December 28

"Churchill was prepared to deal with individuals on equal terms if they were 'civilized', which in practice meant rich and well educated or, in the case of one Afghan officer with whom he and some friends dined, good at billiards."

--Richard Toye, Churchill's Empire: The World That Made Him and the World He Made (2010); image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

On the START treaty, did America.gov censor? And was VOA 90% imbalanced? - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "Blogger News Network, 27 Dec 2010, Ted Lipien: 'On the day the U.S. Senate voted to approve the new arms reduction treaty with Russia, I found an article on the State Depa[r]tment’s website, America.gov, which gave a long list of the START treaty’s benefits lauded by the Obama administration but failed to note any of the objections from some key Republican lawmakers and other critics. I posted a short comment that a website devoted to public diplomacy, with a name that implies that it represents the views of the entire American government and the American public, should try to present a more balanced perspective and mention some of the difficulties in getting the U.S.-Russian agreement approved by the Senate. Within only a few minutes my comment was removed. After successfully challenging censorship for more than 30 years by bringing balanced news to communist-ruled Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Bosnia, Afghanistan and other countries,


I was finally successfully censored by my former employer, the United States government. ... I have checked the Voice of America’s recent coverage of the START treaty debate and found that the VOA English Service devoted about 90 percent of its online START news content to views in support of the treaty. While a VOA spokesperson described my claim as incorrect, a text analysis of all recent online VOA English Service stories on this subject can be easily done by anyone using an word count application. By law, the Voice of America, which is funded by American taxpayers to communicate with audiences abroad, is required to offer balanced news coverage. ... The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which has mismanaged the Voice of America for years, should be abolished and journalistic independence and standards at VOA and other government-funded U.S. international broadcasters significantly strengthened under some type of public monitoring and oversight.' [Elliott comment:] Thanks to Ted for providing a provocative essay in the slow time between Christmas and New Year's Day. About the first paragraph, perhaps America.gov doesn't use comments from the United States, given Smith-Mundt and all that. Public diplomacy does not represent 'the views of the entire American government and the American public.' It represents the views of the administration's [underscored] foreign policy. The 'public' is overseas, not our [underscored] public. 'Balanced' is not the job of America.gov, but rather of US international broadcasting, over in a different agency. About VOA coverage of the START treaty, the most detailed VOA stories about this topic are on 19 December, 21 December, and 22 December, 2010. They seem balanced to me, but read them yourself. (See also RFE/RL, 21 Dec 2010.) The third paragraph is precisely contradictory. 'Public monitoring and oversight' would not strengthen journalistic independence. It would eliminate it. The public broadcasting entities of the world have found only one way to achieve independence, and that is the protection of a multi-partisan board with fixed and staggered terms. Without the BBG, US international broadcasting might continue as bureaucracy and boondoggle, but it would no longer have its independence, and thus no credibility, and thus no audience. It would simply be a waste of money. Free Media Online, 23 Dec 2010, Ted Lipien: 'The Voice of America could have played a major role delivering news and information to Belarus by radio, but it did not have that capability due to bad planning and mismanagement at its parent agency. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, BBG, which manages VOA, terminated VOA Russian FM, shortwave and medium wave radio broadcasts in 2008, just 12 days before the Russian military attack on Georgia. Such radio broadcasts, especially medium wave (AM) from transmitters in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, or Estonia,


which cannot be easily blocked, would have been extremely useful during the emergency in Belarus or any other type of crisis, also in Russia. According to VOA insiders, citizen journalists were able to tell their news to a VOA reporter on the ground, but the Voice of America was unable to deliver the news back to Belarus because it lacked effective program delivery when faced with the blockage of the Internet by the regime in Minsk.' [Elliott comment:] As a VOA stalwart, Ted did not mention archrival RFE/RL's extensive Belarusian Service. It does transmit on shortwave and (via Lithuania) on medium wave. In fact, in response to the post-election crisis, RFE Belarusian shortwave and medium wave transmissions were expanded to provide an all-night service, per a report from Ivo Ivanov to the DX Listening Digest Yahoo! group, 22 Dec 2010. See previous post about same subject." Lipien image (top) from; Elliott image from

Iranian broadcasting official, citing "recent poll," says BBC Persian is less popular than before - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting:"It would have been helpful for Press TV to provide details about the 'most recent poll,' e.g. who conducted it. Does his statement mean the audience is below 25% of what it was eight months ago? If this is true, perhaps increased satellite jamming (terrestrial, because I haven't heard of any increased jamming of satellites themselves in the past eight months) and satellite dish confiscations are the reason. The criticism of VOA Persian by the IRIB official on one side, and that of Larry Klayman (previous post) on the other, suggests that VOA Persian must be doing something right."

Good Daily and Good Luck - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "I wrote a while back that Jon Stewart should be the new USIA's chief. I was a tad prescient. The NY Times has an article today comparing Stewart to Murrow." On USIA, see.

India - Address by Foreign Secretary at launch of MEA & PD Division websites - isria.com: Foreign Sercretary Nirupama Rao: "The MEA website needed a complete re-do, both in terms of its look and feel, as well as, content. Even though it is still work in progress, I am pleased that the new website, which was launched recently, has met those criteria to a large extent. It aims to make available comprehensive and speedy information, on India’s foreign relation activities, as well as, Ministry’s views on salient Foreign Policy issues.


Besides the media, academia, Indian and international governmental agencies, businesses and travellers, the new website is also meant to be a resource for youth and students. Encouraged by the response, and I may mention that the website is currently receiving close to 300,000 hits daily, which is twice as much as the earlier website, we have started work on an more ambitious integrated MEA Portal. It is meant to introduce uniformity in the look, feel, content and navigational ease for all the websites of the Ministry and its Missions/Posts abroad." Rao image from

The Holocaust's Boomerang Effect On Public Diplomacy - backspin.typepad.com: "I was never comfortable with the way Israel has over-emphasized the connection between the Holocaust and the founding of the state. ... There are connections between the Holocaust and Israel's founding. But years of over-emphasis are having a boomerang effect on Israel's public diplomacy."

Huge Jewish Internet propoganda [sic] machine exposed - forums.islamicawakening.com: "Hasbara refers to the propaganda efforts to sell Israel, justify its actions, and defend it in world opinion. Using contemporary euphemisms, it is Public diplomacy for Israel, or using a pejorative interpretation, then it is apologia. Israel portrays itself as fighting on two fronts: the Palestinians and world opinion. The latter is dealt with hasbara. The premise of hasbara is that Israel's problems are a matter of better propaganda, and not one of an underlying unjust situation."

Russia - The Major Foreign Policy Events of 2010 - isria.com: "24. Consistent work was carried out to intensify collaboration with the Russian NGO community of foreign policy orientation. Pursuant to the executive orders signed in February by the President of the Russian Federation, the Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund


was established and work on the formation of the Russian Council on International Affairs is continuing." Gorchakov image from

Egypt - The Third Ministerial Meeting for Asia-Middle East Dialogue Countries - "The Third Ministerial Meeting for Asia-Middle East Dialogue (AMED) was held on 15th, 16th December in Thailand under the title of 'Strengthening Cooperation towards Common Prosperity'. Thirty-nine Countries participated in the meeting, where the Egyptian delegation was presided by Assistant Foreign Minister, Ambassador Rauf Saad. ... Ambassador Rauf Saad has called on the Dialogue states to launch an initiative entitles 'A Poverty-Free World' in the next decade, in order to eliminate this problem and its negative social and economic consequences. He also called for sustaining cooperation on the public diplomacy level as a new axis for dialogue and closeness between the parliaments of the two regions."

