"There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees."

--Michel de Montaigne; Montaigne image from

VIDEO

HOW TO OPEN A BEER: Almost three minutes worth of beer-opening awesomeness. [Sent to your PDPBR compiler, Friday afternoon, on a hot, humid day in Washington D.C., by a kind PDPR subscriber]

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Perspective: Keep our embassies open: This decision to temporarily close them may have been prudent, but it should not become the norm - Robert J. Callahan, Chicago Tribune: "The challenge ... is to find the appropriate balance between personal security and the practice of effective diplomacy. We cannot allow implacable terrorists to close our embassies through false threats and confine our envoys to their homes or offices. But nor can we expose our diplomats to unnecessary risks. ... [D]iplomacy involves meeting with host country officials and other prominent individuals. And public diplomacy, a crucial activity in every embassy, especially in Muslim countries, requires engaging the broad public to explain and promote America's policies, purposes and culture. Diplomats cannot do these things in an embassy, even when it's open. They must venture out. The best of them speak the native language and learn local customs. They travel widely and get to know people from every profession and in every province. Going about this work, they earn friends for the United States and make our complex country more intelligible to them. They also gain a better appreciation of the people's attitudes, aspirations and discontents, which allows them to report more accurately to Washington on issues of concern." Via LBJ.

Diplomacy in 140 Characters: U.S. Social Media Efforts Ineffective - Franklin Holcomb, blog.heritage.org: "According to a report by the State Department inspector general, the State Department has spent $630,000 on buying 'likes' on Facebook, increasing their total number to 2 million. But less than 2 percent of them interact with the State Department’s pages. The State Department’s Facebook and Twitter accounts are not success stories. Neither are President Obama’s. His Twitter account has accumulated 34.5 million followers since his account was created in 2007, making him the most followed head of state in the world.


But these numbers are an illusion. A significant number of his followers are 'fake,' and this is reflected in shockingly little interest in the President’s messages. For every tweet the President sends out, only 2,300 people share his message. ... Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks are becoming increasingly important to the United States. Well-run accounts that consistently put out reliable and interesting content create communities that will spread messages effectively, as is the case with the pope’s Twitter followers. Accounts with massive amounts of participants but little interaction or sharing, such as the State Department’s and the President’s, are hollow. Active online communities can help spread messages online incredibly quickly and reach audiences traditional public diplomacy methods are unable to. The larger these communities are, the better, and increasing the number of participants in online communities is important. They are a means to an end. Unfortunately, the U.S. government is treating them like an end all their own. The State Department and the President ought to focus on putting out content that will attract interested followers rather than indifferent observers." See also. Image from entry

Kevin Freeman, Helle Dale, Gerald Steinberg, Fred Fleitz [Podcast] - securefreedomradio.podbean.com: "HELLE DALE, Senior Fellow in Public Diplomacy at the Heritage Foundation, discusses the War of Ideas, the Obama administration's policy of apologizing for America, and the Tweeter War."

NSA's Contribution to American Public Diplomacy ... - John Brown, Notes and Essays: "From: Breaking Through Limits on Spying – Editorial, New York Times: ... [']It turns out, as Charlie Savage revealed in The Times on Thursday, that the N.S.A. ... copies virtually all overseas messages that Americans send or receive, then scans them to see if they contain any references to people or subjects the agency thinks might have a link to terrorists. ... 'By injecting the N.S.A. into virtually every crossborder interaction, the U.S. government will forever alter what has always been an open exchange of ideas,' said Jameel Jaffer, the deputy legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. ... [']"

“Aloha” Diplomacy in Brazil: Sharing Hawaii’s Compassionate Spirit - Stephanie N. Stallings, artsdiplomacy.com: "'What’s the greatest reward for being a cultural ambassador? According to Keola Beamer, master of the Hawaiian slack key guitar, it’s that moment when you see that you’ve truly

touched someone and 'you see this beautiful light in them. That’s what we do it for.' Beamer, his wife, dancer and hula master Moanalani Beamer, and fellow guitarist Jeff Peterson traveled through Brazil with the American Music Abroad (AMA) program earlier this year to share the 'philosophy of Aloha, a warm philosophy of embracing other people and cultures'  in the world. 'Aloha is Hawaii’s greatest gift to the world,' says Beamer." Via PR on Facebook. Image from article, with caption:  Keola, Moanalani and Jeff performing at the Teatro Paoil in Curitiba, Brazil. Photo credit: Paul Rockower

Why Do Cosmopolitan White People Love Wishing Me Eid Mubarak? - Sarmed Rashid, policymic.com: "Over the last month or so, the world’s one billion Muslims celebrated the holy month of Ramadan by fasting from dawn to dusk, or providing excuses as to why they couldn't. On Ramadan’s last day, believers celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the lowercase-h hunger games. The holiday is a party. The haves give money to the have-nots, people throw lavish feasts for friends and family, and everyone revels in the return to normalcy. Eid was yesterday. I learned this on the subway yesterday morning, when a stranger took a look at me (full disclosure: I'm brown) and said 'Eid Mubarak,' the standard felicitation, which means 'happy Eid.'


I grew up in a secular family, and I had no idea that yesterday was Eid. When I checked Facebook, I found that many of my Facebook friends had echoed the commuter’s well-wishes in their statuses. A few of them even went to the trouble of writing in Arabic. I even had coworkers wish me an 'Eid Mubarak,' and then ask why I wasn’t home with my family. ... I think it’s most important to get to the bottom of why white people love wishing the world Eid Mubarak. ... Many of the Eid greetings in question aren’t directed at specific people. Eid Mubaraks can be found in blast announcements on Facebook, sometimes accompanied by a picture of a mosque or Muslims praying. A colleague to whom I was complaining suggested that this could be great public diplomacy for the United States, complementing the White House's statement on Eid, and those of several embassies. But I hardly think we’re winning hearts and minds through social media. The only people who’d see your Facebook updates or Tweets are your friends (and the NSA). My theory on why white people love to bring up Eid? Young, educated, cosmopolitan kids play the game of travel one-upmanship, comparing how many countries they've lived in, the number of languages they speak, and how many friends they have in exotic locales." Uncaptioned image from article

War of 1812 commemorations, Strange Brew screening among Washington Embassy’s activities last year - Lee Berthiaume, calgaryherald.com: "Canada’s embassy in Washington hosted a half-dozen visits to the oilsands last year, inviting not just congressmen and their staff, but U.S. Department of Energy officials, think-tank experts and even journalists. Yet as important as those visits were to promoting the oilsands and the Keystone XL pipeline, they represented only a fraction of the embassy’s activities when it came to promoting Canada — and advancing the federal government’s agenda. Newly released records show the embassy sponsored a congressional visit to Alberta during the Calgary Stampede, fitness sessions featuring the creator of the popular P90X exercise program, and even a screening of the movie Strange Brew, complete with Tim Horton’s donuts and Canadian beer.


There were also nearly half-a-dozen events promoting the War of 1812, including an art show and a lecture by a prominent military historian and adviser to former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who says Canada won the conflict. The oilsands tours were the most expensive activities undertaken by the embassy at a cost of between $20,000 and more than $90,000 each. The rest of the initiatives were relatively small, with the majority costing less than $10,000, with the embassy seeking partnerships where it could. The documents, obtained by Ottawa-based researcher Ken Rubin, do not give a clear total of how much the embassy spent on advocacy last year, though one planning estimate puts the number between $500,000 and $800,000. Former diplomat Colin Robertson, who served much of his career in the United States, says the federal government actually used to spend much more on these types of activities, which together are called public diplomacy. And while some Canadian taxpayers may be upset that the embassy hosted a 'tailgating party' during U.S. President Barack Obama’s inauguration, or that congressmen took in the Stampede on their dime, Robertson says these things do work." Image from article, with caption: The Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

China’s Charm Offensive: China is taking steps to exert more cultural influence on the international stage. How should this be interpreted by those doing business with the emerging superpower? - St. John Moore and Ilse Schache, chinabusinessreview.com: "The press coverage of China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan, when she accompanied her husband, President Xi Jinping, on his first trip abroad as China’s leader in March, was almost universally fawning. ... The coverage was due in part to the fact that Peng is a genuine star who has been wildly popular as a professional singer in her native land for decades.


But internationally it was also about the rarity of seeing such a glamorous image projected by a leading figure of the emerging superpower. ... Since the transfer from the fourth to fifth generation of communist leaders in November, much analysis has focused on the style, approach, and priorities of Xi. Even before the emergence of the first lady there were signs that China was undergoing a significant change in the way it wanted to be perceived on the international stage. 'The effort began in earnest in 2004 when Hanban, an organization that falls under the Ministry of Education, began establishing Confucius Institutes at universities around the world,' Dustin Roasa, a former US diplomat in Asia, wrote in Foreign Policy magazine last November. 'There are now 353 of them in 104 countries, part of what [then President] Hu Jintao described in a 2007 speech as China’s effort to ‘enhance culture as part of the soft power of our country.’ ' Hanban, Roasa reported, plans to open 1,000 Confucius Institutes by 2020 to spread Chinese culture, much in the way that the British Council and Alliance Française have done for Britain and France over the years. In another move on this front, China inaugurated its first China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA) in January, 'promoting China’s soft power by mobilizing and coordinating social resources and civilian efforts for Chinese public diplomacy,' Li Zhaoxing, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, and president of the association, said in a speech at the time. These missions will also have a somewhat harder-edged diplomatic aim. China has favorable conditions for public diplomacy but also faces serious challenges, Ma Zhengang, deputy president of the CPDA and former Chinese ambassador to the UK, said at the inauguration. 'A solid job of public diplomacy requires tangible effects and fruits, rather than insubstantial things. Public diplomacy should serve to guard China’s lawful rights and interests overseas and stabilize external circumstances,' Ma said, according to China Daily, an English-language newspaper with the official stamp of approval. What people, especially those doing business with China, want to know is what such subtle changes signify about the country’s evolving method of engagement with both external and domestic constituents. ... Chinese officials want to ensure not just that more people learn to speak Chinese and appreciate Chinese culture, but that Chinese culture positively supports the country’s expanded global engagement." Image from article, with caption: China's first lady Peng Liyuan and President Xi Jinping at a state dinner with the president and first lady of Mexico.

Eastern Partnership Perspectives of Cultural Diplomacy - neweasterneurope.eu: "Nowadays, Cultural Diplomacy, defined as an exchange of ideas, information and many cultural aspects, has become steadily more important within traditional diplomacy. Therefore, countries can demonstrate their cultural heritage and seek to achieve deeper understanding that leads to strengthening ties between countries. Intentional Cultural Diplomacy has started in the 21st century, and became an example of so called 'soft power', it means the ability to persuade through culture, unique values and believes in contrary to 'hard power', which implies power politics, military and economic threat. Skilful implementation of Cultural Diplomacy is beneficial and promising as it leads to successful development of friendly international relationships and in contrary to traditional forms of diplomacy it changes the public opinion through atmosphere of interest, understanding and appreciation. The aim of the project is to trigger an international discussion on prospects of development of Eastern Partnership setting new goals in a context of Cultural Diplomacy. We are going to provide analysis of contemporary actions and completed projects and try to anticipate future policy. Moreover, we plan to promote active cooperation and collaboration between EU government and non-profit organizations as well as equivalent organizations from Eastern Partnership participating countries, which held their activities in the area of culture and art. ... As part of the project, on August 29th-31st, Krakow


will host an International Expert Conference and MA/PhD Students Co-Conference." Krakow image from

Current US Foreign Policy In The Middle East Influences Others - Andrea Davidson, myvision15.blogspot.com: "President Obama phoned Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, to thank each of them personally for once again opening negotiations between the two governments. He met in person with them prior to the phone call. Further discussions are planned between the two. They are to meet over a nine-month period. Future meetings will take place either in Israel or Palestine. The leaders agreeing to reopen negotiations are Mahmoud Abbas, who has been President of the National Palestinian Authority since 2004. The respected statesman was made President of the State of Palestine in 2008. Israeli Prime Minister holds a number of responsible positions in his country. That is in addition to being President. He is Foreign Affairs Minister, Chairman of the Likud party and Minister of Public Diplomacy."

Five years since the war -- challenges remain - messenger.com.ge: "Currently there are 20, 378 IDPs [internally displaced persons] in Georgia as a result of the August [2008] War, but this figure changes according to the birth and death data; the number of IDPs is increasing from year to year due to the state's policy of perpetuating IDP status by registering newborns of IDPs as IDPs. ... Deputy Minister of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia, Mamuka Tsotniashvili, disapproves of the 'ghetto-styled' compact settlements. ... Tsotniashvili explained the Ministry now gives IDPs an opportunity to stay wherever they currently live or move elsewhere. This way or another, together with its foreign partners the Georgian government aims at creating jobs in the vicinity of IDP settlements. It is also plans to increase the state allowance for covering communal expenses. Return of IDPs to Tskhinvali [the Tskhinvali region, which was bombarded in August 2008] remains on the state agenda. Tsotniashvili thinks through taking wise political steps and public diplomacy, it is possible to make this 'dream' come true."

