Hearts and Minds, Originally aired 11.30.2001: "Of all the wars to win, perhaps the propaganda war is the hardest. 

In this show, we bring you stories of propaganda wars past and present, by those who fought them and those who survived them." Via PR, with comment “oldie but goodie”

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Engaging a World in Transition [interview] With Tara Sonenshine - United States Institute of Peace: "USIP’s Executive Vice President Tara Sonenshine has been nominated to become the State Department’s Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy. As she awaits word from the U.S. Senate on possible confirmation, she shared her views on the state of the world, America’s role in it, and what USIP is doing on the ground to help build peace and stability. Sonenshine, a former contributing editor at Newsweek and editorial producer of ABC News’ Nightline, also served in various White House capacities, including transition director at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. In that position, she was responsible for coordinating an interagency process to review foreign policy goals and priorities for that administration’s second term.

Prior to that, she served as special assistant to Clinton as deputy director of communications for the NSC. She has also served as a communications adviser to a number of international organizations, including the International Crisis Group, Internews and CARE International. ... [Sonenshine:] Public diplomacy is really about the intersection of information technology and international affairs at a time when the global public square has increasing influence on real time events as we’ve seen in the Arab Spring. Public diplomacy is really about extending America’s reach and security by influencing how individuals around the world come to know and understand us. It is about the advancement of our foreign policy goals through people-to-people connections in a complex, global, networked society. ... I don’t accept the view of those who see America in decline. I think we are a strong nation based on strong principles and purpose and that our strength lies in our individual resourcefulness and resilience. Hundreds of thousands of citizens from every country want to come to America and many study here every year. Our ideas contribute to improvements in health, science, technology and every facet of life. ... This is a time of incredible transition in the world and we can leverage the power of technology and increase the understanding of American values around the world in ways that benefit the U.S. and the global community." Sonenshine image from article

Public Diplomacy 2.1: TEDGlobal Fellow Evgeny Morozov argues that the US should upgrade its social media outreach - Evgeny Morozov, designmind.frogdesign.com: "American diplomats should stop trying to explain the country’s often inexplicable foreign policy in 140 characters or less. Instead, they should use the Internet

to sell the very idea of America, and there is no better way to do this than to open up the country’s vast cultural riches to the rest of the world — in cyberspace. Allowing the global public to view what America’s best universities, libraries, and museums have to offer from the comfort of their browsers must be at the heart of any 'public diplomacy 2.0' efforts." Image from article

Xi To Visit White House In February - chinadigitaltimes.net: "The White House confirmed on Monday that Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping will make a Valentine’s Day

visit as he cements his status as President Hu Jintao’s successor. ... A spokesman with the U.S. embassy in Beijing told The China Daily that Xi’s trip will extend the promotion of public diplomacy that the two sides have sought in previous high-level meetings." Image from

At Broadcasting Board of Governors and Radio Free Europe/Liberty – Public Diplomacy is Public Scandal at Public Expense - Letter by Lev Roitman, Trojska 181-B, 171 00 Prague 7, Czech Republic: "At Broadcasting Board of Governors and Radio Free Europe/Liberty – Public Diplomacy is Public Scandal at Public Expense: Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is the largest and highly visible institution of American public diplomacy abroad. In its noble official mission the Radio proclaims: 'To empower people in their struggle against violations of human rights,' 'to promote democratic values and institutions,' 'strengthen civil societies by projecting democratic values,' 'provide a model for local media.' RFE/RL’s yearly budget provided by Congress via the supervising Federal agency, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), exceeds 90 million dollars. As a tool of American public diplomacy, RFE/RL has a simple overreaching goal: to enhance positive image of our country internationally. It is the same goal which Chinese public diplomacy, expensive and successful, has for China, or the Russian one, expanding and hapless, has for Russia. RFE/RL broadcasts in 28 languages to 21 countries. The impact of RFE/RL’s public diplomacy on international public opinion is reflected by multilingual foreign media for which RFE/RL should 'provide a model'. In this case, it turns monolingual: 'hypocrisy', 'betrayal of ideals', 'violation of human rights', 'lawlessness', 'double standards', 'moral disaster', 'fraud', 'cynicism', 'Guantanamo in Prague', 'public idiocy instead of public diplomacy', and so on. Short list of the ongoing international publications is enclosed. In reality, that list, due to the exponential effect of Internet, is endless. By the time you read this letter, it will be even longer. Over thirty years, prior to my retirement in 2005 as the Radio’s senior commentator, I worked for RFE/RL in New York, Munich, and Prague. During the cold war, RFE/RL was instrumental in combating communist lies and disdain for human rights. What is wrong with RFE/RL at present? Why U.S. public dollars are wasted so detrimentally to American image overseas? The answer is bewildering, even hard to believe. In Czech courts, the American Radio fights for the right to apply communist law of 1963 written to allow Soviet enterprises to use Soviet laws in subjugated Czechoslovakia. One of the overlooked relics of communist past, that law still remains on books in the post-communist Czech Republic. However, out of moral and political considerations, not a single American company, not a single foreign enterprise has ever made use of that law.