Even tax collectors are anti-imperialist nowadays - businessday.co.za" "In a previous blog [November 10] I gave some tips on how the public diplomacy division in the foreign affairs department should go about during their public relations exercises. Boy, are they going to need these and many more after the multimillion dollar anti-imperialist youth festival started in Pretoria this week. ... Just the basic facts are already cause for mirth and hilarity – the imperialistic amounts to be splurged, the imperialistic scale of the slogans, the imperialistic arrogance


in all the sweeping resolutions. How will our under-resourced foreign affairs department handle it all? If they had a clue, we are not seeing any sign of it. We should be having furious spin and PR contortions by now. Instead our foreign minister has been told to complain to Hillary Clinton about WikiLeaks." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

WikiLeaks Disrupts US Propaganda Machinery: Israel’s Motor Scooter Bombers in Iran? - John Stanton, dissidentvoice.org: An intriguing document found in the WikiLeaks dump is a cable concerning the spread of Israel’s Mafia. At first glance, it seems inconsequential as every country has organized crime rings operating freely. Besides, one never knows when members of the mafia might be useful for national security purposes. At any rate, we learn that a few years back an Israeli mafia don was assassinated by a motor scooter bomber in the same manner as the Iranian physicist recently executed in Tehran.

Western influence turns yoga on its head in Mumbai - Gail Sheehy, USA TODAY: "Yoga offers many benefits, from mind control to pain relief, but I'd never heard that weight loss was one of them. A huge banner outside of Gold's Gym touted its 'Fat Burning Yoga Package.'


The gym is a California import with franchises all over Southeast Asia. I suspected an American commercialization of India's greatest contribution to self-care." Image from

N.B.A. in India, in Search of Fans and Players - Jeremy Kahn, New York Times: The success of N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern’s 25-year crusade to globalize basketball is often summed up in two words: Yao Ming. After Yao, a 7-foot-6 center from Shanghai, was drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2002, the league attracted hundreds of millions of new fans in China.


And though Yao is out for the season with a stress fracture that could end his professional career, the N.B.A.’s international march continues.This season, the league will play its first regular-season games in Europe, a two-game matchup in March between the Nets and the Toronto Raptors in London. And having conquered China, the N.B.A. has its sights fixed on Asia’s other big emerging market: India. Image from article: The N.B.A. has built community basketball courts in neighborhoods across India, like Nagpada in Mumbai.

Hitler’s Triumph of the Will & Christ - Kelly O'Connell, canadafreepress.com: The movie Triumph of the Will was created to show the power and majesty of Nazism. Some consider it the greatest work of propaganda in history. It celebrates Nazism and especially the rise of Adolf Hitler (his speech) (entire film here). The message is Nazism is the new religion, the new salvation for people, where mankind saves himself through heroic deeds. Nietzsche celebrates this in Ecce Homo, demanding humans reject all previous beliefs and create a new moral system. Ironically, this book decisively proved Nietzsche was hopelessly insane. Hitler himself chose the title, an explicit refutation of Martin Luther‘s Bondage of the Will and German Christianity in general. It’s easy to see now Hitler was likewise on an insane mission to replace God with the swastika over human ambition. This was set against Luther’s mantra, “The just shall live by faith.”

Now THIS is Soviet-style propaganda - Chemjobber: Image from article


AMERICANA

Frito-Lay to make snacks from natural ingredients - Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY: An unlikely name is about to step into the natural foods world: Frito-Lay. Today, the world's largest snackmaker — often mocked by nutritionists for its Cheetos and Doritos — will unveil a revamped product line for 2011, with 50% of its snacks made from all-natural ingredients. "This is the largest evolution we've ever had in our product line," says Ann Mukherjee, chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay. Until now, she says, 30% of its line was "all natural."


For example: •A bag of Tostitos Hint of Lime Tortilla Chips will lose all of these additives: monosodium glutamate, sodium diacetate and artificial colors. •Lay's Barbeque chips will drop the monosodium glutamate and some other additives. But don't look for major changes anytime soon in artificially flavor-laden Cheetos or Doritos. Image from article

December 27

"Spambassador"

--Guide who treats visitors to the Spam Museum (Austin, Minnesota), which includes a movie presentation that draws heavily on the musical work of a group of ladies called the Spamettes; via PR; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Why U.S. public diplomacy no longer works and can it be fixed? - TedLipien.com: "The current problem with having effective U.S. public diplomacy is largely due to the recent breakdown of domestic consensus on important values and foreign policy issues that existed during the Cold War, but bureaucratic inertia and incompetence also play a very large role. [T]here can be no effective public diplomacy if the administration is afraid to or does not want to tell foreign audiences what Americans really think and say about foreign and domestic issues. Censoring members of Congress by State Department officials is particularly outrageous, but in some cases even professional journalists employed by the U.S. government practice self-censorship or promote the administration’s policies, because they agree with them, without regard for full accuracy and balance. I have checked the Voice of America’s recent coverage of the START treaty debate and found that the VOA English Service devoted about 90 percent of its online START news content


to views in support of the treaty. ... Individuals and organizations in the United States can help to expose foreign policy and public diplomacy mistakes, demand action, and in some cases communicate directly with audiences abroad. Unfortunately, however, citizen diplomacy is not the complete solution to the current problem. Statements and actions by NGOs do not have, again in most cases, the same impact as communications on behalf the of the U.S. government, and NGOs simply lack the resources available to federal agencies. So whether we like it or not, NGOs cannot completely replace the U.S. government in this area of foreign policy. Greater scrutiny and reform of the U.S. public diplomacy establishment must therefore become a goal of all individuals and organizations concerned with the state of America’s relations with her allies and the rest of the world." Image from

CIA Mouthpiece–Part II, Syed Builds on CIA Theme, “Al-Qaeda” Has Infested Quetta - Therearenosunglasses’s Weblog building an American resistance movement: "As with all CIA 'Public Diplomacy' psyops ..., the well-placed agency writer/patsies, like Syed Saleem Shahzad, follow the traditional tactic of citing his last installment as established fact and self-reinforcing proof of his latest claims. His words gain credibility when unnamed 'security officials' give unsubstantiated leaks that are echoed by current news reports ... Now, Syed is setting us up for the next psyop, by introducing the concept of the 'strategic corridor' into the media ... only he is doing his usual job of flipping the truth, making claims that it is 'al Qaida' who has plans to occupy the western corner of Balochistan, setting us up by introducing the false plot line, in order to justify pursuit by the American/international coalition."