Welcome to Woyane Abyssinian Embassy in Geneva! - Yakume, ethiopianreview.com: "In Ethiopia, there are about 80 ethnic groups. But staff of the all Ethiopian missions and embassies in the world are from one ethnic group (Abyssinia or Tigrey and Amhara clans). All staff members of the Embassy in Geneva are from one ethnic group, one religion and political party. So, is this Ethiopian Embassy or Abyssinia Embassy to generate income for Woyane Tigrey and Amhara cadres under name of Ethiopia, or what? The same is true with all Ethiopian missions and embassies in the world. ... [Staff members:] Mr. Redae Girmay Abraha Counselor I, Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs."

The 5 Most Common Service Desk Euphemisms - Being in the workforce, and more importantly, staying in the workforce, requires a certain amount of diplomacy.


Sure, you’d love to tell a clueless end user exactly what you think of him, but most of the time your need to remain employed outweighs your need to express your personal opinions. That’s why euphemisms are so great. Euphemisms are how 'getting fired' turns into 'involuntary attrition,' and how 'propaganda' becomes 'public diplomacy.' IT service desk workers have their own euphemisms that refer to end users, software, or management. Image from article, with caption:
“Of course I want to hear about your hemorrhoid operation while I reset your password!”

College Students Get Smart…Power: Connecting the Foreign and Local Publics - Chanelle Yang, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Through my involvement in labor rights activism, I started organizing direct actions under the USC student-run organization, 'Student Coalition Against Labor Exploitation (SCALE).' SCALE is a smaller branch of the national student labor rights movement. Our advocacy program demonstrates how university students engage in public diplomacy with factory workers worldwide. While at the same time, we advocate for the use of hard power inducements to enforce social responsibility on corporations and governments."

Janklow Launches Arts Leadership Advanced Certificate Program - Rob Enslin,  Syracuse University NEws: The College of Arts and Sciences has announced the establishment of the Janklow Arts Leadership Advanced Certificate Program. Designed for recent college graduates as well as experienced practitioners, the 15-credit-hour program provides additional training for students pursuing leadership positions in the arts or allied fields. ... ‘Frequently, people go into arts leadership by way of a specific discipline, such as marketing, development or finance,’ says Mark Nerenhausen, professor of practice and founding director of the Janklow Program. ‘But as they climb the corporate ladder, they sometimes find they don’t have the necessary skills or training needed for general management. The Janklow Arts Leadership Advanced Certificate Program bridges this gap, giving students the broad perspective they need for organizational leadership.’ ... [O] ptions include pursuing the certificate concurrently with a master’s degree in public administration and public affairs from the MaxwellSchool or upon receipt of a bachelor’s degree in real estate from Whitman. ‘The possible combinations are many and varied, ‘says Nerenhausen. ‘Our relationship with the MaxwellSchool, for example, gives us a strong public administration presence. As a result, students going into urban planning, economic development or cultural diplomacy see the value of arts leadership training.’  Alexandra Rachelle Siclait


is one such student. The inaugural member of the Janklow Arts Leadership Advanced Certificate Program, she hopes to parlay her management training into a career with an arts organization or a cultural affairs bureau. ‘I want to combine my business skills with my passion for culture and the arts,’ says Siclait, a native of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. ‘I want to shape public, private, nonprofit and community sectors around arts and cultural activities.’ Siclait, who recently served as a cultural intern with the Community Folk Art Center in Syracuse, is pursuing the certificate as part of the public diplomacy program, offered jointly by the MaxwellSchool’s Department of Public Administration and International Affairs and the NewhouseSchool’s Department of Public Relations.” Sitclait image from entry

Brand reputation: Fonterra cast as fall guy - Nicholas Dynon, nbr.co.nz: "Nicholas Dynon is an academic and former diplomat specialising in Chinese media and soft power. His research has appeared in the China Journal and Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. He coordinates the Line 21 Project, an online resource on Chinese state propaganda and public diplomacy."

Ten Reasons to Intern at the Department of State - Stephen Wood, blogs.state.gov: If you’re thinking about applying for an internship like mine, here are 10 things you should know about interning at the State Department: 1. You actually matter at State. ... 2. Your work matters. ... 3. They treat you well. Former Secretary Condoleezza Rice -- herself, a former State Department intern -- told her employees to be nice to interns because they could become Secretary of State one day, like she did. Everyone I’ve met has taken that advice to heart. 4. You get an inside look at diplomacy. ... 5. You will learn a lot about foreign policy. ... 6. You’ll also learn about how the government works. ... 7. Your work ties in with your studies no matter what you do. ... 8. You’ll meet interesting people because so many of them come through the State Department every day. ... 9. You’ll have a fun summer. ... 10. You’ll want to come back." Via JJ on Facebook

Experiences of a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow - vilnius-diaries.blogspot.com: Image from entry, with caption:


2012 Pickering Graduate Fellow Jesse Shaw with Susan Rice, now National Security Advisor to President Obama, at Rice's farewell party at the US Mission to the UN (USUN). Jesse is serving in the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy at USUN this summer for his domestic internship.

Masa Israel Featured Internship: Law Assistant, The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) - Masa Israel: "As an intern for JCPA you will gain hands-on experience and learn about the inner workings of international law. You will conduct research, assist with administrative duties, write footnotes for international law research papers, and assist with arranging speakers for special events. The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a leading independent research institute specializing in public diplomacy and foreign policy. http://www.interninisrael.org/law-assistant-jerusalem-center-public-affairs-jcpa/"

RELATED ITEMS

Anti-U.S. Hostility Ramps Up in Egypt: Media Outlets Blast American Policies, Further Straining Ties - Maria Abi-Habib and Adam Entous, Wall Street Journal: Egypt's state and privately owned media outlets, already no strangers to demonizing the U.S., have embarked on a particularly critical campaign. The latest salvos have targeted Robert Ford, the likely nominee for American ambassador to a country that is pivotal to U.S. foreign policy.


Egypt's state and privately owned media outlets have embarked on a particularly critical campaign against the U.S. Adam Entous joins Lunch Break with more. The moves highlight the depth of public distrust of U.S. policies, and draw from a "reservoir of anti-Americanism and conspiratorial theories," said Vali Nasr, dean of the Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and a former senior Obama administration adviser. Via MC. Image from article, with caption: Opponents of ousted President Mohammed Morsi sit under anti-American banners in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Thursday, reflecting the increasing hostility toward the U.S. from a broad range of factions in Egypt.

Egypt's constitutional crisis: An inclusive process would help heal the wounds of the recent turmoil and determine the legitimacy and stability of Egyptian democracy - Jill Goldenziel and David Landau, latimes.com: The United States and other nations interested in promoting Egyptian democracy should use their leverage to promote an inclusive constitution-writing process.


Although some aspects of American constitutionalism have fallen out of favor internationally, our constitutional emphasis on protection against the excesses of majority rule commands wide respect abroad. This is not to say that the Egyptian product should mirror the U.S. constitution — Egypt should write its own rules. Image from article, with caption: Egypt continues to be in a state of political paralysis following the ousting of former President and Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi by the military.

Iran’s Plan B for the Bomb - Amos Yadlin and Avner Golov, New York Times: Moderate messages from Tehran should not be allowed to camouflage Iran’s continuing progress toward a bomb. Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence, is the director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, where Avner Golov is a researcher.

To American Watchdog on Afghan Reconstruction, Bluntness Is a Weapon - Matthew Rosenberg, New York Times: John F. Sopko is a 61-year-old former prosecutor who believes “embarrassing people works.” As the special inspector general for Afghan reconstruction, he has made a full-time job of doing just that. He and his team spend their days cataloging the waste, mismanagement and fraud that have plagued American reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Mr. Sopko has been as instrumental as anyone in shaping the now-prevalent view among Americans that the war in Afghanistan has become an expensive boondoggle no longer worth fighting. Via GG on Facebook

Obama in game to win propaganda points: An interview with William Blum - panorama.am: Press TV has interviewed William Blum, author and historian, Washington, about the unprecedented act by US President Barak Obama to cancel a scheduled meeting with his Russian counterpart, Putin due to dispute over NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. - How do you assess this latest cooling of relations between Russia and the US? - I don’t think it's so important. They're both playing a game. Secretary of State John Kerry said that what Snowden did is not very important. He makes light of it and yet in the same breath he announces very tough sanctions against Snowden. So, with these people, it's all propaganda. They don't want to give him any credit for having done something important on the one hand; on the other hand they want to punish him for doing something for which they would have you believe is horrible. They want to have it both ways.

US Military Caught Manipulating Social Media, Running Mass Propaganda Accounts - Anthony Gucciardi, conservativeread.com: The United States military and intelligence communities are highly afraid of alternative networks and the overall public perception when it comes to the United States government and the state of the corrupt political mafia at large.


This also means that the United States military and intelligence agencies are losing the informational battle, and the only way they can even fight back is to run a conglomerate of fake accounts attacking legitimate users and journalists. You know, the terrorists that dare to question anything. Social media pages, comment systems on top news websites, and various other areas online are the targets of a pinpointed ‘cyber psyop’ by a government that simply can’t answer real questions. And instead of actually doing anything about the outrage, disinformation campaigns are of utmost priority. Image from entry

After a Decade of Propaganda, Study Concludes Military Suicides Not Caused by War - Daniel Greenfield, frontpagemag.com: "Combat appears to have little or no influence on suicide rates among U.S. troops and veterans, according to a military study that challenges the conventional thinking about war’s effects on the psyche. Depression and other types of mental illness, alcohol problems and being male – strong risk factors for suicide among civilians – were all linked to self-inflicted deaths among current and former members of the military. But the researchers found deployment and combat did not raise the risk.”

Apple bans firing squad parody of North Korean propaganda on iOS - Samit Sarkar Joyful Executions, a mobile game that casts the player as the commander of a North Korean firing squad, has been banned by Apple for containing "excessively objectionable or crude content," reports Pocket Gamer.


"Help North Korean commissar Kim Bok Kyong punish the traitors! Command a firing squad of four soldiers and process endless waves of various enemies of the state to keep the Divine Leader happy," reads Joyful Executions' description on Google Play, where Norwegian studio 8-Bit Underpants launched it July 15 for Android tablets. Later in the description, the studio explicitly states that the wave-based survival title is intended as "a parody game on North Korean propaganda for children and a satire on our willingness to accept morally questionable acts through gamification." Image from entry

Novel by Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Published in Russia - en.ria.ru: A novel written by Nazi Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels has been published in Russia – a country that prides itself on playing a key part in defeating the Third Reich.


Algoritm, a publishing house known in Russia for printing books by controversial authors, announced the publication of Goebbels’ semi-autobiographical novel, Michael, in an undated post on its website. Russian media reported the publication on Saturday. The 1923 novel tells the story of a World War I veteran who returns to peaceful life in impoverished, post-war Germany and turns to socialist ideas and Christianity, the announcement said. Goebbels image from article

'Fruitvale Station,' 'Propaganda' win big at Traverse City Film Festival - freep.com: The Founders Grand Prize for best film went to “Propaganda,” a scathing critique of American excess which has been described as “‘1984” meets “The Blair Witch Project.” The movie surfaced last year as a supposedly North Korean anti-Western propaganda movie, but is actually written and directed by Slavko Martinov and was made over nine years in New Zealand.

RUSSICA HUMOR: LENIN'S TWIN BROTHER



From; via VD on Facebook

AMERICANA


--From The Los Angeles Times

"The government is not interested in your conversations with your aunt, unless, of course, she is a key terrorist leader."

--Andrew Liepman, a senior analyst at Rand Corp., who was a career CIA officer and is a former deputy director of the National Counterterrorism Center; image from

VIDEO

How Should the United States Wield Power in a Changing World? - ideasinactiontv.com: "In his new book, Nye writes, 'It is currently fashionable to predict a decline in the United States' power. But the United States is not in absolute decline, and in relative terms, there is reasonable probability that it will remain more powerful than any other state in the coming decades.' Forty years ago Nye formulated the term 'soft power' to describe diplomacy, communications and cultural influence as a force equal to and at times more desirable than the hard power of military dominance. Given the economic changes and the threat of terrorism in the world today, two eminent scholars debate the best way for the United States to wield its power now." [Includes transcript]/

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Royal Oak Resident Named Coordinator for High School Exchange Program - Judy Davids, royaloak.patch.com: "Pat Cahill of Royal Oak has been appointed Local Coordinator for Academic Year in America (AYA), one of the largest non-profit high school/homestay exchange programs in the U.S. ... Local Coordinators like Pat are open-minded women and men who enjoy working with young people and believe deeply in the value of cross-cultural exchange.


AYA Local Coordinators enjoy the rewarding experience of being part of a great public diplomacy effort and bringing the world together through intercultural exchange. AYA students are ages 15 to 18 and arrive with full medical insurance, spending money, and the hopes of experiencing life in America through the eyes of a caring host family. The students stay with their host for five or 10 months and attend the local high school." Cahill image from entry

De-Federalization of Voice of America would remove public oversight, give full control to bureaucrats - BBG Watcher, BBG Watch Commentary:  " De-Federalization would ... destroy the unique Voice of America brand and make it completely irrelevant." [Entry contains statement by American Federation of Government Employees, AFGE Local 1812].