In that, RFE/RL is unique. ... When BBG spits on your common sense and your intelligence, just as it spits on RFE/RL’s friendly host country, the Czech Republic, the attitude similar to that taken by the Czech government, would not serve American interests. Shameful for America lawsuits in foreign courts should be stopped immediately by peaceful resolutions. Key to curtailing the ongoing court cases and the resulting international media coverage — anti-American but, unfortunately, fair — is in Washington. In White House, State Department, the Congress." Image from

Kind Response on Facebook from US Ambassador to Russia McFaul re US Public Diplomacy in Russia - John Brown, Notes and Essays: Pertains

to article, "U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul's YouTube Presentation From a Public Diplomacy Perspective."  Image from

GSA course aims to train government social media leaders - Joseph Marks, nextgov.com: "Every federal agency could benefit from engaging more on social media, but different agencies ought to engage in different ways, said Gadi Ben-Yehuda, who will be teaching a 12-week government-sponsored course beginning in February. ... Two confirmed speakers are Lovisa Williams, a senior policy adviser at State who focuses on social media and public diplomacy, and Steve Ressler, founder of the government-focused social networking site GovLoop."

America Public Diplomacy Center - McIntire Abroad: Commerce students tell their stories of studying abroad: "At this special student networking and discussion event, we had the opportunity to actually meet up with the local Indonesian college students and have conversation with them. The event started off with three representatives from Indonesian student body giving us a brief presentation about their school and its culture, followed by Doug and Kelsey giving a short presentation about

University of Virginia in return. After that, we had the chance to informally mingle with the Indonesian students and interact with them. In general, they were younger than all of us, mostly 1st years who just started attending college. Most of the students I’ve talked to were majoring in management, especially hotel management and were dreaming about working in a 5 star hotel after they graduate. When I told one of the students that we used to stay in Hyatt Regency Hotel in Yogyakarta, she responded that was one of her dream hotels to work for. From time to time we struggled in communicating due to language barrier and cultural differences but we all figured out our own way of dealing with them. I saw few students pulling out dance moves and taking pictures together to break the ice. My trick was to ask them what kind of Korean Drama they liked to watch and what Korean celebrities they liked the most. I knew this was a good strategy because I’ve come to learn, from my past travelling experiences in Southeast Asia, that this was the best strategy, especially for girls."

But a small problem was that I wasn’t a big fan of Korean Drama, or TV in general, that whenever girls asked me if I had watched a certain program I had to act like I had and make up random stories about it. But nevertheless, it was certainly a once in a lifetime experience that I really enjoyed being part of." Images from article

MOFA celebrates the #Jan25 Revolution - Zeinobia, egyptianchronicles.blogspot.com: "The ministry of foreign affairs in Cairo is celebrating the #Jan25. It is worth to mention that before SCAF issued a decree to make #Jan25 a national day, the Egyptian embassies already received orders to celebrated it as a national revolution day. Whether you like it or not, we

achieved something when it comes to our foreign policies thanks to the #Jan25 revolution: [including that]... We managed to restore back some of the relations with the Nile basin countries, of course they are waiting for presidency elections to know the fate of our water crisis but at least we broke the ice. The public diplomacy was a great thing." Zeinobia image from her blog

RELATED ITEMS

In Battle For Hearts And Minds, Taliban Turn To CDs - Ahmad Shafi, NPR: When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, their hard-line policies included a ban on music tapes and videos. Yet now, the Taliban are producing their own CDs in an attempt to win the hearts and minds of Afghans. Since 2005, the Taliban have been mass producing CDs and DVDs featuring footage of alleged NATO atrocities and clips of insurgents battling NATO forces. The CDs and DVDs are readily available in Kabul and other major cities. In some rural areas, the Taliban operate pirate radio transmitters, with the militants broadcasting warnings to local residents and Afghan government officials. NATO has also been supporting some local radio and TV stations, but the Taliban has also shifted tactics, assassinating radio personalities who oppose them.

This month, they killed a prominent tribal leader in Kandahar who used his radio station to preach against the Taliban. In the battle for psychological advantage, many analysts believe ISAF, the acronym for the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, has largely failed to deliver its message. Candace Rondeaux from the International Crisis Group says the Taliban, on the other hand, has improved its propaganda machine over the years. "In the meantime, you know ISAF kind of sat silently. Or they frequently put out these sort of propaganda videos or commercials or radio statements that don't really connect with Afghan realities at all," she said. Image from article, with caption: Here an Afghan man arranges DVDs for sale in the southern city of Kandahar in 2008.
Via DK on facebook

Afghanistan: The Best Way to Peace - Anatol Lieven, New York Review of Books: The pursuit of a peace settlement should be combined with the discussion of a post-Karzai political order in Kabul, and with an Afghan national debate on reform of the constitution, which is now widely recognized to be deeply flawed and far too centralized, and which was never truly approved by the Afghan people. The first step to peace with the Taliban therefore should be to acknowledge their right to participate in a genuine national debate on a new Afghan constitution. We do have a chance to try to do better than the Soviets and to try to save Afghanistan from an endless future of civil war, and to establish a peace in which future progress may be possible. It is our duty to take that chance.