Policy Guidance for EducationUSA Centers on Commercial Recruitment Agents - maavn, An International Educator in Vietnam Information, Insights & (Occasionally) Intrigue:


"ECA’s [State Deparment Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs] Office of Academic Programs does not permit advising centers that receive support from ECA to become involved with commercial recruitment agents for the following reasons in bold. I present – in italics – another perspective, additional information and/or a counterpoint. ... C. Commercial recruitment agents understandably direct their services to students with the ability to pay. EducationUSA center association with commercial agents would undermine our public diplomacy message of outreach to well-qualified students from throughout society, including underserved sectors. U.S. higher education is one of the most expensive in the world. Therefore, the overwhelming majority of international students who study in the U.S. are individuals 'of means,' sons and daughters of their respective countries’ elites, including many who receive merit-based scholarships. While there are some inspirational 'rags-to-riches' stories of extremely bright, highly motivated and hard-working poor students who are able to reap the benefits of a U.S. higher education, the reality is that most 'well-qualified' students are well-qualified because they have had the advantages of tutoring, extra classes, etc., all of which cost money. To claim otherwise is disingenuous at best. Many of those from 'underserved sectors' need the type of remedial training that programs such as the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program and similar programs offer. Well-known U.S. government scholarship programs such as Fulbright and Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) do not target 'underserved sectors.' Compared to its friendly competitors, Australia and the UK, the U.S. has relatively few scholarships available for Vietnamese and other international students. Last year, for example, there were 39 VEF Fellows and 28 student Fulbrighters. ... Disclosure: I served as country director of the Institute of International Education in Vietnam from 2005-09. During that time, IIE-VN administered EducationUSA advising centers on behalf of ECA, US State Department." Image from

Sweden's Program Addressing Islamism: Cablegate Background : A December 18, 2009, cable addressing Swedish programs to deal with radicalization in Sweden's Islamic community, reproduced in its entirety: ... C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 STOCKHOLM 000787 ... SUBJECT: SWEDEN'S PROGRAM OF PREVENTING ISLAMIST RADICALIZATION AND EXTREMISM 18. (C) Post's Muslim engagement plan will continue to amplify the President's program of framing the U.S. - Muslim relationship in terms of common values, partnership, and mpowerment (ref F). Post is currently developing contacts in support of interfaith dialogue programs with religious leaders around Sweden, and we will focus our public diplomacy outreach beyond religious institutions to engage civic leaders from minority communities (ref G). Post will also reach out to Muslim individuals beyond the Stockholm metropolitan area through educational and cultural programs."

The paradox WikiLeaks - Wolfgang Ischinger, Cicero [Google translation:]"This is the WikiLeaks paradox: Because the U.S. government departments to communicate little with each other and therefore in the fight against terrorism after 9 / 11 were each other's way, they are fully networked with each other: the goal was efficiency through transparency. Damit schuf Washington aber selbst die technischen Voraussetzungen dafür, dass durch WikiLeaks regierungsinterne Transparenz zu globaler Öffentlichkeit umfunktioniert werden konnte: eine geradezu perverse Form von 'public diplomacy'. Die Folge: das WikiLeaks-Ziel, eine Welt totaler und dauerhafter Öffentlichkeit, rückt damit in weite Ferne, weil weniger, nicht mehr Offenheit und mehr, nicht weniger Geheimhaltung in allen Hauptstädten die absehbare Folge sein wird. This Washington created but even the technical requirements that could be converted by WikiLeaks government internal transparency to global public: an almost perverse form of 'public diplomacy'. The result: the WikiLeaks target, a world of total and permanent public to get involved, so in distant, because will be less, not more openness and more, not less secrecy in all major cities, the foreseeable consequence. Quellen werden schweigen, Botschafter werden nur noch das zu hören bekommen, was man gerne in der Zeitung lesen möchte, hochwertige Informationen werden schwerer zu erlangen sein. Sources are silent ambassadors will hear only what you would like to read in the newspaper, high-quality information will be difficult to obtain. Um undichte Stellen zu stopfen, wird der Informationsfluss innerhalb der Regierungsapparate reduziert werden. In order to plug leaks, the information flow will be reduced within the government apparatus.


Auslandsvertretungen werden möglicherweise von bestimmten Netzwerken abgeschnitten, Botschafter von Besprechungen der politischen Führung ausgeschlossen. Missions may be cut off from certain networks excluded Ambassador of meetings of political leadership. Manche Regierungen könnten in Zukunft eher auf persönliche Sondergesandte als auf den diplomatischen Apparat setzen, um den Kreis der Eingeweihten klein zu halten, und manche könnten sogar so weit gehen, keine Niederschriften bestimmter Gespräche mehr zu erlauben. Some governments may in the future rather than on personal envoy on the diplomatic machinery set to keep the small circle of initiates, and some may even go so far as to allow no more talk of certain records." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

Afghan people need our help now - Michel Gabaudan, USA Today: As President Obama pushes forward with his military strategy for Afghanistan, ordinary Afghans are undeniably worse off. More and more Afghans are forced from their homes by violence, especially


as the military offensive in the south pushes insecurity north. Meanwhile, the Afghan government remains too weak, and humanitarian organizations are unprepared to meet even the most basic needs of the population. Afghan child image from article

Taliban Propaganda Watch (RC South) – 261500UTC Dec 10 - MILNEWS.ca

How the US cemented its worldwide influence with Spam - Kevin Connolly, BBC News: "[E]ven when you're watching a Chinese flat-screen TV and driving an Indian car powered with Brazilian biofuels you almost certainly won't be wearing Indian-style clothing or humming Chinese pop songs as you go. Or watching Brazilian movies either. Next time you see television pictures of an anti-American demonstration anywhere on earth look closely at the crowd.


Among the flag-burners you'll almost certainly see someone wearing an LA Lakers shirt or a Yankees baseball cap. ... My first exposure to American culture came back in the Doris Days of the early 1960s, growing up in a Britain that was still shaking off the lingering effects of rationing and the costs of post-war reconstruction. ... We had Elvis, of course, and Hollywood but the world was a lot less global then. It was still possible, for example, for British recording artists to have hit records by simply recording their own versions of songs that were already hits for American stars on the far side of the Atlantic. But the flagship of American influence in my own life was Spam, the bright-pink pork luncheon meat that was a staple of the British working-class diet for several decades. ... It's quite a while since we stopped marvelling at the convenience of convenience food and started worrying about it was doing to us, but Spam continues to keep its place in a changing world. It is not much use as a nation-building tool in America's modern wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for example (pork, remember) but these are tough times in America and domestic sales are going rather well." Via PR. Image from article

Bloodlust and Britney Spears: Tom Payne's "Fame" examines modern celebrity through the lens of the ancient world, arguing that the Greeks and Romans can tell us much about our obsession with fame and our desire to punish celebrities for their "hubris" - Toby Young, Wall Street Journal: Payne underscores that the brutal treatment meted out to errant starlets like Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse is a form of human sacrifice. Just as the Greeks and Romans would slaughter animals to propitiate the gods—a substitute for more primitive forms of sacrifice, according to the author—so the citizens of modern, democratic societies have an almost insatiable thirst for seeing celebrities devoured by the tabloid wolves.

Instant Noodle Diplomacy; Spamalot - Paul Rockower, Levantine: A Taiwanese ultra-marathon runner has been carrying out some some ramen pd in his sub-zero runs by bringing enough hot soup to share with his fellow frozen marathoners: Chen said he took many packets of instant noodles to the South Pole and shared them with fellow runners. "At the South Pole, Taiwan instant noodles were very popular, especially with the Brazilian TV crew (covering the race)," he told reporters at the airport. "I carried out people's diplomacy with the instant noodles," said Chen, a student at the Taipei Physical Education College. 'Tis an interesting, and instant, example of gastrodiplomacy.