Leo Records Festival of Jazz - The Moscow Times: "[Leo Records founder Leo] Feigin spoke to The Moscow Times via e-mail about his past, how he has observed the development of the genre and the difficulties in promoting new music. Q: As we understand it, jazz in the Soviet Union was fairly inaccessible. How did you develop an interest in it? A: When I was a young man in the USSR, jazz was everything to me and my friends. It was the personification of freedom — the only art form that could not be censored. The important part of jazz is improvisation. One cannot censor improvisation.


There was the velvety voice of Willis Conover broadcasting the jazz hour on Voice of America. There was a black market where you could buy LPs. There were tape machines or 'magnetophones' to copy LPs and there were occasional live gigs. Jazz was a screen to hide behind so as not to see the ugly Soviet reality." Feigin image fron entry

The Cyrus Cylinder Tour of the U.S.: Culture Transcending Politics - uscpublicdiplomacy.org: Nasser Manesh, The spring of 2013 has been a particularly exciting time for Iranian-Americans and Iranians living in the United States. Just in time for the Persian New Year, the Cyrus Cylinder started its first-ever tour of the U.S. with a magnificent debut in Washington, D.C. ... Given how loud and clear the voice of this small, mute baked clay cylinder is for public diplomacy, it is no coincidence that the Cyrus Cylinder tour was inaugurated in Washington, D.C. and next to Capitol Hill. ...  After D.C., the exhibition will travel to Houston (Museum of Fine Arts), New York City (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), San Francisco (Asian Art Museum), and Los Angeles (The J. Paul Getty Museum).


We expect the coverage to continue to grow as the exhibition is seen by more and more people, and in more cities. In the United States– a country built on the same values aptly represented by the Cyrus Cylinder – the prominent presence of this relic will surely provide numerous opportunities for cultural dialogue that transcends politics and stereotypes. We hope that this helps narrow gaps and divides, and fosters friendship and respect." Image from entry, with caption: The Cyrus Cylinder, 539-538 BC, Achaemenid, clay. See also: "Cyrus Cylinder: 250,000 DC/Houston/NYC Visitors Heading to the West Coast" posted by yazdi (11 August, 2013), zoroastrians.net

Partnerships on the Agenda In Kyiv - eurodialogue.org: "Partnerships writ large was the focus of the third annual Euro-Atlantic Partnership Day, hosted by the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv on 11 July 2013. The event served to highlight the importance of dialogue and cooperation between countries as well as international organisations in today’s security environment. ...  Partnerships have always been a ‘two-way street’ with benefits for NATO – and for partners,' said


Ambassador Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, speaking via video-conference from NATO Headquarters. 'They have been strong engines in spreading shared values and democratic principles, encouraged domestic reforms in partner countries, supported cooperation in the area of science and helped make the military forces in partner countries more modern and accountable and able to make contributions to international security.'” Grabar-Kitarović image from

Peace Talks Between FARC, Colombia Moving Slowly In Havana - Colin Hale, neontommy.com: “Despite the seemingly rapid decline in FARC's strength and political power, the negotiations between it and the Colombian government remain a major policy and public diplomacy issue. Public opinion in Colombia is widely against FARC and narcotrafficking, but a majority of people


are also losing patience and are not optimistic that peace between the two groups can be achieved. Reuters reported that in a recent survey ‘43% of of those polled in July said they were optimistic peace could be achieved, down from 45% in April.'" Image from article, with caption: Colombian military forces

UN World Tourism Summit in a contested political environment- thezimbabwean.co: "On 26 August 2013, more than 500 diplomats from over 150 countries are visiting Victoria Falls, a UN World Heritage Site, in Zimbabwe for a UN backed conference. According to a Report by Jerome Starkey in Victoria Falls, and Jan Raath in Harare, the British government will not be sending any representatives to this conference [.] The conference comes in the midst of a very difficult and highly contested political environment. However given the importance of this conference to Zimbabwe’s tourism industry, the question that arises is whether Britain has adopted the correct course of action in the circumstances? The broader question is whether the summit makes sense in the current environment? By not attending, is Britain underestimating the importance of tourism within the public diplomacy field? Tourism diplomacy can work either way.


Firstly, tourism shapes perceptions of others and in this regard it is very clear that Zimbabwe’s Tourism Minister, Walter Mzembi will use this summit for perception management and to impact public diplomacy and nation branding in efforts to attract foreign visitors." Mzembi image from article

Giverny - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "It is not such a stretch to say that Impressionism is one of the factors that has made France a cultural capital, and that cultural capital is borne from Japan. This led me to wonder about the French-Japanese connection today, especially through cultural diplomacy. I remain utterly curious about France's cultural diplomacy ties to Japan. I see Japan and France in similar geopolitical terms: still players but not quite at the top tier anymore. Yet still important and relevant, if only for their cultural soft power. Both grapple with how to define themselves in this changing geo-political situation and how to remain relevant in current landscape. And both could do more to exert their soft power through cultural diplomacy. Both Japan and France have cultural diplomacy resources without compare, even if their hard power and geo-political clout is just fair. Perhaps a French-Japanese tie is the lynchpin behind a French pivot to East Asia, which is full of potential. I see so many nouveau riche [sic] from China and Korea in Paris. Already, France is doing cultural diplomacy outreach to the nouveau riche of China, who are buying up cases and vineyards at an amazing clip. France is trying to do gastrodiplomacy to teach the Chinese what entails real good wine. The French have been working to educate the new Chinese luxury consumer what haute couture entails. I could easily see more profound French connection to Korea, Taiwan and India borne out of French luxury culture and gastrodiplomacy to the nouveau riche [sic]. France is the high watermark of luxury culture. The cultural tastemakers of Asia, as found in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, all have a taste for French luxury, and that could be greatly expanded through French cultural and gastrodiplomacy outreach. The brunt of France's cultural diplomacy outreach is to Francophone Africa; and while I think this is important, more can be done for France in East Asia to make its cultural soft power more tangible to East Asia." On the grammatical of the plural in "nouveau riche," see.

Proposed Memorial Service Honoring David Nalle - Leonard J. Baldyga, via e-mail: "Several of David Nalle's former colleagues have asked about a memorial service honoring him. There was no service indicated in the death notice published in the Washington Post [at]' Dick Arndt (DickArndt@gmail.com) said that he is eager to contact others who agree that remembering David Nalle 'is an obligation for those of us who knew and admired him.' He recalls that a few months ago at the memorial service for Dick Curtis, 'David Nalle climbed out of his sick bed to speak and share a drink with us.' Perhaps one of the institutions where David worked after his retirement would be willing to host an appropriate event in his honor."

RELATED ITEMS

Propaganda or Information Operations: words matter - Tom Vanden, USA Today: USA TODAY uses the term propaganda in referring to the Pentagon's MISO programs. The paper has been examining the programs for the past two years. Many MISO practitioners find the term pejorative, object to it and say its use shows the paper has a vendetta against the program. Propaganda is an evocative term. Bad guys use it, often without regard to facts or truth. So far, USA TODAY has never found U.S. propaganda filled with lies. Most of what is publicly available — a small sample to be sure as much is classified — is benign. Support the Afghan government, for example.


Join the police. Propaganda also is an accurate term. Readers know what it means. It conjures images of leaflets, billboards and broadcasts — exactly what MISO does. Propaganda is more precise term than information operations or MISO. That's the other reason why we use it. Those who know military programs best say the proof of how well they work comes in their MOEs — measures of effectiveness. In other words, do they have metrics that show the effects of their programs. Was that enemy position taken, that target destroyed. Measures of performance for propaganda — number of leaflets dropped or hours broadcast, for example — gauge effort. They show how much effort and money was spent not whether it accomplished anything. So far, aside from claims by some of the practitioners that the programs do work, few objective analyses have backed that up. Any claim that it does seems, so far at least, well, like propaganda. Image from article, with caption: A Marine drops propaganda leaflets in Afghanistan in 2011.

How to Read Afghanistan - Vanessa M. Gezari, New York Times: The Human Terrain System, an ambitious, troubled Army program that sends social scientists into conflict zones to help soldiers understand local culture, politics and economics. The Human Terrain System sought to bring a degree of anthropological and interpretive acumen to a military that badly needed it.


But it came too late, alienated too many anthropologists and was thrown together too quickly and sloppily to achieve many of its goals in Afghanistan. Taxpayers have spent more than $600 million on the deeply flawed program; it has occasionally benefited soldiers, but its slipshod construction and murky aims have also put Afghans and Americans at risk. Today, 14 Human Terrain field teams remain in Afghanistan, down from a high of 30; as more American troops leave, the teams will go with them. Policy makers should seize this moment to overhaul the military’s cultural-knowledge efforts. Image from article

Start talks with Iran - Editorial, Washington Post: At his first news conference since taking office, Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, declared his willingness to negotiate with the United States. The West should resume negotiations soon to explore the depth of Mr. Rouhani’s seriousness and whether his election has come with room to maneuver. Certainly international sanctions must remain in place absent genuine evidence that Iran has abandoned its nuclear weapons ambitions. No amount of sweet talk can change that.

In the Arab world, U.S. is low on leverage: Two factors have diminished the sway that the United States once gained by doling out foreign aid: less money and more competition - Doyle McManus, latimes.com: The "Arab Spring" may not have succeeded in bringing democracy to the Middle East. But it has provided powerful evidence of a different phenomenon: the illusion of U.S. influence over governments we once considered our clients.


We have less sway than we often imagine — and the source of our influence may not be the size of the checks we write. Image from article, with caption: With Egypt's military in control, Gen. Abdel Fattah Sisi shows little patience for U.S. advice despite $1.6 billion in aid.

Obama's Putin snub: If it's a refusal to engage with Russia, that would be bad. But more likely, it's political Kabuki theater - Editorial, latimes.com: In announcing that Obama wouldn't engage in talks with Putin, the White House cited a lack of progress in negotiations on a variety of issues. But Obama may have offered a truer explanation of his decision to snub Putin in an interview with Jay Leno on Tuesday. "There are times when they slip back into Cold War thinking and Cold War mentality," Obama said. "What I continually say to them and to President Putin [is] 'That's the past.'"

The repressed Rohingya of Myanmar: Myanmar deserves U.S. rewards for moves toward democracy, but repression of Rohingya Muslims is troubling and demands action - Editorial, latimes.com: It's appropriate for the U.S. to recognize and reward the advances that Myanmar has made. But it should not turn a blind eye to the country's continuing problems, including religious and ethnic tension.


It should exercise what clout it has to help the U.N. set up the human rights office, and should push strenuously for authorities to dismantle repressive policies against the Rohingya, such as limiting families to two children. Image from article, with caption: An internally displaced Rohingya woman holds her newborn baby surrounded by children in the foreground of makeshift tents at a camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, Myanmar. Authorities in Myanmar's western Rakhine state have imposed a two-child limit for Muslim Rohingya families, a policy that does not apply to Buddhists in the area and comes amid accusations of ethnic cleansing in the aftermath of sectarian violence.

"He is stoned more often than U.S. embassies around the world."

--Frank Sinatra regarding Dean Martin; Martin/Sinatra image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

The State Department's Great Leap Faithward - Judd Birdsall, Huffington Post: "[T]he State Department did pour billions of dollars into Muslim outreach in the aftermath of 9/11. But that public diplomacy effort focused primarily on making America more popular in the Middle East rather than on genuinely listening to and partnering with Muslims and other religious communities around the world on issues of mutual interest. ... Among America's diplomats, it seems organizational culture included the strict separation of church and the State Department. But that culture is changing. Under Clinton and now Kerry, the State Department has developed a wide range of religious engagement efforts that paved the way for the Office of Faith-based Community Initiatives. No congressional pressure was necessary. Engaging religious actors is increasingly viewed as part and parcel of American statecraft. A new U.S. Strategy on Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement calls for broader collaboration with religious groups on sustainable development, human rights, and conflict mitigation. ... [D]iplomatic engagement with religious groups is in U.S. national interests. That's ultimately why it matters. And that's why the faithward evolution of the State Department's culture and the creation of the faith-based office are such promising developments."

U.S. Urges Nigeria To Implement Decisions On Insecurity - NAN, leadership.ng: "The U.S. has urged Nigeria to implement the decisions made at a meeting of the U.S.-Nigeria Bi-National Commission (BNC) Regional Security Cooperation Working Group on Thursday. The U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, Ms Wendy Sherman, said at the end of the second session of the meeting in Abuja that the implementation of the decisions would go a long way to address insecurity in the country. Sherman said it was necessary for Nigeria to take the decisions made by both countries at the BNC meeting seriously.


She said: ... 'The BNC agreed that more training is needed and we will partner together for the kind of training that is needed to the military and to all the services of the Nigerian government as they approach that comprehensive way of dealing with issues. Public diplomacy is important; we need to communicate that justice and accountability that takes place; the training that is ongoing and the many things that happen on ground in education, in healthcare, in job development that will increase the chances that people will feel they have life and a hope ahead. Countering extremists within Nigeria is about using all of the strength Nigeria has to offer, its abundance of talent, its federal character that draws on the abilities of Nigerians from all regions and its diversity that allows for approaching problems from multiple angles at the same time.'" Uncaptioned image from entry

No U.S. Consular Facility in Northern Nigeria - John Campbell, blogs.cfr.org: "Before Nigeria moved its capital from Lagos to Abuja in 1991, there was a U.S. consulate in Kaduna, the political and social capital of the former Northern Region during the colonial period. The city retained its status as the informal political center of the northern Nigeria even after the regions were abolished and were replaced by states. The consulate was the center of U.S. outreach toward the predominately Muslim part of Nigeria, including exchanges, promotion of commercial opportunities, and it was the center of a lively public diplomacy outreach.