Do We Have to Wait for “History” to Judge US Era in Iraq? - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: America’s era is over in Iraq, and we can say this about it, unlikely to be changed by the passage of time: –The US invasion and occupation killed over 100,000 Iraqis, either directly or via the chaos unleashed. –The oft-stated US major accomplishment of getting rid of Saddam was all over in 2003. We called it regime “change” but in reality it was just regime “destruction,” only the first half of the change thing. –The government we left behind is falling apart like a cardboard box in the rain.

The US vision for Iraq– a kind of Middle East Disney World under martial law– fades just as quickly. –The US invasion and failure of the reconstruction left Iraq in horrific condition, setting the stage for additional years of suffering. Such suffering can likely fuel additional insurgency and lack of support for any central government. It is a poor legacy. –The utter lack of US planning for postwar occupation unleashed sectarian violence and enabled sectarian conflict that is playing out long after the US went home. Whatever comes of that in Iraq’s future is up to the Iraqis, but the US is responsible for letting the genie out of the bottle. We left Iraq with blood on our hands. We created or enabled problems we did not solve, and then we left. None of that will change when history judges the American era. See also. Image from

Predictions about the death of American hegemony may have been greatly exaggerated- Daniel W. Drezner, Foreign Policy: One could point to the last few months of modestly encouraging economic data, but that's ephemeral. Rather, there are three macrotrends that are worth observing now: 1) The United States is successfully deleveraging. 2) Manufacturing is on the mend. 3) A predicted decline in energy insecurity.

Why doesn’t Washington understand the Internet? - Rebecca MacKinnon, Washington Post: Washington targets isolated, static problems. On the Web, everything is connected and changing quickly. Lobbyists exert huge influence in Washington. Major Internet players were late to the game.To stay safe in real life, we give up some liberty. Online, we’re not ready to sacrifice freedoms. Washington is driven by geography. The Internet is global.

Iranian 'Nuclear Threat', Israeli Political Realism - Ludwig Watzal, palestinechronicle.com: US-American and Israeli politicians and their neoconservative extremist friends in Western Europe and the United States do their very best to provoke the Iranian leadership to react irrationally against the different terrorist attacks by their intelligence services. So far, the Iranian regime has kept cool. But Western media propaganda runs at full speed to rally the public behind the flag of war.

Especially in the U. S., it seems easy to manipulate the minds of the benighted population as was the case in relation to Iraq. The question every rational person in the West, not to speak of politicians, has to ask himself: Why do we believe all this propaganda about a nuclear Iran as an “existential threat” to Israel and the West when quite a few leading Israeli security experts and reasonable scientists regard it as a “quantité négligeable”? Image from

The road to credibility in the Arab World - Emma Heald, editorsweblog.org: How can the media regain public trust as a credible source of news, participants contemplated at the 5th Arab Free Press Forum in Tunis. After years of propaganda, it is difficult for newly-free publications in the Arab World to establish themselves as trustworthy sources of news, particularly when facing competition from blogs and social media.

'Activity of Azerbaijani scientists abroad means propaganda of country' - news.az: Executive Director of the Foundation for Development of Science Elchin Babayev said that scientists' activity abroad means the propaganda of Azerbaijan.

“If our men of science stay and help Azerbaijan, it’s reasonable for them to stay there. This help can be the formation of personnel and lobbying activity in the science. And maybe in the future, we will hold some special grant competitions for the scientific diaspora." Image from article

A sourcebook for the media revolution: Book review of Project Censored’s ‘Censored 2012’ (New York: Seven Stories Press, October 2011, $19.95) - Paul W. Rea,
sfbayview.com: As its title suggests, “Censored 2012” features two essential topics: the mechanisms of media censorship and the key issues they’ve censored. Censorship, defined as one type of propaganda, itself takes many forms: skewed “framing, slight of content and appealing to emotion over logic, among other tactics of media manipulation ….” These methods involve de facto “conspiracies to manipulate or withhold information” (p. 37). Canadian scholar Randal Marlin presents an excellent overview of traditional propaganda techniques, including the more recent (and most useful) concept of “state crimes against democracy,” or SCADs. Equally insightful is Jacob Van Vleet’s reprise of French sociologist Jacques Ellul (“The Technological Society,” 1964).

In it, Professor Van Vleet notes that “propagandists often use a combination of true and false statements in their appeals,” thereby creating “the illusion of objectivity when in fact only one side of the issue at hand is being presented.” In addition, Van Vleet indicates that much propaganda is “social,” aiming to influence a society’s lifestyle. Such propaganda, often in the form of advertising, not only promotes consumption and an uncritical belief in technology; it also encourages “individuals to believe that their society … holds the best way of life.” This leads to what Marx described as “false consciousness.” Van Vleet also rightly points to “conditioned reflex and myth,” paying particular attention to the societal rituals such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. These, according to Ellul, reinforce conditioned reflexes that impart excessive and exclusive “pride, patriotism and even awe” (pp. 316-19). Image from article

AMERICANA

Sphericallista.mov (video); via

IMAGE

--From

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"I LOLd."

--samael7, a grammar-savvy commenter on Prince Sparkle Pony's Photoblog