Podcast #5 Celebrity Diplomacy

Katarzyna Rybka-Iwańska, rybkaiwanska.com: entry contains above-mentioned podcast

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Today, I want to drag your attention to one of the most glamorous kinds of diplomacy. We’ll spend some time examining celebrity diplomacy I thought that just before the ending of the vacation season you’ll be happy to focus on a light topic. We’ll keep more serious, or solemn, or dignified – but equally interesting – kinds of diplomacy for further episodes.

As you may know, I have recently taught public diplomacy [JB emphasis] at a university. I need to say that celebrity diplomacy was my students’ favourite kind of modern, public diplomacy craft. They wrote many interesting essays about it. They appeared to be fans of, first and foremost, Leonardo DiCaprio, who is known for his environment protection campaigns. There were also many fans of Angelina Jolie, underlining her UNICEF campaigns. The third choice among my students was George Clooney, engaged for years in raising awareness about and supplying aid for Darfur. There were also other examples, including Bono’s various campaigns on, for instance, countering HIV/AIDS, Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa, Emma Watson’s focus on women empowerment and equal rights for all, Priyanka Chopra’s devotion to the access to education and healthcare for girls around the world. They are all global stars with a global reach.

Let’s explore this phenomenon in greater detail!

BTW – it’s my 50th post!!!! Thank you for being here and motivating me to do more and more. Perseverance rocks!

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Senior Public Diplomacy Officer [job opening]

chinadevelopmentbrief.cn

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Agency	DFAT
Location	Australian Embassy, Beijing
Title	Senior Public Diplomacy  [JB emphasis]Officer
Position number	BJ1-038
Classification	LE5-1
Section	Public Affairs and Culture
Reports to (title)	First Secretary
Status	Ongoing, Full-time
Gross Annual Salary	RMB225,675 (plus loading if applicable)
Commencement date	ASAP

About the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

The role of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is to advance the interests of Australia and Australians internationally. This involves strengthening Australia’s security, enhancing Australia’s prosperity, delivering an effective and high quality overseas aid program and helping Australian travellers and Australians overseas.

The Department provides foreign, trade and development policy advice to the Australian Government. DFAT also works with other Australian government agencies to drive coordination of Australia’s pursuit of global, regional and bilateral interests.

About the position

The Senior Public Diplomacy Officer’s job is to promote and raise the awareness of Australia in the Chinese media and the general public and maintain a positive image of Australia in the Chinese media and the general public through organizing media and cultural activities and events associated with senior visits and those involving literature/publishing, film, sports, cultural events and other key Embassy activities and cross-government initiatives.

The key responsibilities of the position include, but are not limited to:

· Provide high-quality media monitoring and analysis on a daily basis and provide regular reporting on trends and issues.

· Identify, establish and manage relationships with key media and social media stakeholders to boost Australia’s outreach and engagement with Chinese audience.

· Manage, plan and coordinate major high level events and initiatives in Beijing that have a public diplomacy objective, including managing the delivery of multiple concurrent events, coordinating guest lists, speakers, overseeing event set up and preparing media briefings, talking points and speeches on a variety of topics.

· Prepare high-level communications strategies and publicity materials for Embassy events and report on these outcomes.

· Analyse and evaluate the impact of communications strategies and provide recommendations for ongoing improvement.

· Facilitate high-level visits including through event management, program development, briefings, media liaison and media monitoring.

· Provide translations of reasonably complex material from English to Chinese and Chinese to English. Undertake informal interpreting as required.

· Proof read outsourced translation tasks and work produced by colleagues.

· Provide back-up to the other Senior Public Diplomacy Officers as required.

Selection Criteria

Applicants should address all six (6) of the selection criteria below, clearly outlining their claims and specific experience that makes them suitable for this position (maximum 300 word each criteria).

1.Demonstrated ability to communicate with high-level of fluency in both Mandarin and English, and strong abilities in both translation and interpreting.  Proven ability to communicate clearly at a professional level in English, including the ability to write reports, promotional materials and social media posts.

2.Demonstrated ability to work as a member of a supportive team but also with limited direction, flexibility, adaptability and initiative; ability to prioritise a busy workload, work under pressure and to meet deadlines with close attention to details.