However, largely as a short-sighted cost-cutting measure, when the new embassy in Abuja became operational, the consulate in Kaduna was closed. ... Though understandable from the perspective of security–especially in the aftermath of Benghazi–suspending the opening of a consular facility in the North deprives the United States of an on-the-ground presence in a critical part of the Islamic world and at the very time that the Sahel (of which northern Nigeria is a part) is of increasingly strategic importance. As such, it is a setback to long-term U.S. interests." Image from entry, with caption: Nigeria's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Viola Onwuliri (2nd L) greets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she arrives at Abuja International Airport in Abuja August 9, 2012.

What IG Overlooked In State Dept. Facebook Flare-up: Inspector General's slap at State Department bureau for spending $630,000 on Facebook Likes misses important lessons of social media's role - Connie A. Deshpande, informationweek.com: "The State Department is often recognized for its forward-leaning use of social media to connect with populations around the world. However, the Department's Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) might have leaned a little too far forward. That's according to a recent State Department Inspector General's report, which took issue recently with the bureau's decision to spend $630,000 on two campaigns to build its base of Facebook fans. The promotion campaigns were a success at one level: They helped increase the number of fans of the bureau's English Facebook pages from about 100,000 to more than 2 million. At question, however, was how many of those fans were meaningful to the Department's mission. The IG faulted State Department employees for 'buying fans' and focusing on the raw numbers of social media fans instead of public diplomacy goals."

Emma Bruce of Short Hills Selected as a CBYX Youth Ambassador - Judy Musa, thealternativepress.com: "Emma Bruce of Short Hills [N.J.] , a student at Millburn High School and the German Language School of Morris County has been selected as one of its 250 Youth Ambassadors for the 2013-2014 school year by the U.S. State Department-funded Congress Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (CBYX). Emma will live in Germany with a host family identified through the youth exchange program


AFS during the yearlong immersion program. She will have the opportunity to visit with Congressional representatives in Washington DC, as well as members of the German Bundestag (Parliament). ... According to former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 'A testament to our relationship with Germany, and our mutual commitment to public diplomacy... CBYX has been so successful that we chose it as a model for other youth exchange programs.' Former Secretary Clinton called exchanges like CBYX 'an important tool of U.S. diplomacy. Few other experiences can substitute for seeing another country first-hand, learning more about its culture, and meeting people face-to-face.'" Bruce image from entry

From defunct to ridiculous – how IBB officials are ruining good name of U.S. international broadcasting - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com/bbgwatch: "It did not occur to International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) bureacrats that Americans might not like the removal of the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act restrictions on domestic distribution of U.S. government-funded news for audiences abroad. They were not prepared for Voice of America (VOA) programs being inaccurately described in media reports as propaganda. They wanted the removal of the domestic distribution restrictions so badly, it did not occur to them that the poorly planned and executed move might make all U.S. international broadcasting controversial in America and undermine public support for such broadcasts. It certainly did not occur to them that they might open excellent and much needed news programs for overseas audiences to ridicule in American media."

Strategic Collapse - The Federalist, usgbroadcasts.com: "What is taking place in the Middle East shows that over a decade of targeted broadcasting to the region via Radio Sawa and Alhurra television has failed to deliver the goods ('supporting freedom and democracy') and has cost the American taxpayers millions of dollars in the process. ... [T]he Chinese government can marshal overwhelming resources to a particular task. ... [W]hatever the IBB [on the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), see] is doing has been overwhelmed, out-done and out-maneuvered by the Chinese government. ... In the current state of affairs, this IBB model is more than a strategic defeat. It is a rout. When things get this bad, one thing is clear: the IBB paradigm needs to be taken off the table. The only logical alternative is a salvage operation: and that means potentially migrating VOA to the State Department and giving it a reconstituted mission in public diplomacy."

Taiwan's Grandriders' to hit the road in California (update) - Lee Hsin-Yin, focustaiwan.tw: "Ten elderly Taiwanese motorcyclists, affectionately dubbed the Grandriders, will depart late Thursday for the U.S. where they will go on a tour along the west coast as part of their efforts to share their enthusiasm for life, the organizers said. The tour will take them along the California coast from San Francisco to San Jose, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, according to the Hondao Senior Citizen's Welfare Foundation


in Taichung. The Grandriders, whose average age is 87, do not have U.S. motorbike licences so they will ride pillion with American motorcyclists. ... Wu Jing-heng, 86, said he cannot wait to visit the U.S. to promote Taiwanese culture and show how Taiwan prospered with the help of America. 'I have already asked a young friend how to say greetings like 'hello' and 'how are you,' in English,' he said. At a sendoff for the Grandriders on Thursday, Joseph Bookbinder, public diplomacy section chief at the American Institute in Taiwan, said he expects the upcoming exchange between Taiwanese and American senior citizens to deepen mutual understanding between both sides." Uncaptioned image from article

A gaffe-prone Japan is a danger to peace in Asia: The Abe government’s disastrous public diplomacy risks alienating not just China but also the US - Gideon Rachman, ft.com: "Japan’s public diplomacy hovers between the ludicrous and the sinister. In recent months, the country has specialised in foreign policy gaffes that seem designed to give maximum offence to its Asian neighbours while causing maximum embarrassment to its western allies. Last week provided another example. Japan unveiled the largest naval vessel it has built since the second world war. The ship is nominally a destroyer – but it is an aircraft carrier in all but name. Beefing up the Japanese navy is arguably a legitimate response to China’s arms build-up. But, at a time of rising tensions in Asian seas, Japan should tread carefully. So what genius decided to call this new ship “Izumo” – the same name as a Japanese warship that took part in the invasion of China in the 1930s? China was quick to charge Japan with deliberate provocation. ... Just a couple of months earlier, it was Shinzo Abe who committed an offensive gaffe. The Japanese prime minister was photographed giving a thumbs-up from the cockpit of a trainer-jet with the number 731 painted prominently on the side. But 731 was the number of a unit of the Japanese imperial army, notorious for carrying out biological and chemical experiments on humans. ... One longtime resident of Tokyo, with good contacts in the government, calls this 'Japan’s most nationalistic government since 1945'. He adds that some of those in Mr Abe’s circle give the impression that 'the only thing wrong with the second world war was that Japan lost'. This kind of thinking risks alienating not just China, but also the US – upon whose protection Japan relies. Indeed, senior American officials now seem just as concerned by Japanese nationalism as by the Chinese variety."

Israeli Public Diplomacy head questioned over his anti-Japan comments - japandailypress.com:

Rowan Williams is wrong. If Christians in Britain face persecution, they should not be afraid to complain: Lord Williams’s comments highlight how Christians are on the back foot in this country - Fr. Alexander Lucie-Smith, catholicherald.co.uk: "Christians find themselves on the back foot in this country. If we defend ourselves, we are self-pitying complainers, and if we do not defend ourselves, we will suffer too. So what is the solution to this problem? Rabbi Julia Neuberger ... says that believers in Britain may just 'need to make their case better'. I agree with her analysis. In a war of ideas, which this is, the courts are the battlefield of last resort. We need better argument, better what the Americans call 'public diplomacy', or us Catholic call 'apologetics'. (Some might like to term it propaganda; why not? Propaganda fidei [sic]


sounds good to me.) During the Cold War, America and her allies were constantly belittled and ridiculed by intellectuals and the media, no one more so than Ronald Reagan, as I am old enough to remember. At school, we were all taught the history of China using a text book that drew heavily on Edgar Snow, a man who is now seen for what he was, a propagandist for Mao’s murderous policies. Until the end, the anti-democrats were winning the Cold War, at least on the level of ideas. Right into the 1970s people in Italy and France were voting for Communist parties. The West’s 'public diplomacy' was never particualrly [sic] successful, which is why Che Guevara tee shirts sell at a greater rate than Ronald Reagan ones today. And yet, and yet. The Cold War only had one real winner." Image from

RELATED ITEMS

What does the American public want in Egypt? Not much - Chris Cillizza, Washington Post: There is little interest in the United States involving itself in what is happening in the Egypt and equally little belief that such involvement could change anything.Given the fatigue over Iraq and Afghanistan we’ve seen in the American public in recent years, it seems there is a broad and steady reluctance to get involved in foreign conflicts that isn’t likely to change.Egyptian demonstrator image from


Obama’s dangerous passivity on Egypt and Syria on display - Jackson Diehl, Washington Post: It could be argued that George W. Bush reacted to the attacks of Sept. 11 with a too-radical reshaping of his worldview and international ambitions. Obama’s response to the Arab revolutions has veered to the opposite extreme: a clinging to his overtaken priorities, coupled with a stubborn refusal to recognize that the Arab crises must be a top priority of his foreign policy.

A lack of spine on Egypt - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: U.S. officials can no longer harbor illusions about the nature of the Egyptian coup or the prospects for genuine democracy. Obama should speak the truth and cut off military aid. “America cannot determine the future of Egypt,” the president said. Which means the least we can do is stand for what we believe.

Events in Egypt demand a shift in U.S. policy - Robert Kagan, Washington Post: The president’s failure to suspend aid to the Egyptian military is a strategic error that weakens U.S. credibility, after repeated calls by the U.S. administration for Egyptian authorities to avoid bloodshed have been disregarded.

Military Madness in Cairo - Editorial, New York Times: Washington’s influence on Egyptian public opinion generally is limited. That has less to do with the low-key tone Mr. Obama has taken than with the preceding decades of uncritical United States support for past dictators like Mr. Mubarak and the military forces supporting them, to the neglect of most of Egypt’s 84 million people. It is past time for Mr. Obama to start correcting that imbalance. Suspending assistance to Egypt’s anti-democratic military would be a good place to start.

Egypt’s Blood, America’s Complicity - Amr Darrag, New York Times: Shocking and irresponsible rhetoric from the State Department in Washington and from other Western diplomats regarding Egypt — calling on the Muslim Brotherhood and demonstrators to “renounce” or “avoid” violence (even when also condemning the state’s violence) — has given the junta cover to perpetrate heinous crimes in the name of “confronting” violence.

Is This the End of the Arab Spring? - Room for Debate, New York Times: With a state of emergency declared in Egypt, continued unrest in Bahrain, democracy under threat in Tunisia, Libya, and possibly evenTurkey, and an all-out civil war in Syria, is there any hope left for the anti-authoritarian movement that swept through the Middle East?

Russian sports official puts Nazis, gays in same category - David Wharton, latimes.com: There isn't much chance the uproar over Russia's new anti-gay law will die down before the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The legislation, adopted in June, threatens criminal prosecution for discussing gay rights around children or supporting gay rights with parades or other public events.


Alexey Sorokin, Russia's football World Cup chief, said it “has been largely misinterpreted" and that "it is designed against active propaganda of homosexuality, not against homosexuality itself. That is a big difference." Sorokin image from entry

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"[P]ower tends to confuse itself with virtue, and a great nation is peculiarly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor."

--Segregationist Senator William Fulbright, creator of the international exchange program named after him

AMERICANA

A Glut of Antidepressants - By Rini Caryn Rabin, blogs.nytimes.com: Over the past two decades, the use of antidepressants has skyrocketed. One in 10 Americans now takes an antidepressant medication; among women in their 40s and 50s, the figure is one in four.

"We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves."

--François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), possibly predicting, before its time, the Facebook phenomenon; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

American dancers engage in bi-cultural ‘Turning Point’ - Pavel Gazdyuk, Pavel Koshkin, Russia Beyond the Headlines: "[T]he prestigious youth scholarship to Study Language Abroad Program for Youth (NSLI-Y) [is] funded by the U.S. Department of State and administrated by the New York-based Russian-American Foundation (RAF). ... According to Rina Kirshner, vice president of the Russia-American Foundation, ... cultural exchanges are crucial for U.S.-Russia bilateral relations because they 'bring American youth to Moscow not as 'visitors' but as locals - so they understand modern day Russia, so they live with actual Russian families and most importantly so they learn the language.'


Many of the students said the language training helped them understand the nuances of Russian ballet training more deeply—and that ballet training helps them with the language as well. ... While U.S.-Russia collaboration is declining in some areas and the Bolshoi Theater’s image has suffered from recent scandals, the Russian American Foundation endeavors to strengthen cultural ties between countries. ... 'We would be thrilled if the Russian government would support such collaboration by sending Russian ballet students to the U.S. to study,' she said. 'RAF already brings every summer 8-10 participants on scholarships - but we could host many more if both governments would expand the program. And if not government, perhaps businesses and individuals who are involved in Russian-American commercial relations and know the importance of expanding personal, cultural and pre-professional horizons of the youth of both countries.'  ... 'The NSLI-Y Program was launched by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in 2006 as a general cultural and language immersion program,' said RAF Vice President Rina Kirshner. 'In 2010 RAF submitted the idea of being allowed to design a special NSLIY Program for ballet dancers which would also include ballet training.'” Image from article, with caption: The Russian ballet technique attracts American students. Via BB on Facebook

Manning Begat Snowden - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: "kyzl orda said...On the Guide to Smiting Whistleblowers: [D]uring the Fulbright Gaza scandal, ... State experienced a worldwide furor over cancelling the Fulbright Gaza program, catching then Secretary Rice by surprise and resulting in her having to intervene and reinstate the program. Never mind the Secretary of State herself cited how critical the problem is to US pd efforts."