Netizens unmoved by propaganda from state media during festive season - temasekreview.com: In the last few days, the state media has gone on a propaganda overdrive to inject a ‘feel-good’ factor in Singaporeans during the festive season to ‘help’ them forget about their daily struggles in life as a result of the government’s misguided policies.


Channel News Asia carried a series of articles with misleading headlines such as “Thousands celebrate Christmas at Orchard Road despite downpour” and “Orchard Rd malls report 15-20% increase in Christmas sales” in a desperate attempt to convince Singaporeans that the ‘good times’ are back. With the new media gaining readership among young Singaporeans, it is no longer that easy for the state propaganda machine to ‘brainwash’ them like in the past. Image from article

President Medvedev discusses media freedom with the heads of Russia's three federal TV channels - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

The Putinization of Hungary - Editorial, Washington Post: Next moth many European Union members may be regretting their system of a rotating presidency. That's because the gavel will be handed to Hungary, whose populist and power-hungry government has just adopted a media law more suited to an authoritarian regime than to a Western democracy. Two media laws will put Hungary in a league with Russia and Belarus on press freedom.

Book recommendation: Red Star Over Russia - James Frayne, The Campaign War Room: "One of the issues I've touched on here regularly is the power of visual imagery in politics. It's not something which receives much attention in the UK because of our press-dominated political conversation. For that reason it's always interesting to look at the imagery that comes out of countries where this is taken seriously. These days, of course, that's the US - particularly the film that comes out of the US election campaigns. In the past, one of the places that took imagery seriously was the USSR in their early period. And this is the subject of a fascinating book called Red Star Over Russia.


The book focuses on photos ('real' and staged) from the period just before the October revolution to the period when Stalin died in 1953, as well as the propaganda posters and sculptures of the time. When people talk about the propaganda genius of the communists, they're really talking about this early period, before the realities of the Soviet system became clearer to the wider world. It was a deeply unpleasant and brutal system - one that was obviously responsible for huge numbers of deaths - but extraordinarily this was a period when it was possible credibly to link the Soviet system with modernity, progress and fairness in the public mind." Image from article

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"The 6th Jaddi (the Hijri Lunar year) which coincides with 27th December, is the day of the former Soviet Union’s aggression against Afghanistan. Three decades ago, on this day, 700 soldiers of the Red Army dressed in the uniform of the Afghan Army killed Hafizulla Amin, the former communist ruler of Afghanistan at Taj Beg Palace, near the capital Kabul. With this, 80,000 Red Army soldiers entered Afghanistan through land and air which, at one point, reached 150,000 soldiers."

--Statement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan Regarding the Condemnation of the 31st Anniversary of the Red Army Invasion of Afghanistan

AMERICANA


From New York Times: In 1993 Agrinvest International, which is based in Phoenix, bought roughly 1,000 former Soviet-bloc vehicles that had been demilitarized and auctioned after German reunification. Around 350 were stored in Britain; the rest — 700 or so Russian, Czech and East German trucks and tankers — made their way to the Mississippi coast. Image from article: Gulfport, Miss., home for hundreds of former Soviet-bloc vehicles.

December 26

"Victor Hugo used to work in the nude, telling his valet to hide his clothes so as to prevent him from going outside when he was supposed to be writing."

--Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and the author, Katherine Ellison; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Delivering humanitarian aid in Bamyan, Afghanistan - Mahtab Farid, Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan: "It is has been a heart warming gift for me during Christmas to be able to witness the public diplomacy among Afghans and American and also be able to share the warm experience of giving in the cold winter."


Image from article with caption: The director of women affairs in Bamyan, Fatimeh Kazemi was the local official to receive the aid. However, some of the back packs, warm clothes, and praying rugs were delivered to the local mosques, schools, and the local orphanage in Bamyan.

Soft Power in China Public Diplomacy through Communication Edited by Jian Wang - us.macmillan.com: "Palgrave Macmillan, December 2010 ... Soft Power in China describes and explains the scope of the country’s pursuit of soft power through public diplomacy and international communication. What kinds of images does China want to refashion and project?


What is the role of the government vis-à-vis that of other institutional and social actors in these efforts? What kinds of tensions and pressures has China experienced? Where do the programs stand in terms of their impact on the country’s image? What do all these efforts mean to the broader discussion on the study and practice of public diplomacy and national image management? This book represents a collaborative effort to address these questions." Image from article

Question 35 - Adi, Scratch Thy Head: "X diplomacy is both a method of diplomacy and an alternative approach to international relations designed for the globalization age. It is situated at the far end of the diplomacy spectrum that features traditional diplomacy at one end and public diplomacy near the centre (WHATEVER THAT MEANS)."

IFRC Operations Manager Job - ebipade-enienghan.blogspot.com: "an Operations Manager in the East Africa Regional Office in Nairobi ... Skills: ... Excellent communications skills and public diplomacy." Below image from


Research Officer - Australian Embassy & Mission to the EU - naombakazi.blogspot.com: "The Australian Embassy & Mission to the EU in Brussels has a vacancy for a Research Officer. ... Duties Include: ... •Providing support for public diplomacy events and official visits."

RELATED ITEMS

Where Mr. Obama's order on terrorism detentions falls short - Editorial, Washington Post: The administration should propose legislation, and its bill should cover future detainees as well as current inmates.

Faith and Modernity [Review of Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways By Olivier Roy] - Alan Wolfe, New York Times: If religion is in decline in the modern world, Roy argues, so is culture. On the one hand, we have multiculturalism, celebrations of diversity that somehow wind up making all cultures look and feel alike.


More important, we face globalization, today’s true universal faith, which subjects all local customs to the laws of the market. Under the influence of both, religion loses whatever affinities it may once have had with the cultures that sustained it. Image from

Cuban Wikipedia most elaborate propaganda creation ever - Alexis Levinson - The Daily Caller: Last week, Cuba launched EcuRed,


its own version of Wikipedia. It was an intriguing move for a country whose population has very minimal Internet access. But the Cuban regime produces a large amount of propaganda targeted at the outside world, and EcuRed fits neatly into that framework. Image from article

Georgians insulted by government’s anti-Soviet propaganda - Russia Today: A series of anti-Soviet cartoons have appeared in Georgian newspapers - the latest move in a campaign launched by President Saakashvili.


A number of Soviet monuments have already been dismantled across the country, and schoolchildren have been obliged to watch a documentary likening the USSR to Nazi Germany. The Georgian government is leading an anti-Soviet campaign. But both the timing and methods of implementation have led many to question its real motives. Image from article

Ending the War to End All Wars - Margaret Macmillan, New York Times: Many if not most Germans came to believe that World War I was a sort of natural catastrophe, with no human authors. The arms race, nationalism, imperialism, fear, hatred: all were seen in retrospect as impersonal forces that had simply swept Europeans along in 1914. The German Foreign Ministry in the 1920s even had a propaganda unit that took every opportunity to encourage attacks on the the Treaty of Versailles and, by selectively releasing documents, to suggest that Germany bore no more responsibility for the war than any other nation. All were guilty or none were.