3.Experience in an international environment with international issues is required.  An academic or work background in public relations, journalism, arts and culture, or international relations is highly desirable.

4.Demonstrated understanding of public relations and the Chinese and Australian media environment (including social media), as well as strong event management skills.

5.Experience liaising at senior levels with organisations and officials, such as Australian or Chinese agencies and partners, and ability to effectively represent the Embassy in stakeholder engagement.

6.Demonstrated ability to organise budgets so as to complete given projects and assignments in a timely and cost-effective manner.

What we offer

· A diverse and inclusive workplace and attractive remuneration package

· Exciting and fulfilling work in a diplomatic mission

· The opportunity to work with strong, smart, visionary and experienced leaders who encourage and support you to develop your skills.

PREPARING YOUR APPLICATION

Your application, written in English, should include:

1.Curriculum Vitae (maximum 2 pages)

Please attach current curriculum vitae.

2.Application for Locally Engaged Staff Employment – Complete Attachment A

Locally engaged staff are employed by the local Australian mission on either an ongoing basis or short term (fixed term) temporary basis with mission specific terms and condition of employment. Please ensure that you have read the relevant terms and conditions of employment before submitting an application.  The Embassy’s Locally Engaged Staff Terms and Conditions of Employment can be requested via email to beijing.hrrecruitment@dfat.gov.au.

3.Selection Criteria –  Complete Attachment B

Applicants are required to address the selection criteria by completing Attachment A.  For each criterion, applicants should limit their response to 300 words.  Appendix 1 provides useful information on how to address the selection criteria.  Applications that do not address the selection criteria will not be considered.

Please email your application to beijing.hrrecruitment@dfat.gov.au before 17:00 on Friday, 7 September 2018.  Applications received after the closing date and time will not be considered.

For further information about this position, please contact beijing.hrrecruitment@dfat.gov.au.

Please note that only applicants short-listed for interview will receive a written reply. If you have not received any communication from the Human Resources Section of the Australian Embassy within four weeks after the close of application, please consider your application unsuccessful. Thank you for your understanding and your interest in working at the Australian Embassy in Beijing.

In Key Post at State, Kiron Skinner Will Advance Trump Security Strategy

Helen C. Dale,  dailysignal.com; original article provides additional links as well as access to videos; see also (1) (2)

Image from article, with caption: Kiron Skinner will succeed Brian Hook as director of policy planning for the State Department. Here, Hook steps off the bottom step as officials deplane May 9 in Pyongyang, North Korea, ahead of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Photo: Matthew Lee/Reuters/Newscom)

Helle C. Dale is the Heritage Foundation's senior fellow in public diplomacy. [JB emphasis] Her work focuses on the U.S. government’s institutions and programs for strategic outreach to the public of foreign countries, as well as more traditional diplomacy. Read her research.

The State Department is about to get a big brain.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named scholar named national security expert Kiron Skinner on Thursday as director of policy planning, the official who heads the department’s in-house think tank. It’s a signal that Pompeo is moving back to regular order in how State does business, but also that he is serious about implementing President Donald Trump’s “America First” national security strategy.

Skinner directs Carnegie Mellon University’s Institute for Policy and Strategy and also is the Taube professor of international relations and politics at the private research university in Pittsburgh. She is a research fellow at the California-based Hoover Institution.

Skinner replaces Brian Hook, who will be captaining implementation of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign on Iran. The Hook appointment makes sense because he has been State’s point man on Iran, and Iran is a top administration priority.

The shift, however, also signals a new phase in how the State Department does the business of state. Since the upper political ranks were so thin, the shop known as the Policy Planning Staff has been unusually operational over the past 17 months, leading negotiating and policymaking efforts that were normally done by senior diplomats.

View image on Twitter

Secretary Pompeo

✔@SecPompeo

Pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Kiron Skinner as the incoming Director of Policy Planning. Dr. Skinner will provide strategic views on policy formulation. Her vision and expertise will be strong assets in the @StateDept’s work on behalf of the American people.

9:54 AM - Aug 30, 2018

• 6,013
• 2,158 people are talking about this

Pompeo has made filling out the senior diplomatic ranks a priority, using the Policy Planning Staff for the important work of thinking through how State will address the long-term challenges and the next steps in advancing Trump’s foreign policy.