Lesson 177 Communicating Foreign Policy - larrydlauer.wordpress.com: "Would it not be possible for a central plan to focus on communicating two clear U.S objectives: one objective for countries that support U.S. values, and another for those that are only strategically important to national interests? Then, as in all institutional strategic communication, key points that advance these two objectives can be repeated relentlessly through a variety of old and new media… all aimed to cut through the clutter of confusing daily news reports. The weeks and months ahead for me will largely focus on assessing the effectiveness of strategic communication in U.S. foreign policy more systematically, and on exploring ways expanded public diplomacy initiatives and the internationalization of higher education can help improve world understanding. I invite you to follow my journey."

VOA Kurdish Service Once a Lifeline for News, Now Facing Challengers- Mutlu Civiroglu "Once a leading news and information source for Kurds, VOA Kurdish now faces an onslaught of challengers, which are stealing listeners from the American broadcaster – especially in a place like Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, which has always been the primary target of VOA. These days, more than 100 radio and television stations operate from the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, some operating round-the-clock with news and other programs, offering a challenge to the VOA’s short daily broadcasts. ... But the VOA does not only have to worry about local challengers. International contenders for the world’s estimated 30 million Kurdish listeners include SBS radio of Australia, Sweden’s SR International Radio, and Iran’s state-run radio, which broadcasts in both Sorani and Kurmanji. Voice of Russia and TRT 6 of Turkey even offer programs in Zazaki. ... [T]here is also plentiful criticism of the VOA’s Kurdish programs, especially among Kurds in Turkey and Syria, who feel that the broadcaster concentrates mostly on Iraqi Kurdistan, virtually ignoring independent views on Kurdish-related news in Turkey and the civil war in Syria." Image from article, with caption: Once a leading news and information source for Kurds, VOA Kurdish now faces an onslaught of challengers, which are stealing listeners from the American broadcaster – especially in a place like Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region, which has always been the primary target of VOA. Via TL on Facebook

What Propaganda Means and Why It Matters - jamesthomassnyder.com: "Military Information Support Operations (MISO, also known as psychological operations) is a subset of Information Operations (Infoops) . ... MISO is primarily concerned with 'foreign audiences' – that is, the civilian population. Infoops, when not also including all the other tools of information warfare (including network warfare, electronic jamming, military deception and the like), is specifically targeted against enemy forces. So: is a MISO campaign to warn civilians of unexploded ordinance propaganda? Is an infoops leaflet urging enemy insurgents to join the government militia propaganda? It should be noted that beyond the doctrinal confusion – the Joint Manual insists that MISO must work with Public Affairs, whose entire credibility relies on truth, but can also engage in military deception, like Infoops – this gets hopelessly tangled in the complex operational environment of modern operations, particularly in counterinsurgency. In peacekeeping, stability operations, and counterinsurgency, there is simply no neat division between civilian and combatant, so there is no functional difference between MISO and Infoops. The unfortunate fact that MISO and Infoops sound so much alike in name just adds to the confusion. ... By showing what soldiers, Marines and Airmen do on these operations, and their intended effect, good journalism could even help clarify the confusion about the fundamental difference between Infoops and MISO. I’ve read about some activities that look like public diplomacy, and I’m not entirely clear on how public affairs fit into complex counterinsurgency or stability operations environments, either. None of this fits neatly under the rubric 'propaganda,' nor should it. And to try to do so entirely misses the point. ... I have written extensively and in depth about the doctrinal, operational and theoretical problems of propaganda and the operational communications community in my forthcoming book on public diplomacy." See below "Related Items" article, "Propaganda that works: Christmas decorations" - Tom Vanden Brook, usatoday.com

TOR: The Trap closes - Neil Harris, New Worker Features: "Last Year a New Worker article exposed TOR (The Onion Router) as a US Government 'honey trap', designed to support America’s friends and entrap its enemies. Our interest developed further after some excellent research by 'Cryptome.org'. On the face of it TOR appears to be a subversive hacktivist site, offering anonymity to anarchists, political dissidents, leakers, internet activists and the underground criminal world. In fact, the systems used on the site were developed by a unit of The US Office of Naval Intelligence as part of US 'Public Diplomacy'. Currently TOR’s three biggest sources of funding are: The US Department of Defence, The US State Department and The Board of Broadcasting – another propaganda arm of the US Government. ... Posted by london communists at 4:18 AM."

9 Things I Learned Crossing the Last Three Feet - James Thomas Snyder, smallwarsjournal.com: "When I started at NATO in 2005, the Allies’ largest operation was in Kosovo. An Italian was commanding International Security Assistance Force troops in Afghanistan, then considered a quasi-peacekeeping mission. When I left Brussels six years later, NATO was fighting a hot war in Libya and an insurgency in Afghanistan, running counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden, and potentially a cyberwar everywhere else. In between the Allies had executed a series of humanitarian missions, contained the 2008 Russo-Georgian war, endured terrorist attacks, stood up a training mission in Iraq, edged Kosovo toward controversial independence, and expanded NATO membership and partnerships across Eurasia and the Middle East. In short, my colleagues and I had a lot of explaining to do in the Public Diplomacy Division. ... Here are nine points that are worth sharing: 1. Good public diplomacy isn’t usually about US foreign policy. ... 2.Public opinion about the United States is complex, profound, dynamic, and constantly evolving. ... 3.What people do and what people think don’t always jibe. ... 4.We’re being swiftboated. 5.We can fight back with our 'weaknesses'. People think Americans don’t value art, music and culture, and we don’t give them any reason to. The Art in Embassies program, for example, literally places art in embassies where nobody can see it. Yet the United States has the deepest pockets and most advanced art preservation resources in the world. We could pour those pockets, resources and expertise into restoring and preserving the world’s cultural patrimony, the rest of which doesn’t have nearly the kind of protection and curation that the average American urban historical society can put behind its collection. This generosity would go far not just to help preserve the world’s cultural assets but to change how people think about philistine Americans. If we lead with this 'weakness,' we can dramatically upend damaging stereotypes about who we are and what we value. 6. Don’t rely on personality. ... 7.When we go to war, soldiers become public diplomats. ... More to the point: the U.S. military doesn’t have an operational doctrine for military public diplomacy but several concurrent – and often contradictory – doctrines involving public affairs, information operations and psychological operations that can dramatically affect the strategic, tactical, and political environment of countries in which we fight. 8. The Internet’s lameness almost cancels out its awesomeness. ... 9.Americans aren’t as dimly provincial as we seem to Jon Stewart."

Nordic Jazz Lights Up the City of Duke Ellington - Lisa A. Fanning, nordicstylemag.com: "For many jazz aficionados and Scandophiles, the annual DC Nordic Jazz festival marks both the beginning of the summer solstice and the time when the city pauses to welcome the cool sounds of artists from across Northern Europe’s Nordic region. In a city that has been a hotbed of jazz since the early 1900s, musical events celebrating this rich American tradition are not uncommon.


What the Nordic jazz festival offers Washingtonians that is different from other festivals is a rare opportunity to expand their jazz repertoire and discover Nordic culture through music. This year’s festival goers were treated to the biggest line-up of groups and solo artists representing Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden since the event began in 2006. These eight internationally acclaimed performers entertained audiences at sold-out concerts at the House of Sweden, Twins Jazz, and the Embassy of Finland." Image from entry, with caption: Reception at House of Sweden. Gabriella Augustsson, public diplomacy and press counselor at the Embassy of Sweden.

[Special Contribution] the language of diplomats [Google translation from the Korean] - "[P]ast the end of June, the [South Korean]President visited China Park Geun-hye speak fluent Chinese and Chinese culture, philosophy and history cultural sensitivity, including a good knowledge of Chinese people's national image and gained confidence boost. Public Diplomacy (public diplomacy) or public Diplomacy actively communicate with other people to achieve goals through diplomatic means activities. In this regard, 50 years ago, President Kennedy's Berlin speech or speech last night President of Tsinghua University as examples of effective public diplomacy can be fusion and cross-cultural communication takes place simultaneously in all walks of life times, all the foreign public You can refuse the role. If so, how effective public diplomacy could be done? To practice effective public diplomacy is the primary condition for the understanding of other cultures, concise message delivery, witty sense of humor, confidence and listening to this in a timely manner that the language is to use the first, effective communication we first have to understand the culture of the other."

Israeli spin doctor silenced over Facebook posts: An Israeli government spin doctor has been barred from speaking out in public after a series of vitriolic diatribes on Facebook that included an attack on the Church of Scotland and condemnation of memorials honouring the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb victims - Robert Tait, telegraph.co.uk: "The official gagging order has been imposed on Daniel Seaman, outgoing deputy director of the now-defunct ministry of public diplomacy and dispora affairs, after his comments drew the attention of the Japanese embassy in Tel Aviv.


It means he will be unable to speak or write on Israel's behalf as he prepares to move to the office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, as head of the interactive media unit, a job whose remit involves commenting on foreign affairs. ... He attacked the Church of Scotland in May over a report which suggested that Jews had no divine claim to the land of historic Palestine. He wrote: 'The Church of Scotland? The Calvinist, Presbytarian [sic] Church of Scotland? Why do you think we give a flyin **** what you have to say?' ... Mr Seaman, a member of Mr Netanyahu's Right-wing Likud party, is a former head of Israel's government press office, when he was noted for his often confrontational relationships with foreign correspondents covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."  Image from article

Latma ends pioneering online satirical newscast - Jerusalem Post: "Latma, the Hebrew-language satirical media criticism website is ending its weekly web-based satirical newscast, The Tribal Update, after 200 episodes. The show’s cancellation, due to the financial burdens of production, has caused an uproar among its many fans. Latma was founded in 2009 by Caroline Glick, The Jerusalem Post’s senior contributing editor.


Latma, which means 'slap' in Hebrew slang, has been a pioneering voice for Israeli public diplomacy and in advancing the public debate in Israel. ... Over the years, The Tribal Update produced dozens of similar musical hits. The most prominent among them was the show’s first foray into English- language production. 'We Con the World,' a parody of Michael Jackson’s and Lionel Richie’s 1983 hit, 'We Are the World.' 'We Con the World,' was produced three days after IDF naval commandos boarded the pro-Hamas ship Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010. With the support of the Turkish government, the al-Qaida-linked IHH group had set sail for Gaza to provide aid and comfort to Hamas-ruled area. The commandos who boarded were attacked with knives, metal rods and other weapons by the terrorists on the deck of the ship. Rather than report the facts of the incident, the European, US and international media condemned Israel and portrayed the terror-supporters aboard the ship as peace activists. 'We Con the World,' which depicted the passengers as knife wielding terrorists and hippies was picked up by news organizations worldwide within moments of its launch. It received more than 6 million views, and fundamentally changed the international discourse regarding what happened aboard the ship. It won Latma renown throughout Israel and the Jewish world as the most effective voice for Israeli hasbara, or public diplomacy. Despite the accolades, no government ministry offered to support Latma’s work or cooperate with the group."Image from article

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting launches new media wing, cost to government Rs 22.5 crore. [All GOI Social Media Handles here] - thetechgets.com: "The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal for establishing a ‘New Media Wing’ that will address the communication and dissemination requirements of the government on social media. The proposal for its establishment was drawn on the basis of the experience of its pilot program on the social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. The new media wing anointed as the 'Bureau of New and Concurrent Media’ will be headed by a senior officer of joint secretary rank with the administrative and operational support provided by a media unit under the ministry—the research reference and training division.


The expenditure to set up and run the New Media Wing will cost a whopping Rs 22.5 crore which was allocated during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) and approved by the CCEA under Development Communication AND Information Dissemination plan scheme of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The Union minister for information and broadcasting Manish Tewari says, 'Social media is being used by several citizens to consume news. This is a way to increase the government’s presence online, officially.' On manpower needed he comments, 'We have IIM C graduates to help but we might outsource it to expert social media agencies if required.' Top Government of India accounts on Twitter and Facebook along with their bios/descriptions: ... https://twitter.com/IndianDiplomacy – Official account of Public Diplomacy Division of Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India (https://www.facebook.com/MEAINDIA) ... Syed Akbaruddin https://twitter.com/AkbarMEA – Official Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, India>." Image from entry

The China8 Interviews #6: on international relations with Jonathan Lin #RisingChina #InternationalRelations - wanderingchina.org: "In this edition with Jonathan Lin of http://threetorches.wordpress.com, we talk about Chinese soft power, the Chinese diaspora, and bilateral ties between the US and China. ... 6. [Q:] There are an estimated 50 million overseas Chinese today, significant to some because it makes the largest diasporic group the world has ever known. Firstly, what role do you think these overseas Chinese play in Chinese public diplomacy and second, do you think this number is set to increase as China rises? [A:] To answer the second question first: a resounding yes. China’s domestic problems are troubling to all but most acutely to those who were born and raised there. You’ve made lots of money in China? To be safe, better get all that and yourself out of China. Environmental worries can speak for itself. Food security concerns compound these anxieties and force parents to consider the welfare of their offspring, prompting them to really think hard about uprooting for foreign countries and starting from scratch in a new setting, language, and culture. The question of any diplomatic influence to me seems far less certain. The critical mass of Chinese — the vast majority of which are businesspeople — in Africa will only continue to grow, and as it does official Chinese policy on the continent will more likely cater towards their interests and by extension China as a whole, while quite possibly reducing consideration for local African governments and environments. Large populations of Chinese elsewhere though — particularly in foreign countries — can go either way, either contributing almost nothing diplomatically because they are not very attentive or invested in Chinese international relations, or maybe adding voices to issues like immigration reform or trade that would benefit China’s future human capital and economic prospects."