Trailer: 1925 "Battleship Potemkin" Gets Theatrical Re-Release - worstpreviews.com: Kino International has decided to re-release Sergei Eisentein's 1926 silent film "Battleship Potemkin" in theaters January 14.

Image from article

December 23-25

"For 'serious' and 'literary' Cicero used Greek words, as he does in his letters ... . Cicero's practice is habitually compared to the use of French words in educated English conversation, though now it is more likely to be the American vocabulary or accent that serve to create a conspiratorial air of detachment between interlocutors."

--Professor of Latin William Fitzgerald, writing in The Times Literary Supplement (December 17, 2010), p. 5.; Cicero image from

"America is the first country to have gone from barbarism to decadence without the usual intervening period of civilization."

--Oscar Wilde

VIDEO

Zombie apocalypse advice for the holiday season; see also

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

The folly of trading an updated budget for a ‘robo budget’ - Sen. Pat Leahy, The Hill: "Last week, Republican members who had pledged to support the fiscal year 2011 Omnibus Appropriations Bill changed their minds and chose instead to walk in lockstep with the House and Senate Republican leaders who believe that freezing spending at the fiscal year 2010 level is good politics. On the face of it that approach has an appeal to it – no new spending. What a nice sound bite. It makes everything seem so simple. But while one senator of the minority party gleefully remarked on the Senate floor, 'We won!,' it is worth taking a minute to consider what a Continuing Resolution means – not for the Republican Party, but for the American people. ... There are thousands of American diplomats stationed in almost every country of the world, assisting American citizens and businesses, defending our interests and our security. They risk their lives in countries where Americans are targeted, and many have lost their lives in the line of duty. A Continuing Resolution will provide half a billion dollars less than the Omnibus would have for the State Department’s overseas operations, including for Afghanistan and Pakistan, requiring cuts



to personnel, information technology, and public diplomacy programs that counter extremist propaganda and other misinformation about the United States. How, in the world, does that make sense? Will anyone advocating this recklessness come forward to explain it to the American people? ... A Continuing Resolution will cut funding for U.S. Embassy security, construction, and maintenance programs, delaying the completion of new facilities to replace the most vulnerable embassies in some of the most dangerous locations. Security costs money, but the Minority will cut these programs. Any delay in the completion of these facilities will extend the risks to American diplomats, consular officers, and other personnel overseas. A Continuing Resolution will cut funding for Educational and Cultural Exchange programs – programs that Republicans have claimed to strongly support. That means thousands fewer participants in exchange programs, including those from Muslim-majority countries and Muslim communities worldwide, and a corresponding retreat for our national security interests." Image from

When media is weapon, perception is target - Saimum Parvez, The Daily Star: "Covertly, USA is using delicate technological or cyber warfare to disrupt and undermine nuclear establishments of Iran. It is interesting that this cyber ventures began during the Bush era but accelerated under Obama. Even Iran admitted that its nuclear program has been hampered due to some unknown reasons. Overtly, USA is funding billions of dollars for radio, television, internet and satellite based broadcasting popular among the tech loving youths of Iran. These funding programs also aim to assist pro-democracy groups, public diplomacy initiatives and cultural and educational fellowships. This notion of using techniques of psychological operation, termed as 'soft war' is the preferred choice of many political experts to transform the image of Uncle Sam from foe to friend in order to topple the existing Islamic Republic system through popular uprisings.


The current regime of Iran is also well aware of and prepared for the ongoing soft war. The regime is taking counter measures to fight this unusual battle. Islamic Development Organization of Iran sees the soft war as 'any kind of psychological warfare action and media propaganda which targets the society and induces the opposite side to accept the failure without making any military conflict. The subversion, internet war, creation of radio-television networks and spreading the rumors are the important forms of soft war. This war intends to weaken the intellection and thought of the given society and also causes the socio-political order to be annihilated via the media propaganda'. ... Beside cyber war, USA has started its soft war with another strategic weapon- media. For years, western powers have been trying to infiltrate Iran's local media. It is not an easy task to do as Iran's domestic media is heavily fortified by censorship; even satellite dishes are illegal there. The U.S. government is running two broadcast services from outside Iran: Voice of America's Persian News Network (PNN) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Radio Farda. Farda also runs an extensive Persian-language website (Greg Bruno, 'The Media Landscape in Iran'). In addition to PNN and Radio Farda's core TV and radio services, they maintain two websites with extensive contents. They also transmit local, international and U.S.-focused programming via blogs, Twitter feeds and news alerts to mobile phones; upload videos to YouTube; and manage dynamic Face book pages. (Robert McMahon, 'U.S.-funded media and the 'softwar' in Iran'). ... Iranian's love of technology and internet made it a lucrative ground for USA to campaign and continue the soft war. To reach the Iranians, PNN launched a new application for Apple's iPhone and the Android/Google phone that provides news updates and allows users to send links to VOA stories through Facebook, Twitter and e-mail in Persian language. VOA has created an 'app' for Apple's iPhone and Android/Google phone that allows Iranians to upload videos from their phones directly to VOA's Persian News Network (PNN) (US international broadcasting: is anybody listening?, Report of Committee on Foreign Relations)." Image from article VOA-PNN free service in Iran through iphone

Misleading foreign audiences – America.gov or America.STATE – U.S. Senate Ratifies New START Treaty - TedLipien.com: "The State Department is expected to practice public diplomacy, but for it to be effective it must be credible. One-sided reports for foreign media are not only not credible; they are boring and no real journalist will use them. The Voice of America, by law, is in the business of accurate and objective news reporting for foreign audience. Its coverage of the START treaty debate was not much different from the State Department’s media PR."

Website change reduces risk that VOA broadcasts will be intercepted by listeners - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting: "A cynic might be tempted to hypothesize that VOA is operating its shortwave broadcasts the way US private railroads ran their passenger trains in the 1960s: deliberately badly. The railroads wanted their passengers to go away so that they could concentrate on their (potentially) profitable freight business. VOA might want its shortwave listeners to disappear so that it can shift budget and resources to television, internet, social and mobile media. Withholding schedule information would be an effective way for VOA to disburden itself of its direct radio audience. The shortwave transmission schedule was, in recent years, difficult to find at voanews.com. Now it is impossible to find. Also, in recent years, there has been no 'what's on tonight' or 'what's on this morning' grid of English programs. Everything at the website is geared for listening on demand. And, indeed, why listen to VOA on a radio if one has access to the VOA website? One reason is that a person has access to the internet at work, or an internet cafe, but wants to listen to VOA that evening or the next morning at home, where only a radio is available. Or listening to radio via the internet might be inconvenient due to bandwidth issues or per-minute charges."

RFE/RL analyst: "Western Media Getting Afghanistan Wrong" - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

VOA crowdsourcing and more Belarus post-election media update - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Two RFE journalists beaten in unrest following Belarus election - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting

Nikita Khruschchev and Radio Free Europe - Richard H. Cummings, Cold War Radios

Image from article

Imam Behind Islamic Center Plans U.S. Tour - Paul Vitello, New York Times: "The controversy over plans to build an Islamic center in downtown Manhattan subsided in November, almost abruptly, with the end of an election season that amplified its most emotional underlying issues. But the imam behind the project has decided to risk reigniting that opposition by setting out on a nationwide speaking tour next month to promote the planned center and to foster dialogue about Muslim life in America. 'Controversy has never been a problem for me,' said the imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, whose proposal to build the high-rise community center and mosque two blocks north of ground zero made him the prime target last summer of opponents who viewed the plan ... . At the height of the controversy over the summer and fall, Mr. Adbul Rauf was on a scheduled speaking tour in Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.