What is most telling about the appointment of Skinner is that it is an unconventional choice. This shows how much Pompeo gets what will become the new conventions of this unconventional modern world.

Statecraft no longer can be stovepiped into the isolated world of embassies and meeting rooms. Modern diplomacy swims in a witch’s brew that is as much about the impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the internet of things and great power strategic competitions as it is about negotiating treaties and consular affairs.

Skinner, 57, has led cutting-edge technology projects at major universities, served on the Defense Policy Board (which advises the Pentagon), and is as comfortable with generals and general managers as she is with diplomats. By picking her, Pompeo shows that he gets it.

Skinner is a good fit for Pompeo’s team. She is a big thinker. While she may be a less familiar name to folks in foreign policy circles, she is well known in the national security and tech policy communities. She will be a strong bridge between the converging world of all things online, security, and diplomacy.

Fox News

✔@FoxNews

Kiron Skinner on the #TrumpKimSummit: “I think the way this will play out is that the United States will remain firm… about what it wants.”

5:18 AM - Jun 11, 2018

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• 118 people are talking about this

Skinner also is someone who will help bring together the tribes in the Trump administration. She is a well-known quantity and has long-standing connections in the conservative community.

She served on the presidential transition team. She definitely has the president’s confidence and a strong relationship with the national security adviser, John Bolton. She served as a foreign policy adviser on the campaigns of George W. Bush and Newt Gingrich. She is known to be close to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In addition to a long string of academic credentials and experience working with government and the private sector, what is key about Skinner is that she understands Trump’s foreign policy. Early on she was one of the few academics to appreciate the popular power of the Trump message, including on foreign policy.

Writing in Forbes magazine about an emerging Trump doctrine four months before the 2016 election, Skinner pointed out:

Go beyond this rhetoric, however, and hear Trump’s explanation for America first: ‘The world is most peaceful and most prosperous when America is strongest. America will continue and continue forever to play the role of peacemaker. We will always help save lives and indeed humanity itself, but to play the role, we must make America strong again.’

Is there any country other than the United States that most Americans would like to see as the organizer of the international system?

In addition to his politically incorrect rhetoric, Trump seems so much like a foreign policy radical because he is tampering with long-held maxims. One such maxim is that China should not be taken on directly. Yet Trump says the United States cannot be strong militarily when it is weak economically, and its economic plight has a lot to do with China’s ‘assault on American jobs and wealth.’

Fox News

✔@FoxNews

Kiron Skinner on expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats: "It is the harshest action against the Russians under President #Trump." https://fxn.ws/2DTeYjb 

5:19 AM - Mar 27, 2018

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• 67 people are talking about this

With outstanding conservative and academic credentials, Skinner has the potential to help anchor the Trump foreign policy philosophically in the principles and worldview of President Ronald Reagan.

Reagan has been the subject of much of Skinner’s academic work at the Hoover Institution. With Annelise and Martin Anderson, she edited the best-selling book “Reagan In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America” as well as “Reagan: A Life in Letters.” She co-wrote “The Strategy of Campaigning: Lessons From Ronald Reagan and Boris Yeltsin.”

Having somebody rooted in Reagan in the heart of Foggy Bottom ought to help keep Trump’s foreign policy headed in the right direction.

EU Public Affairs and Policies

coleurope.eu

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Excerpt:

EU Public Affairs and Policies

The two central building blocks of this major are the functioning of the EU governance system and EU policies. Students concentrate on EU policies of critical importance for social and economic progress in the EU, such as the internal market and competition policy, the Eurozone’s macroeconomic policies, migration policy, energy, environment, and social policy.

They study instruments through which EU institutions structure their dialogue with outside stakeholders and learn to critically analyse how they address complex social and economic problems such as employment, inflation, balance of payments or economic growth. They further deepen their knowledge of the broader historical context by taking a course in the European History and Civilization Major. ...

• WIŚNIEWSKI, R. – Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] (10h, 0 ECTS) ...

About Us — The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs

fletcherforum.org

Excerpt:

About us

Founded in 1975 and published biannually, The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs is the student-managed foreign policy journal at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The publication provides a broad, interdisciplinary platform for analysis of legal, political, economic, environmental, and diplomatic issues in international affairs.  ...