Invitation: 'Blessing Of The Bread' Celebration, Budapest. 20 August - xpatloop.com: "The blessing of the bread is a traditionally integral part of the celebrations of 20 August. Traditionally, the first bread made of the newly harvested wheat was prepared for the day of St Stephen.


The bread adorned with a ribbon in the national colours is the symbol of the national holiday. ... On Clark Ádám Square, at 2:30 pm on 20 August 2013, ceremonial speeches will be given by Mónika Balatoni, Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Relations of the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, and Gábor Tamás Nagy, Mayor of the 1st district (Budavár). Image from entry

Foreign service officers detail joys, perils of diplomatic life - chqdaily.com: Four U.S. foreign service officers — the official name for American diplomats — spoke on a panel in the Hall of Christ at 4 p.m. Wednesday, attempting to change that perception and give the week’s theme a human face. The FSOs regaled the audience with some war stories — for lack of a phrase more fitting for diplomats. They also tried to address, as Johnson [Mark Johnson, who will soon become a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico], the panel’s moderator, put it: 'Why the heck did you choose a career in foreign service?' Johnson was joined on


the panel by Charles Ray, former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe; Sharon Hudson-Dean, public diplomacy officer; and David Meale, counselor for economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine." Image from entry, with caption: Charles Ray, former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, speaks Wednesday afternoon in the Hall of Christ. Ray and three colleagues from the U.S. foreign service, including public diplomacy officer Sharon Hudson-Dean, to Ray’s right, discussed why they serve in U.S. diplomacy.

It Just Never Gets Easier - Life After Jerusalem -- The Musings Of a Two-Spirit American Indian, Public Diplomacy-Coned Foreign Service Officer: "Of course, I am talking about bidding. What, you think I forgot about it? Or forgot to write about it? Nope, neither. In fact, there are times when it threatens to be all consuming. The bid list came out on August 1, and I was really excited to see that a number of the positions that were listed on the projected vacancies and had looked promising were still there. ... So many of our spare time conversations for the past week have revolved around what to do next. No option is perfect. There will be compromises either way. And there is no guarantee we will get any of what we want (though I did have a phone interview yesterday that felt really positive. It was essentially for any position in Europe because the bureau has a new system for Public Diplomacy jobs that involves a new web-based reference center....lucky me, my experiences with it are helping them work out the bugs, sigh. A couple quick notes about the 360 Reference Center for you if you are bidding PD jobs in Europe. That "save" button? Don't use it. It submits your application without you getting to finish it. Also, don't start unless you have time to finish...the application times out if you are away too long - or take too long. The description of why you are qualified - have it in a word document or something you can use to cut and paste from in case you lose it. And if you put in a state.gov email address for a reference, it will automatically populate the rest of the fields for that reference from the GAL, even if that person is on home leave, and you won't be able to add a correct phone number or change the person's position)."

Weissman Center Spotlight: Alyssa Alicino - Jekeso Jackie, blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu: "Students who come to the Weissman Center for International Business often leave with more than one experience under their belt. Some students study abroad or intern overseas, participate in one of our fellowships or any combination of the three. Alyssa Alicino, Colin Powell Fellow and intern at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, recently sat down with the Weissman Center Blog


to tell us about her experiences. The Colin Powell Fellowship provides two Baruch students each year a generous stipend to cover living and travel expenses while interning with the U.S. Department of State.  Internships with the State Department are generally unpaid, so the Fellowship provides welcome financial support for Baruch students interested in learning more about careers in the Foreign Service.  Through our Study Abroad program, Alyssa also attended classes in Spain and Guatemala.  In addition, she taught English in Chile through our Work Abroad program. During her internship at the U.S. Embassy in Argentina, Alyssa had the incredible opportunity to work with Basketball Without Borders, a global outreach program run by the NBA.  She is pictured above with Argentinian Gold Medalist and NBA All-Star Manu Ginobili."  Alicino image from entry

Statesmen's Forum: Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari - csis.org: "His Excellency Hoshyar Zebari Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq ... Hoshyar Zebari serves as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq, a position he has held since September 2003.


Prior to taking up his current position, he was head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)’s International Relations Bureau for eleven years. In that role, he carried out public diplomacy and media outreach and organized conferences for the Iraqi opposition." Zebari image from entry

Welcome to the New YFU! - yfuusa.org: "YFU [an international exchange program] was founded, in many ways, to heal the wounds of a broken world. We welcomed our first students more than 62 years ago in the wake of World War II, wanting to provide for a group of young people from Germany a glimpse of a life without war and conflict. One need only look at the news media today to realize that 'shrinking the globe' and bringing people closer together is as much a transformative experience today as it was in the early 1950s. ... The new YFU website www.yfuusa.org contains valuable resources and materials to discuss public diplomacy and opportunities with students and families so that they can become global citizens. In many ways, what we are doing with our refreshed brand and tools mirrors the transformation of the organization overall. In the coming months we look forward to sharing even more news about the ways that we are working to cement YFU’s future for years to come."

Egypt: The Coming Darkness - karl-naylor.blogspot.com: "About the Blog [:] This blog is mostly about the New Great Game in Central Asia, the impact of oil dependency upon both Britain and the oil rich nations, the purported interconnections between foreign policy and terrorism, the growth of Islamism and the mendacious nature of 'Public Diplomacy'."

Mark Foehringer on Preparing a Dancin’ Boy for the Professional Dance World - Nina Amir, Boys and Ballet: "Mark Foehringer is an internationally active choreographer and dance educator who has directed his San Francisco based contemporary dance organization, Mark Foehringer Dance Project|SF(MFDP|SF), since 1996. Foehringer choreographed and taught throughout the US and abroad, working with organizations that include: Rambert School of Contemporary Dance in London, Ballet Nacional del Peru, Ballet San Marcos of Lima and Cisne Negro Dance Company of Brazil. Outside of Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, Foehringer’s company has been seen in Aruba 1997, NYC 1999, 2000, 2005 and 2012, Peru 2007,2008 and 2012 as part of the US Public Diplomacy Program."

Of Unexpected Struggles and the Fight To Understand God's Mercy - comingoffaith.com: "Soraya Ahyaudin is soon to embark on her journey for a second Masters in Public Diplomacy at University of Southern California this Fall. She is a bookworm at heart, with a love for sci-fi and romance. She spends her days looking for the answer in understanding the million dollar question, why can't we all just get along, through the world of culture where all our differences makes us connected."

RELATED ITEMS

Missing in Action: What happened to Washington's policy in Egypt? - Cynthia P. Schneider, Foreign Policy: In an Egypt ruptured by violence, veering towards civil war, the two opposing sides -- Islamists and secularists -- can at least agree on one point: The United States is the enemy. U.S. Ambassador to Cairo Anne Patterson defended the Muslim Brotherhood from its Egyptian critics, and -- although President Barack Obama has continued to avoid calling Morsy's ouster a coup -- other members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment have not pulled punches in lambasting Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's takeover.


If Obama had stayed true to the principles he once espoused in Cairo, Washington might have retained some of the trust it gained back then when it helped, however gingerly, push Mubarak from power. Instead, neither the military nor the Islamists nor the opposition heeds the United States. And as the heart of the Arab world is torn apart, America is missing in action. Image from article

Notable and Quotable: Marc Lynch The U.S. should suspend all aid to Egypt and keep the embassy in Cairo closed - Wall Street Journal: With blood in Egypt's streets and a return to a state of emergency, it's time for Washington to stop pretending. Its efforts to maintain its lines of communication with the Egyptian military, quietly mediate the crisis, and help lay the groundwork for some new, democratic political process have utterly failed. Egypt's new military regime, and a sizable and vocal portion of the Egyptian population, have made it very clear that they just want the United States to leave it alone. For once, Washington should give them their wish.

America's Interests in Egypt: The U.S. should use its small influence to prevent a civil war - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: The U.S. needs a stable Egypt that isn't a breeding ground for al Qaeda, honors its peace treaty with Israel, and has a political process that settles domestic disputes without taking to violence and the streets. The U.S. can nudge the ruling generals in that direction without taking sides with either the military or the Brotherhood.

The horrors of Egypt were predictable but must be solved from within - Bob Taylor, Washington Times: The violence we are now witnessing in Egypt was predictable and inevitable. There will be more, and it will be horrible, but it may also be a sign that radical Islam in the Middle East will ultimately not prevail.

Working-Class Cairo Neighborhood Tries to Make Sense of a Brutal Day - Kareem Fahim, New York Times: Egypt seemed more divided than ever after a brutal day of violence here that left hundreds of people dead. Supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, mourned those killed, vowed revenge, planned their next moves. Many other Egyptians, though, directed their ire at the protesters who had camped out in the streets for weeks. For them, what occurred made sense. Some people seemed to buy the relentless propaganda of the state news media, saying they had come to realize that the Brotherhood was actually the mysterious “third party” blamed by successive Egyptian leaders for all manner of evil deeds. At least one man just seemed anxious to heap praise on the country’s leaders, irrespective of their actions, as if Egypt were still frozen in its authoritarian past.

Feinstein and Durbin: How to close Gitmo: It's not America's military that has failed, it's our policymakers - Dianne Feinstein and Dick Durbin, latimes.com: As chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and chairman of the defense appropriations subcommittee, respectively, we are committed to preventing terrorist attacks. We believe terrorists deserve swift and sure justice, and severe prison sentences. But holding detainees on an island off U.S. shores for years — without charge — is an abomination. It is not an effective administration of justice, does not serve our national security interests and is not consistent with our country's history as a champion of human rights. It is time to close Guantanamo.

America's nation-building at gunpoint: An Army colonel assesses the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - Gian Gentile, latimes.com: Many years ago the British historian and strategist B.H. Liddell Hart pointed out that the object of war should be to produce a "better state of peace."


If that is what earns a war a passing grade, then the United States deserves a failing grade for Afghanistan and Iraq. Image from article, with caption: The toppling of Saddam Hussein didn't bring peace to Iraq.

Propaganda that works: Christmas decorations - Tom Vanden Brook, usatoday.com: "At long last, a measure of effectiveness — and a propaganda campaign — that just about everybody can understand. Christmas decorations and messages in the Colombian jungle prompted a 30% increase in FARC insurgents putting down their weapons. Really. It's that simple. Operation CHRISTMAS, launched in December 2010 and ending Jan. 25, 2011, involved decorating jungle trees with holiday lights and banners. A description of the campaign — and more important, its effects on the behavior of guerrillas — can be seen in this video. A briefing packet obtained by USA TODAY described the campaign. The campaign capitalized on the soft-spot in insurgent hearts for Christmas and was coordinated with media messages that targeted the families of young insurgents. Trees, some 75 feet tall, were decorated with thousands of blue lights tripped by a motion sensor. When guerrillas walked past, they unwittingly illuminated banners. One, strung along a known insurgent travel route, read: "IF CHRISTMAS CAN COME TO THE JUNGLE, YOU CAN COME HOME. DEMOBILIZE. AT CHRISTMAS EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE." This wasn't some shadowy campaign run by an unseen hand, as many such U.S. efforts are in Afghanistan. The Colombian military took ownership of it. Its launch was covered by CNN at the time. The FARC are no minor-league insurgents, either. They've waged a deadly war against the Colombian government for decades. And the Colombian military has struck back with vengeance. USA TODAY has repeatedly asked Pentagon officials for examples of successful propaganda, or "information operations" campaigns in Afghanistan or Iraq. The campaigns have cost the military hundreds of millions of dollars and, as the paper has reported, on programs that were poorly tracked. For the most part, the results -— the so-called measure of effectiveness — have been based on measuring attitudes, often by the same contractors who produce the propaganda. They often gauge what folks in Afghanistan or Iraq tell pollsters about how they feel about their government. One propaganda campaign in Afghanistan involved holding a concert in Kabul. Performers sang patriotic songs to welcome home security forces and boost their morale. Try measuring that. Instead, the Colombian military campaign counted the number of insurgents who laid down their weapons during the holiday season. They found 331 guerrillas had given up, a 30% increase compared with the same period the previous year. It worked because it aimed to change a behavior, not influence an attitude -- like a warm feeling about the Afghan National Police. To be sure, some Colombian rebels may have given up for a variety of reasons, some unrelated to the propaganda campaign. But statements from former guerrillas indicate that Operation CHRISTMAS had an effect. "Our command(er) wasn't angry because of this message," according to an unattributed quote in the briefing packet. "It was different to the other propaganda we had seen. ... He was touched."

Propaganda: US Military Implicated in Mass Online Spamming Scandal - silverunderground.com: We now live in an interconnected world, and some of the latest information warfare tools used by the military are beginning to have effects that spread beyond the battlefield and into the daily lives of Americans.