The tour was sponsored by the State Department’s cultural exchange bureau, known as the Department of Public Diplomacy [sic]. He considered canceling that trip in order to confront the opposition and rally support at home to his cause — a job that fell for the most part to his wife and partner in interfaith work, Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. Image from article" Feisal Abdul Rauf, shown with his wife, Daisy

The US should upgrade its social media outreach by Evgeny Morozov - Bill Totten's Weblog: Public Diplomacy 2.1

WikiLeaks cable: GNZ agrees with USG points on Iran and Syria - nzherald.co.nz: "date:2009-03-02T02:50:00 source:Embassy Wellington SUBJECT: GNZ AGREES WITH USG POINTS ON IRAN AND SYRIA; WILL ISSUE STRONG STATEMENTS REF: STATE 16285 ... 1. (S) On March 2, Acting DCM met with Jillian Dempster, Deputy Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade International Security and Disarmament Division to discuss reftel points. ... Usually, the Iranian government conducts a public diplomacy campaign and demarches the GNZ; this year, there have been no meeting requests with MFAT, said Dempster."

WikiLeaks cable: Is NZ open or opposed to added Afghan deployments?‎- nzherald.co.nz: "date:2009-03-26T19:00:00 source:Embassy Wellington ... SUBJECT: IS NEW ZEALAND OPEN OR OPPOSED TO ADDED AFGHAN DEPLOYMENTS ... If we want to encourage a New Zealand deployment, we will need to find public diplomacy opportunities to explain the choices in Afghanistan to New Zealand media. We will also need to work directly to encourage PM Key and FM McCully."

Afghan air force delivers humanitarian aid to Bamyan province - dvidshub.net: "Afghan air force airmen and NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan advisers delivered more than 3,600 pounds of humanitarian aid to Bamyan province Dec. 23. Afghan and NATO troops distributed blankets, jackets, school supplies and soccer balls to the Bamyan Department of Women’s Affairs. Goods were also set aside for a local orphanage and villagers, said Mahtab Farid, a public diplomacy officer for the State Department."

Christmas Card from Afghanistan... - Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan: "On Christmas, I am visiting the kids in 'Samar Orphanage' in Bamyan province. These kids are amazing.


I like to thank these kids for their unconditional love. The term public diplomacy might sound fancy, but the concept is simple. It is about building bridges between cultures, connecting hearts, and making relationships." Image from article: Samar Orphanage kids in Bamyan with Mahtab Farid

2010 Highlights: Atlantic Community's Special Projects - atlantic-community.org: "Dialogue with Decision Makers Atlantic-community.org editorial team organized in cooperation with NATO's Public Diplomacy Division a two part dialogue ... between our members and Ambassador Mark Sedwill, NATO's Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan."

Ambassador to the Central African Republic: Who is Laurence Wohlers? - allgov.com: "Laurence D. Wohlers was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR) on September 8, 2010. Wohlers’ parents worked as Foreign Service officers in Japan, Pakistan, and the former Yugoslavia, where father Lester served as country film officer for the U.S. Information Agency. ... He first served in the CAR from 1985 to 1987 as a Public Affairs officer and as Director of the Centre Martin Luther King in Bangui, overseeing construction of the cultural center.


He also served in Mauritania (economic officer), Madagascar (political affairs officer), Japan, Belgium and Benin. Wohlers held the positions of Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the European Union. In 2008, during a transition period between U.S. administrations, Wohlers took the post of Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy. He then joined the Smithsonian Institution for a year as a Senior Advisor for International Activities." Image from article

Mobile Based Programs in South Asia - attianasar's posterous: "BBC Janala is an initiative started by the British Broadcasting Corporation that seeks to provide English language lessons through mobile, online and television services in Bangladesh. Launched in 2009, this program is an effort to impact the economic growth of Bangladesh. With over 50 million mobile phone subscribers in Bangladesh today this program has the potential to reach millions of Bangladeshi’s. English lessons are uploaded weekly as audio lessons and quizzes that people may access by dialing '3000'. Most lessons last three minutes and cost roughly 5 cents. It also includes varying levels for those with more advanced language skills. This program is supported by The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and receives support from 'all six of Bangladesh’s mobile operators who have agreed to cut the cost of calls to the service by up to 75%'."

"Why dont we celebrate our succeses?" - OneWorld South Asia: Asks Navdeep Suri, Joint Secretary, Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, as he responds to a question about the way public diplomacy is handled in India. In an exclusive interview with OneWorld South Asia, he talks about the role and responsibilities, issues and challenges of the Division. ... [Suri] We live in a very diffused world where there is multiplicity of channels and the best that we can do is make sure that we are also present in that space, real time if possible, so that our voice gets equally heard. I do feel that there is an important role for us in that space and in certain ways it even enhances our credibility. ... Traditionally, the MEA and the foreign ministries around the world thought it was enough for them to focus outwards. And public diplomacy/external publicity was traditionally aimed abroad through our embassies. With the changes that we see in the media, in communications and in the internet and the fact that we are such a vibrant democracy, there is a requisition to do more within our own country to create more informed discourse in foreign policy. The reason is if we don’t, the debate often gets conditioned even more by the 30-seconds-sound-bytes or those in the space of partisan politics."

Nirupama Rao to launch MEA and PD Division websites on Friday - sify.com [2010-12-23 16:30:00]: "Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao will launch the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Public Diplomacy (PD) Division websites at 3 p.m. on Friday. Joint Secretary (Public Diplomacy) of Ministry of External Affairs (MHA) Navdeep Suri


had earlier on December 11 said that India realises the need to have its presence in social media. Addressing people at a two-day conference on 'Public Diplomacy in the Information Age' here, Suri said: 'We took an initial decision that very quickly we had to ramp up our presence in the social media. We started initially with the Twitter account which, I believe, at that time was the first for any Government of India department, maybe still is, and a Facebook page, and then a YouTube channel, and so on.'" Suri image from article

Foreign office to launch integrated portal in 2011 - sify.com: "Lauding the power of the internet in revolutionizing communication, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao Friday announced the external affairs ministry's plans to launch an ambitious integrated portal that will create uniformity of outlook across all the websites of the ministry and its over 160 missions aborad. 'We have started work on an more ambitious integrated MEA ministry of external affairs) portal. It is meant to introduce uniformity in the look, feel, content and navigational ease for all the websites of the ministry and its missions/posts abroad,' Rao said." See also

Indian diplomats need not blog, says Nirupama Rao‎ - Indian Express: Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao on Friday said that Indian diplomats need not follow their American or British counterparts in blogging and that India will 'find its own way'. Responding to a question on whether Indian diplomats will be allowed to blog on the Ministry of External Affairs’s re-designed website, which was officially launched on Friday, she said: 'We need not exactly follow the US or the British (foreign office). We will find our own way.' The Public Diplomacy (PD) division’s website was also launched, months after it debuted on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and other social media websites. MEA Joint Secretary (PD) Navdeep Surie, also answering to the same question, said, 'We intend to go a bit slower on this.... Right now, the contents are moderated by us.' Diplomats from US, UK, Canada and Israel use the social media websites, and also write blogs. Surie said that British diplomats have been blogging for the last four years, but there have been only three cases where there have been instances of them blogging about things that they were not supposed to."