Emma Friedheim, Senior Print Editor

Emma is a second-year MALD candidate studying international communication, strategic management, and security studies. Prior to attending Fletcher, she spent four years working at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C. on public diplomacy [JB emphasis] and human rights programs. Emma spent her summer back in Washington, D.C. where she worked on business and human rights issues (namely freedom of expression online and privacy) as a Google Policy Fellow at the Global Network Initiative. Emma grew up in Northern Virginia and holds a B.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. ...

Kelly Matush - U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security Fellow

dickey.dartmouth.edu

U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security Fellow

Matush image from entry

Kelly Matush earned a PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 2018. Her research examines the ways in which leaders use international public diplomacy [JB emphasis] to manipulate positive and negative reactions in foreign publics to their political advantage. While at the Dickey Center, she will be working on a book manuscript that utilizes a combination of formal modeling and fine-grain public opinion data to analyze when leaders decide to engage in international public diplomacy campaigns, as well as the effects of these efforts. She received a BA in Political Science from Texas A&M University in 2010.

Curriculum Vitae Personal Website

kelly.s.matush@dartmouth.edu
363 Haldeman
HB 6048
Education:
B.A. Texas A&M University
Ph.D. University of California, San Diego

Some thoughts on public diplomacy, social media, and data [found on the web]

Ursula Wyss, www.diplomacy.edu

Wyss image from article

image (not from article) from

As someone who has worked in public diplomacy [JB emphasis] since 2011, I do not remember a time when public diplomacy did not also mean digital diplomacy and, consequently, some manner of data diplomacy. From the beginning, the data we gleaned from social media was heavily dependent on what the social media platforms were willing to provide us with. In terms of data storage and data analytics, institutions need to put a great deal of trust in the data that social media platforms provide. Here are three issues which are crucial for institutions when working with social media and data sets:

How do we archive what we do?

In current discussions, the greatest worry is data retention by companies. The loss of data, however, can be just as much of a problem. There is no guarantee that the social media sites we use as an institution will archive and make accessible all the posts and messages we put online forever. They may go bankrupt and cease operations. They may simply decide their business model is not working and close shop. They could be hacked, and posts could be changed or deleted. They might even change the content of the post themselves. Or, they could decide that a profile or a post are inappropriate and hide them for all but their own programmers. In short, the integrity of the data set is not guaranteed. It is the users’ responsibility to ensure that they keep sufficient records of what they put online and that these records remain accessible to them independently from what the social media provider does. In this day and age, when the manipulation of image, sound and video is easier than ever before, all institutions must keep this in mind and decide how they want to deal with the issue.

What do we do about filter bubbles?

I am not the first to comment that filter bubbles are not an Internet phenomenon. Even the idea of third parties – such as search engines and feed algorithms – that influence which filter bubbles a person may have access to is not wholly new. There have always been in-groups, the bouncer at the entrance to nightclubs, or the hard to define barriers created by class, money, or gender. All these come with their own frames of reference and divide people into those who have been there, and those who have not; those who were told about a rumour and those who were not. For public diplomacy, the challenge is to find ways to interact with as many in-groups or filter bubbles as possible, and to adapt the methods and best practices used in offline communication to serve diplomats in their online communications.

How do we keep track of developments in data analysis and AI technology?

There is an argument to be made against using data and it is not a straightforward matter for a democratic state to navigate, especially since data collection and use are already underway and multiple actors have much to gain, both in terms of funds and information from using data. In this environment, a state cannot afford to remain ignorant of how data is gathered and analysed. Here, public diplomacy could provide a valuable testing ground. By carefully selecting data sets that are publicly available – — open data  – and by engaging with specialists in one-to-one conversations or as a part of a team at a hackathon, institutions can acquire knowledge on how to use data sets, how to work with developers, and gain experience in working with artificial intelligence. This requires institutions to provide the necessary resources their staff needs to keep track of new technologies and developments in the field, as well as avenues through which new insights can be passed on.

What do you think are the central issues for public diplomacy when it comes to navigating the many aspects of digital space and data?

Ursula Wyss graduated from the University of Bern with an MA in English Literature and Medieval History. She has worked for two foreign ministries as a public diplomacy and social media practitioner. The views expressed here are her own.