Pakalert Press pointed out, using research gleaned from the New York Times, that military and intelligence officials have been running fake social media accounts to spread disinformation and have also been mass spamming the comments sections of online news articles with manufactured sentiments. Image from entry

Photo of the Day: Operation Teddy Bear — Take It Or Else! - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: Via dvidshub: “U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Joseph R. Frescatore and an Afghanistan border policeman hand a child a stuffed animal outside of Spin Boldak, Afghanistan, Aug. 31.


Soldiers of B Troop, 2nd Squadron, 38th Cav. Regt. and the ABP were working together to hand out stuffed animals to the local children.”

Pro-Israel propaganda fabricates moral right to land while justifying illegal activity - Ramona Wadi, middleeastmonitor.com: The flawed concession of creating a state within an already inhabited land was perceived and flaunted as a right to a homeland. In keeping with the politics of imperialism endorsed by the UN and the US, Zionism endorsed a brutal strategy against the indigenous population while maintaining the facade of benevolence, thus garnering sympathy from various influential countries around the world. The use of force under the name of "humanitarian intervention" by the international community has been replicated under the guise of "security concerns" by Israel, effectively achieving an extension of oppression to be applied internally against the Palestinian population. What Israel has achieved is an assurance that it will continue to be rewarded for its perfected aggression, as it effectively represents and implements US interests in the region and beyond, through military cooperation with other oppressive governments.

Understanding Russia’s perspective on “gay propaganda” - Patrick Sewell, Russia Beyond the Headlines: LGBT campaigners, while justifiably angry, should bear in mind that Western protests against Russian anti-gay propaganda lawscould have the unintended consequences of pushing Russia more and more into isolation, especially as the more committed homophobes here are unlikely to take their cues from a modern Europe that they view as something akin to Sodom multiplied by Gomorrah. On the other hand, those who do travel to Europe and realize the continent has not yet been definitively godforsaken might realize that tolerance of homosexuality actually leads to more, not less, social harmony. Probably best to avoid Amsterdam on the first trip though. Ultimately, if Russia is going to embrace sexual tolerance, the impetus will have to come from within.

Book Review: The Violent Image: Insurgent Propaganda and the New Revolutionaries - blogs.lse.ac.uk: Fast-moving, self-propelled ‘violent images’ have radically changed the nature of insurgency in the modern world. The global media has revolutionised the way ideas, messages and images are disseminated, and the speed with which they travel.


Neville Bolt investigates how today’s revolutionaries have rejuvenated the nineteenth century ‘propaganda of the deed’ so that terrorism no longer simply goads states into overreacting, thereby losing legitimacy. Image from entry

When A Movie Is Or Isn't Propaganda: Drew Zahn reviews Matt Damon's 'Elysium' - wnd.com: The story of “Elysium” suggests that in a dystopian future, the earth is overpopulated by the teeming masses of poor and downtrodden, while the wealthy live in comparable paradise on a space station called “Elysium.” And let’s be honest: The idea of the haves and have nots, though often trumpeted by socialists, communists and other lefties of various stripes, is not inherently propaganda; it’s truth.


There is a massive divide between the wealth, comfort and security of a nation like the U.S. and the poverty and lawlessness of a nation like Mexico. Some have more; others don’t. That’s just a socioeconomic fact. It only becomes leftist schlock when propagandists try to blame capitalism or American imperialism for this economic divide, or when they try to drum up hatred for the wealthy in order to justify stealing from their labors to fund a welfare state. Image from article. See also.

“ELYSIUM”—Hollywood Open Borders Propaganda Concedes "Nativists" Are Right - James Kirkpatrick: Los Angeles is an overpopulated Third World wasteland, where swelling masses of non-whites scramble through the ruins of a once-great city. The rich and powerful live figuratively and literally above the ruins, experiencing luxuries and pleasures that most Angelenos can only dream of. Also Matt Damon stars in a new movie set there. The only difference is that, in his futuristic version, the rich live in space. Elysium is in its own way a masterpiece. It’s a dystopian morality play oblivious to its own absurdity, earnest to the point of kitsch, equally self-righteous and sentimental. In the world of the future, the middle class is a thing of the past, and so, apparently, is irony. Yet despite it all, Damon and writer-director Neill Blomkamp give us something timeless.


They have achieved artistic immortality in capturing the premises, the delusions, and the peculiarly poisonous moral idealism behind the ideology we call “Open Borders.” Elysium succeeds because it shows us what it is to believe that “citizenship” itself is the root cause of oppression. Image from article

Pure U.S. propaganda at its finest or worst? - Gord Fortin, edsonleader.com: Well this week’s movie was brought to you by the Unites States propaganda machine. I say that because it clearly is a piece of U.S. propaganda. Does that make it a bad thing? Let’s find out. The movie is Olympus has Fallen. The plot revolved around an attack on Washington DC by terrorists from North Korea who manage to take the White House by force, and in typical wild west style, it is up to one man a “Super Secret Service Spook” to save the day. The 1980s would have loved this movie. You see now why I say this is pure U.S. propaganda? It was released earlier this year when tensions between the two countries were high. Despite the propaganda thing, it actually was a memorable movie and it took the viewer on a decent emotional roller coaster.

These Soviet Space Propaganda Posters Look Really Cool - businessinsider.com: Among them:


6 World War II Propaganda Broadcasters - Evan Andrews, history.com: During World War II, the Allies and the Axis powers made heavy use of radio for propaganda purposes. Most of this spin was aimed at their own populations, but some was tailor made for consumption by enemy soldiers and civilians. Both sides recruited native speakers to broadcast radio messages to the opposition in the hopes of spreading disinformation and sowing discontent. These mysterious radio personalities became minor celebrities during the war, and some were even arrested and branded as traitors when the fighting ended. Find out more about six World War II broadcasters who used the radio waves as a weapon. 1. Axis Sally (Mildred Gillars) 2. Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) 3. Tokyo Rose (Iva Toguri) 4. Sefton Delmer:


As the head maestro of Britain’s “black propaganda” radio programs, Sefton Delmer used cloak-and-dagger methods to turn the airwaves into a tool for psychological warfare. Beginning in 1941, Delmer operated a phony German radio station called Gustav Siegfried Eins, or GS1. Unlike most propaganda outfits, which merely beamed their messages into enemy territory, GS1 masqueraded as an actual Nazi radio station broadcasting to fellow Germans from within the Fatherland.
To act as the voice of GS1, Delmer masterminded the creation of a fake radio personality known as “Der Chef” (“The Chief”). Played by a German defector named Peter Seckelmann, the character posed as a high-ranking Nazi and loyal Hitler supporter who appeared disillusioned with the rest of the party leadership. Der Chef built his credibility by criticizing the British and the Russians, but he also railed against Nazi officials and generals, helping to create the appearance of a rift within the German high command. Among other tactics, the phantom malcontent accused Nazi leaders of having tainted the party with acts of sexual deviancy ranging from rape to pedophilia. To cement his role as a persecuted patriot, Der Chef was even “assassinated” on air during GS1’s final broadcast in late-1943. Delmer would go on to set up several more propaganda stations including Soldatensender Calais, which posed as a German station for troops in France, and Atlantiksender, which spread targeted disinformation to Nazi U-boats in the Atlantic. 5. Philippe Henriot: In the dying days of the Nazi occupation of France, propagandist Philippe Henriot lit up the airwaves with a series of pro-German radio broadcasts aimed at pacifying the resistance. The French-born Henriot
 

was a right wing firebrand who had eagerly aligned himself with the collaborationist Vichy government. In January 1944, he was appointed as the regime’s chief propagandist and spin doctor. 6. Fred W. Kaltenbach: As early as 1939, Germany began hiring expatriate Americans to host radio programs aimed at deterring U.S. intervention in the war. These American-born fascists included Robert Henry Best, an ex-journalist who used the handle “Mr. Guess Who,” and Jane Anderson, better known as “The Georgia Peach.” Still, perhaps the most enthusiastic broadcaster was Fred W. Kaltenbach. A former Iowa high school teacher, Kaltenbach had been fired in 1936 after he tried to organize an American copy of the Hitler Youth. Following his dismissal, he moved to Berlin and became host of one of the first German radio programs produced for Americans. He soon earned the nickname “Lord Hee Haw” for his homespun style and similarity to the British propagandist “Lord Haw Haw.” Kaltenbach’s show took the form of fictional letters to his American friends back home in which he championed a policy of isolationism and railed against the evils of Jews and the British Empire. After the United States entered the conflict, he began broadcasting pro-Nazi news stories along with attacks on Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom he labeled a “warmonger.” Kaltenbach’s diatribes saw him charged with treason along with seven other American propagandists, but he never faced trial. Captured by the advancing Red Army, he disappeared shortly after the war ended and was later reported to have died in Soviet custody. Delmer (top) and Henriot (bottom) images from article

A WWII Propaganda Campaign Popularized the Myth That Carrots Help You See in the Dark - posted By: K. Annabelle Smith, blogs.smithsonianmag.com:  The truth has been stretched into a pervasive myth



that carrots hold within a super-vegetable power: improving your night-time vision. But carrots cannot help you see better in the dark any more than eating blueberries will turn you blue.  Whether or not the Germans bought it, the British public generally believed that eating carrots would help them see better during the citywide blackouts. Image from entry

Review: Propaganda: Power and Persuasion - Ciaran North, The British Library’s Propaganda exhibition opened on the 17th of May and closes on the 17th of September. The exhibition was a triumph.


It offered a balanced and interesting collection of propaganda through time. Though it did lack depth in certain areas, it presented a whole and fair collection of propaganda and was also a celebration of the skill and art of the people who have so subtly controlled the public for so long now. Image from entry

WWII propaganda posters against the dreaded Super Mario (18 Photos) - thechive.com: Among them:


AMERICANA

The U.S. ranks 1st in locking people up - rankingamerica.wordpress.com. Image from entry


MORE AMERICANA (1950s)


Via AN on Facebook

"[W]e did not wholly trust the Iraqi security forces."

--Michael Brough, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, a combat adviser in Iraq in 2011; image from

VIDEO

'Propaganda' Director Slavko Martinov - Huffington Post: "'Propaganda,' a searing indictment of western culture, consumerism and militarism, is billed as the first ever 'propumentary.' Director Slavko Martinov joins us to discuss this unique film that pushes the bounds of non-fiction."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Deadline Extended for EU Event Grants - Trevor Williams, Global Atlanta: "The deadline for grants for event series promoting the goals and geopolitical role of the European Union has been extended to Oct. 4. The EU mission in the United States is doling out grants of up to €15,000 each (about $20,000) for program series in 10 cities where it has a strong diplomatic presence. Atlanta is included in the €150,000 overall grant package, the winners of which are to be announced in November. The grants are renewable twice for up to three years. Organizations applying for the grants from a certain city are allowed to propose events across a broader region. For instance, an organization like the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, which has received the grants in the past, could conduct events in six Southeastern states if it has a compelling reason for doing so. All questions about the tender should be directed to Eva Horelova, deputy head of the press and public diplomacy section at the EU mission in Washington. She can be reached at eva.horelova@eeas.europa.eu."

Beijing's Campaign to Spread 'China Dream' Overseas May Fall Flat - rfa.org: "A new campaign by the ruling Chinese Communist Party to promote President Xi Jinping's new slogan, 'the China dream,' around the world is unlikely to succeed, analysts said on Friday. China's deputy propaganda minister Cai Mingzhao recently called on propaganda officials at all levels to 'deeply understand the weighty meaning of the strategic thinking around the Chinese dream, and to...do everything in their power to preserve its values.' He said the officials should extol and explain the idea across a number of forums, so as to 'strengthen the impact and acceptance of the Chinese dream in the international community,' official media reported.


But the campaign by the Party's powerful and secretive propaganda ministry to spread Xi's rhetoric overseas will likely fall on deaf ears, according to professor Xie Tian of the University of South Carolina. ... China's 'soft power' public diplomacy movement, exemplified in global Confucius Institutes which teach Mandarin in overseas schools, has yielded considerable benefits for Beijing, politicians have said. Beijing has also invested in the education of overseas Chinese in their cultural heritage, including language schools for those who otherwise might not write. However, official media reports didn't specify exactly who would be targeted by Cai's China dream campaign. ... Beijing spends around 40 billion yuan (U.S.$5 billion) annually on building its image overseas." Xi Jinping image from article

Israeli Public Diplomacy head questioned over his anti-Japan comments - Faith Aquino, japandailypress.com: "The Facebook posts of Daniel Seaman, Deputy Director General for Information at the Israeli Ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, caught the attention of Japan, as his posts were addressed against the memorial ceremonies observed for the WWII victims. A Japanese diplomat has also reached out to the Israeli Foreign Ministry for clarification. Seaman’s messages were obviously anti-Japan. Given his public office, Japan wanted to make sure if those messages were merely personal, lest they represent the public office of Israel."

Israeli PM recruiting university students to engage in publicity war for Tel Aviv - presstv.ir: "The Israeli regime has undertaken a new bid to recruit students to work at universities as 'covert units,' posting messages on social networking websites on behalf of Tel Aviv.