Rakesh Sood set to be deputy national security adviser - sify.com: "Belying speculation about his recall in a section of the media, India's Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood is set for an upgrade as the country's deputy national security adviser. Jayant Prasad, special secretary (public diplomacy) in the external affairs ministry and a former envoy to Afghanistan, is likely to succeed Sood in Kathmandu, well-placed sources said."

Does Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry understand what the United States say? - asiantribune.com: "[T]he State Department and the Colombo American embassy have no mandate to do public diplomacy and strategic communication on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka to influence US lawmakers. The External Affairs Ministry has a diplomatic mission in Washington to undertake that role. Or the GSL should get its monies worth from the Washington lobbying firm that it has contracted."

Continuity and Change: China’s Attitude toward Hard Power and Soft Power - brookings.edu: "[A]s China accumulated hard power over the last several decades, the outside world—especially China’s neighbors and the United States—became increasingly anxious as to how China’s increasing hard power may be used. In part because it recognized this anxiety, China also began to attach greater importance to soft power—the power to persuade other nations through attraction to one’s policies, performance, identity, and culture, rather than through force or compulsion—and has made increasing effort to develop its soft power in recent years. China has made increasing efforts to enhance its soft power utilization capabilities in recent years. Among other things, China has drastically increased international assistance, especially to African countries. It has established hundreds of Confucius Institutes around the world. It has increased the number of fellowships it offers to foreign students. It has conducted a growing number of training programs for foreign officials and officers, especially those from developing countries. It has also undertaken increasing efforts to propagate Chinese views overseas through media including the recent launch of a Korean language version of The China Daily, a Chinese newspaper.


China has also begun to assign more importance to public diplomacy. It has explored various means to present China in a way that is attractive to foreigners, such as staging the Beijing Olympics in 2008, and the Shanghai World Expo and Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010. It has also experimented with hiring foreign news anchors and correspondents to run some overseas programs broadcast by China Central Television (CCTV), China’s national television network. Finally, it has made efforts to develop new and creative ideas for management of international affairs including the 'new security concept' to manage international security issues, the term 'democratization of international relations' by which to frame international relations, and the idea of a 'harmonious world' to represent an ideal state of world affairs that the world should strive for. When it comes to soft power effectiveness, China has been quite successful in some areas. For example, it has managed to develop peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with most countries in the world despite its rapid rise over the past three decades—no small achievement given the size of China and the accelerating trend toward interaction on a wide range of issues. ... In sum, China’s approach toward hard power and soft power has witnessed both change and continuity: a retention of the traditional value placed on hard power is complemented by a dramatic increase in the importance of soft power. Specifically, China has attached much more importance to the utilization of the soft power it has built over the decades, and has made many efforts and devoted many resources to improve its capabilities in this area. These efforts have achieved some desirable effects from the Chinese perspective." Image from

Interview: China’s Military Diplomacy in past 5 years - Pakistan Defence: "Recently, the PLA Daily made an exclusive interview with Qian Lihua, director-general of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense, on the characteristics and trend of China’s military diplomacy during the 11th Five-year Plan period (2006-2010). ... [Qian:] The PLA’s military diplomacy covers multiple fields including high-level contacts, exchange of professional technologies, military aids, personnel training, joint exercise and training, exchange of military culture and sports, international arms control and public diplomacy and involves the general headquarters/departments, arms and services and military area commands of the PLA."

China’s Doctrine of Non-Interference Challenged by Sudan’s Referendum - "Beijing has offered a few 'carrots' of varying sizes to both [Sudan's] north and south to dissuade them from violence. Some gestures in the direction of public diplomacy are discernible (The Guardian, September 7).


Yet, the overall impression is underwhelming; China appears content to leave itself hostage to fortune, presuming that Khartoum and Juba will opt for cooperation because of their mutual interest in continued oil profits." Image from


Britain is the 'hub of hate,' claims TA think tank report: Reut Institute says assault on Israel’s legitimacy is based on Arab and Islamist ideology, urges coordinated fightback - Jonny Paul, Jerusalem Post: "A report published by an Israeli research and strategy organization this week identifies London as a major center in a delegitimization campaign against Israel and advises the players in the public diplomacy sphere, both in Israel and the UK, to reassess their strategy and work together, on a local and global scale. Referring to London as the 'Mecca of delegitimization,' the Tel Aviv-based Reut Institute says that through a coordinated and ideological campaign, Israel is subject to a 'global systemic and systematic assault' on its political and economic model that aims to 'precipitate its implosion.'

How 23 foreign journalists got to keep their tax breaks‎ - Rebecca Anna Stoil, Jerusalem Post: "A rare series of coalition-opposition alliances this week resulted in MKs voting down a clause in the Economic Arrangements Bill that would have eliminated tax breaks for foreign journalists stationed in Israel. Opposition to the bill began with the usual suspects: the opposition’s Nahman Shai (Kadima) and outspoken Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) began to protest against the clause as deleterious to Israel’s public diplomacy efforts."

Avoiding Cast Lead II - Yaakov Katz, jpost.com: "Hamas has long-range rockets, and Israel’s deterrence may have eroded, but neither side is interested in another large-scale conflict. ... At the same time, the IDF has not neglected the public diplomacy effect of a future operation. Just this week,


it completed the first course to train civilian liaison officers. Their job will be to assist battalion and brigade commanders in planning operations in Gaza, while taking into consideration the impact they will have on the civilian population. If Israel can’t avoid Cast Lead II, at least it will try to spare itself a Goldstone II." Image from

Turkic Speaking Forum in Ankara - en.baybak.com: "Speaking at the Forum Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç pointed to TRT’s international broadcasts and called on Turkic speaking states to cooperate in media. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkish, which is spoken in a very large geography, should turn into a global communication language. Davutoğlu said the heritage of this common language could take the Turkic world to a very efficient position among other nations. Davutoğlu also underlined that it is necessary to make free press a dominant and soverign element for a contemporary Turkic world. Davutoğlu said he is certain that important decisions will come out of the works carried out in a bid to make Turkish a global language, to fortify public diplomacy and to streghten Turkic world’s correct perception in the international arena. Foreign Minister Davutoğlu also noted that with a robust computer network they can make themselves heard through a single and powerful voice on issues regarding the Turkic world."

Netherlands: PR campaign for Turkish journalists backfires - allah.eu: "Turkish TV recently broadcast as report about the Netherlands. The report was about the growing Islamophobia and the rise of Geert Wilders. In the report, a Turkish-Dutch complained about discrimination on the job-market. 'They prefer taking a Dutchman, even if you’re highly educated and better than the Dutchman,' the man said. 'The Dutch are more radical than in the past,' according to another. A third warned of ethnic violence. He called the Netherlands and the rest of Western Europe a ‘powder keg’. The Turkish reporter explained that anti-Muslim feelings are growing in Europe. 'The Netherlands is one of the country where you most strongly feel hostility towards immigrants,' the journalist said. The critical report on Turkish TV was, remarkably enough, the result of a public diplomacy operation by the Dutch government. Polic[y] makers in the Hague are concerned about the effect of the anti-Islam mood in the Netherlands on the relations with the Muslim world. In order to polish the Dutch image,


the government is undertaking various PR operations and organizes trips to the Netherlands for journalists from Muslim countries. Earlier this month a group of Turkish journalists was brought to the Netherlands." Image from

PVV haalt kandidaat van Limburgse lijst om tv-interview - Joop Politiek: Mention of public diplomacy in one of the comments to article

The situation will become more difficult and tense, not better News.Az: "News.Az interviews Laurence Broers, Caucasus Programme Projects Manager, Conciliation Resources. ... Much has recently been spoken off the big potential of public diplomacy for the peace solution to the conflict and mutual visits to Baku and Yerevan are organized periodically. Can this policy reconcile positions of the parties? It depends on what you mean by ‘policy’ in your question.


There has been very little ‘policy’ on the part of the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments to support public diplomacy at civil society levels – in recent years just a few high-level visits by public figures. The main public diplomacy efforts are implemented by NGOs and civil society. Evaluating these efforts is difficult, because of unreasonable expectations and an unsupportive overall political environment. Public diplomacy is not a substitute or alternative to the official peace process. Its function is only to widen and deepen the official peace process so that its outcomes enjoy a wide public legitimacy. It is only because things are completely stuck at the official level in the Karabakh peace process that people have come to expect so much from public diplomacy. It has been the only area where we see any movement, even if this has been limited." Image from article

Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy completes next training on foreign policy program - en.trend.az: "In the second semester of 2010, about 19 civil servants have been trained on foreign policy program of the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy (ADA). ... The program covered the areas of political and economic trends, public diplomacy, improvement of leadership and communication skills."

Bad News and Good News from Africa - Jeffrey Dvorkin, Now The Details: "[A]s of this week, President Condé was sworn into office in a ceremony that did all Guineans proud. Back in June I was asked to go to the capital, Conakry to help journalists in Guinea


prepare to cover the election and to do it in a way that emphasized the need for social peace and a calm political transformation. The process was almost derailed once or twice when party hooligan attempted to intimidate voters. There was also some violence and several people were killed at election rallies. So it wasn't entirely without its tragic elements. But with the help of a number of deeply committed people from a variety of NGOs and public diplomacy workers especially from the US and France, a real transformation occurred." Image from article

"Wikileaks Affair" or "Wikileaks-partisans" - Mile Lasić - Depot Portal [Google translation from Croatian]: "[I]nteresting is what the famous professor at Princeton and a leading bioethicist Peter Singer asked in his regular column for Project Syndicate "The Ethics of Life": Is public diplomacy (in general) possible? (Peter Singer, Is Open Diplomacy Possible?, www.project-syndicate.org, 13.12.2010.). (Peter Singer, Is Open Diplomacy Possible?, Www.project-syndicate.org, 13.12.2010.). Singer misli, naime, da je Julian Assange s ovim što je uradio samo slijedio ideju američkog predsjednika Woodrowa Wilsona o javnoj diplomaciji. Singer thought, namely, that the Julian Assange with what he had done just followed the idea of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's public diplomacy. No, je li to baš tako? But is it really so?"

Militainment II: Hollywood, DoD and America's "Force for Good" - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: "Yes, Hollywood can as well portray Americans are hard-working, freedom-loving, and determined people. But when it comes to sensitive issues, especially those that deal with wars (of questionable justification for many around the world),


involving the Pentagon and its agenda not only harms America's public diplomacy objectives abroad, but also puts under fire the very interests of the American people." Image from

public diplomacy - porkquoi: "There was a surprise visit from 6 basketball coaches who belong to the One-on-One organization in Washington, DC. These Ivy League pretty boys are not just any players…they play basketball on a regular basis with President Obama. They were here for a Basketball Clinic funded by the US government but coordinated by the Algerian Embassy in Washington and the Algerian Ministry of Youth & Sports."

The Musical Reverberation of Arooj Aftab - Kalsoom, CHUP! – Changing Up Pakistan: Lahore-born and raised Arooj Aftab is an emerging musician whose music is influenced by an array of artists – from traditional Pakistani singers to contemporary sounds from the likes of Erykah Badu. A self-taught guitarist, Arooj was one of four recipients of Berklee Music’s first merit-based scholarship, allowing this innovative musician to receive a formal music education at the acclaimed college. Today, she lives in Brooklyn, and has plans to tour Pakistan and the region next year with a unique blend of artistry that encompasses a true spectrum of global sounds. Below, she answers a few questions for


CHUP: ... Q: What role can music play in bridging divides? Do you hope to play a role in such forms of public diplomacy? As an activist in Boston and New York, I have found it very difficult to rally people here towards pro-Pakistan activities. The media misconceptions and general fear of what Pakistan even is, has laid a bed of silence over activist communities here. That’s why it’s important for everyone who is Pakistani and has creative, peace promoting, healing agendas– to be louder than ever before. Be present on the web even if you hate Twitter or Facebook — really get the color, the alive, the humor, the heritage and all the love out there. There is much diplomatic power in unifying and celebrating creativity throughout the diaspora." Aftab image from article

The Short Term Queer Memory Of Chris Finlay - Father Tony, bilerico.com: "Chris Finlay is a Canadian who received a fellowship to attend the University of Pennsylvania for a PhD. Conveniently, his partner also went to Philadelphia for an MA, and eventually took a job in Fort Lauderdale. Chris followed him here and is now writing his doctoral dissertation entitled: 'The Olympics as a Form of Public Diplomacy and International Communication'."

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The high cost of slashing diplomacy and foreign aid budgets - Conor Williams, Washington Post:


The entire international affairs budget this year was about $53 billion. Even cutting the entire thing - the funding for aid, development, embassies and more - is pretty meaningless given that the national debt is pushing $14 trillion. For the nation's diplomatic and development initiatives, however, large cuts could be devastating. Returning funding to 2008 levels would mean cuts of 20 to 35 percent from current spending levels, all to save us a little less than $20 billion per year. That's roughly the same amount we would save by eliminating the State Department ($17 billion) - an equally bad idea. Image from

Obama's foreign policy spine - David Ignatius, Washington Post: For a world that feared (and in some cases, cheered) the prospect of American decline, this holiday season has been bracing. It showed that despite U.S. political and economic difficulties, President Obama is still able to rally support at home and abroad for a strong foreign policy.

Why has the BBC become the official propaganda arm of the Vatican? - secularism.org.uk: In September the BBC committed huge resources and much air time to covering the Pope’s visit to Britain. Opinion polls showed the British public to be massively indifferent to the visit and yet a huge, fawning, over-the-top propaganda exercise was mounted by the Corporation to ensure that the Pope had a clear run.


No difficult questions were asked, no awkward commentators were allowed to appear and a completely skewed and, when looked at objectively, ridiculous, exercise in whitewashing was achieved. Image from article

16 Over-the-Top WWII Propaganda Posters - Paul Jury, Huffington Post