The recruited students taking part in the clandestine propaganda project for the Zionist regime will be part of the 'public diplomacy' arm of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, with leaders of the 'covert units' receive full scholarships as compensation for their online pro-Israel publicity campaign, Israeli daily Haaretz reported." Image from entry, with caption: The Israeli regime plans recruiting students to engage in an online propaganda war on its behalf. See also (1) (2) (3) (4) (5).

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti aims to overhaul DWP board - Rick Orlov, Los Angeles Daily News: "As the city is embroiled in a debate over a new contract with Department of Water and Power workers, Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday announced his nominees for the department’s Board of Water and Power Commissioners, saying he wants to pursue a very specific agenda. ... Heading the list of nominees, who will all need City Council approval, is former Rep. Mel Levine, a partner at the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher who also chairs the advisory board of the Center on Public Diplomacy at USC’s Annenberg School."

RELATED ITEMS

U.S. Embassy Hosts American Car Show - The U.S. Embassy hosted a special one-day event highlighting the sale and distribution of American vehicles in the Afghan market, drawing attention to the Afghan economy as a lucrative investment opportunity for foreign companies. Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador Tina Kaidanow


said, "What you see here today is more than a car show; it is an example of how far Afghanistan has come in economic terms, and it highlights the promise of an even brighter and more prosperous future for Afghanistan if this country can continue on the road of economic reform and commercial development." The U.S. Department of Commerce, I Group (Ford’s local distributor), and RMA Group (Chevrolet’s local distributor) have come together to bring Chevrolet and Ford vehicles to the U.S. Embassy and to highlight the continued growth of American products in Afghanistan. Ford vehicles have been available on the Afghan market since 2009, while Chevrolet is making its Afghan debut. Vehicles on display were the Chevrolet Cruze LT, Chevy Sonic LS, Ford Ranger 4 x 4 Diesel Engine Crewcab Pickup and a Ford F-150 4 x 4 Crewcab Pickup. For questions, please email KabulPress@state.gov. Via JJ on Facebook; Kaidanow image from Facebook

Muted hopes in Afghanistan - Michael Brough, Washington Post: The best outcome for the U.S. departure from Afghanistan? A safe exodus and a slow news day.

How social media led U.S. astray in Egypt - Frank Viviano, sfgate.com: Secular-minded young people with social networking accounts aren't more than a tiny segment of the national population. The real Egypt re-emerged from the shadows: an Egypt where 60 percent of the population lives in rural villages, where 96 percent of all women above 45 (and 80 percent of teenage girls) have been subjected to genital mutilation, according to U.N. statistics.


This is an Egypt where only two institutions carry weight in the deep countryside: the Muslim Brotherhood, dispensing social services from branches in nearly every village, and the Egyptian army, traditionally the only route to a better life for ambitious boys. Image from article, with caption: An opponent of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi attends the Eid al-Fitr dawn prayers marking the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and is traditionally celebrated with feasts, presents and new clothes, in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013.

Egypt’s identity crisis - Shibley Telhami, Washington Post: Much of Egypt’s crisis comes down to a battle over identity. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood overestimated the extent to which Egyptians identify with Islam. And now, with their violent repression of the Brotherhood, the generals who ousted Morsi risk underestimating it.


All Egyptians are prepared to pay a price to have their voices heard. If that can no longer happen peacefully, Egypt must brace itself for the violent radicalization that makes democracy impossible. Image from article

Democracy in Egypt Can Wait - Charles A. Kupchan, New York Times: Rather than cajoling Cairo to hold elections and threatening to suspend aid if it does not, Washington should press the current leadership to adhere to clear standards of responsible governance, including ending the violence and political repression, restoring the basic functions of the state, facilitating economic recovery, countering militant extremists and keeping the peace with Israel.


At this fragile moment in Egypt’s political awakening, the performance of its government will be a more important determinant of its legitimacy and durability than whether it won an election. Image from

It’s not about Democracy: Top Ten Reasons Washington is Reluctant to cut off Egypt Aid - Juan Cole, Informed Comment: 1. The US doesn’t give much aid to the Egyptian people per se. Only $250 mn a year out of $1.55 bn is civilian. 2. The military aid, $1.3 billion a year, is mostly in-kind, a grant of weaponry. 3. The Congress gave the Egyptian Generals a credit card to buy weapons, and they’ve run up $3 billion on it for F-16s and M1A1 tanks. 4. Even most of the civilian aid is required to be spent on US goods and materiel. 5. The aid was given as a bribe to the Egyptian elite to make nice with Israel. 6. The Israelis asked the US not to suspend the aid. 7. Congress even structured the economic aid to require some of it help joint Israeli-Egyptian enterprises in Egypt, so some of the aid to Egypt actually goes to . . . Israel. 8. It is not generally recognized, but the Egyptian military provides a security umbrella to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE against Iran (and sometimes Iraq). 9. Many in Congress don’t actually disagree with the generals’ actions in overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Freedom and Justice Party and driving it underground, since they agree it is a terrorist organization. 10. Behind the scenes Egyptian military intelligence has helped the US track down Muslim extremists and in the Mubarak era ran black sites where they tortured suspected al-Qaeda for Washington. Below image from AB on facebook


Egypt’s Military: Doing What the Wehrmacht Should Have Done in 1933 - Robert Reilly, intercollegiatereview.com: We should have some appreciation for what the Egyptian military has done to save its country and, by the way, preserve U.S. strategic interests in that area of the Middle East.

How NY Times helps Israel milk prisoner release for emotional propaganda - Ali Abunimah, electronicintifada.net: As part of the US effort to restore utterly futile “peace talks” between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinian prisoners in phases, with the first 26 to be freed on 13 August. According to Addameer, the Palestinian prisoners rights group, most of those slated for release have served more than 25 years in Israeli prisons and are near the end of their sentences.


In many cases, they are the same prisoners Israel has agreed to release in previous agreements, before reneging on those commitments. Israeli media and politicians have been doing their utmost to milk this decision for propaganda purposes, highlighting how unspeakably evil the Palestinians are and what a high and terrible price this is for Israelis. Image from article, with caption: The mother of a Palestinian prisoner at a weekly sit-in in front of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza City.

China Prepares for Psychological Warfare - Aaron Jensen, thediplomat.com: "The recent unveiling of China’s new PSYOP (Psychological Operations) aircraft, the Gaoxin-7(高新七号), marks an important step forward for People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) psychological warfare capabilities. Based on a Y-8 airframe (similar to the U.S. Military’s C-130), the Gaoxin-7’s primary mission is to conduct PSYOP missions against enemy forces. Although specific details are few and far between, People’s Republic of China (PRC) media has compared the Gaoxin-7 to the U.S. Air Force’s (USAF) EC-130J “Commando Solo” in terms of its mission and capability. The EC-130J Commando Solo is essentially a flying broadcast station which can transmit media in AM, FM, HF, TV and military communication frequencies to enemy positions.


Its transmission capability is so powerful that it is required to operate at least 200 miles off the coast of the United States during training missions so as to avoid interfering with civil communications. With the introduction of the Gaoxin-7, the PLA now wields a powerful new psychological weapon which can be deployed to produce fear and confusion in the minds of enemy troops and leaders. If used effectively, the Gaoxin-7 could greatly reduce the amount of resistance that the PLA would otherwise encounter in future battles. Image from article. Via RM on Facebook

The TED talk as propaganda vehicle: How Beijing’s Berkeley hippy wooed chardonnay liberals into embracing Chinese communism - Benjamin Carlson, globalpost.com: Apparently the TED-talk format is so seductive that it can even make Leninism sound sexy. In June at a TED talk in Edinburgh, Scotland, a flawlessly groomed venture capitalist named Eric X. Li stood before an elite Western audience.


He spent 18 minutes defending China’s authoritarian political system, praising its “adaptability, meritocracy, and legitimacy,” and claiming its superiority, in several respects, to democracy. As China analyst Damien Ma has pointed out, Li’s power derives in part from his mastery of Western-style argument and debate. Unlike the wooden, formulaic rhetoric common in Chinese propaganda, Li’s flexible intellectual style makes him far more persuasive to Americans. In Beijing’s soft-power arsenal, Li has become — wittingly or not — one of China’s most powerful weapons. Image from article, with caption: Eric X. Li's Ted Talk paints Chinese communism as more adaptable and free than Western democracy. The Great Helmsman approves.

Olympic committee to Putin: What exactly does “gay propaganda” mean? The IOC has asked Russia to clarify what its intentionally broad new law will mean for athletes and visitors - Katie McDonough, salon.com: To get to the bottom of Russia’s homophobic mystery wrapped in an anti-gay enigma, IOC President Jacques Rogge asked for a definitive English translation of the law. “We have received all reassurances emanating from Mr. Dmitry Kozak, who is in charge of the organization of the Games in Sochi. We asked for written confirmation of these reassurances,” said Rogge. “We received them yesterday, we have studied it this morning but there are still uncertainties and we have decided to ask for more clarification as of today. So we are waiting for this clarification before having final judgement on these reassurances.” Rogge says the clarification of the law is important because the Olympic charter is very clear about its inclusion of LGBT athletes: “It says sport is a human right and should be available to all regardless of race, sex or sexual orientation,” he said.

The Amazing, Colorful Flip Card Propaganda Mosaics of North Korea - io9.com: Mass flip card mosaics are created by having large groups of people in stadium seating hold up cards that, together, form a complete image. In North Korea, these colorful images often serve as propaganda, celebrating the nation's leaders, prescribed lifestyle, and even its nuclear weapons. Among the images:


Punters poorer for the loss of propaganda’s poster boys - Andrew Glassop, dubbophotonews.com.au: Propaganda used to be passionate. Inspired artists used to embrace the thought that they were charged with the important task of changing someone’s mind. It didn’t matter how it was done, whether through words, images, music or text, all that mattered is that people, eventually, thought what you thought.


El Lissitzky worked in the Soviet Union at the time of the revolution and subsequent civil war. His poster, helpfully titled Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, is a masterpiece of graphic design and you don’t need to know anything about 20th century Russian history to get the message that the Reds are a vitally energetic bunch and the Whites are in for a world of hurt. Visual design, or graphics or art can, and do, shift public opinion, but only if the original passion of the individual remains intact. Once the individual is removed from the process, only to be replaced by committee speak, policy and, in the worst circumstances, the cold dead hands of the faceless men, the creative spark is likewise removed, and we end up with visual clutter at its most banal. Image from entry, with caption: El Lissitzky, beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

AMERICANA

DC Commission of the Arts Building ceiling collapses- Malcolm Lewis Barnes, communities.washingtontimes.com: An ‘All White Attire’ affair turns to dusty grey as Mayor Gray escapes a close call at newly opened DC Commission of the Arts building. At one minute to 9 p. m. as legendary GO GO band Rare Essence cranked the volume two huge sections of the ceiling of the new exhibit hall at the newly opened DC Commission of the Arts building collapsed.


The building at 200 Eye Street, SE, is the home of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. According to Chairwoman Judith Terra, the Commission had just occupied the space in September of 2012 and had planned this long awaited interactive exhibit of art, music, photography, fashion and poetry to celebrate the history of home grown GO GO music genre. Mayor Vincent Gray had just announced the planned dedication of Chuck Brown Park on August 22nd at 18th and Franklin Street, NE a half hour earlier and kicked off the evening’s music entertainment before leaving the elegant all white affair just in time to avoid a disaster as grey ceiling plaster rained down on the stage area that he just exited. Ironically, David Jacobs III a Code Compliance Inspector from the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, was the first to comfort injured visitors in the exhibit area before police, fire and emergency personnel could respond. Approximately 300 attendees experienced a spectacular night of art, music and high fashion before the landmark celebration of African, Latin, Jazz and Funk music literally brought the roof down. Uncaptioned image from article

MORE AMERICANA

Why drone makers have declared war on the word ‘drone’ - Brian Fung, Washington Post: The drone industry -- sorry, the unmanned aerial systems industry -- is in the midst of a massive rebranding campaign. For most Americans today, the word “drone” conjures images of lethal spy planes raining missiles down on targets in foreign theaters of war. But that perception doesn’t bode well for a burgeoning set of drone companies looking to shake up the civil aviation sector. So those firms spent the week in Washington trying to convince inside-the-Beltway types that unmanned systems can be used off the battlefield in new, safe and uncontroversial ways. If they succeed in changing the narrative, drone manufacturers will have paved the way toward what some experts think is a $400 billion business in waiting. FAA expects that once it unveils the regulatory framework for small drones weighing 55 pounds or less, the air will be filled with 7,500 such devices at the end of five years. Before that can happen, however, the FAA is required to establish a number of test sites where officials can demonstrate that drones are safe to fly. Two dozen states are currently competing for the right to host the sites.


Image from entry; see also Shotgun vs Drone - UAV Torture Test by Game of Drones (video)

MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

"Does the commencement of the fast of the Ramadan means that Muslims will stop eating each other during the daytime?"

--Question asked, according to The Guardian, on Facebook by Daniel Seaman, a senior Israeli government official responsible for promoting positive images of Israel on social media networks, who has been ordered to stop posting offensive statements on his Facebook page.

"Why do they think we give a flying F*** what you have to say?"

--The above-cited Daniel Seaman, referring to a Church of Scotland comment on the Middle East

MIDDLE EAST TOURISM

An Israeli Adventure of a Lifetime: The Ultimate Mission to Israel, October 21-28, 2013. Among the activities: "Visit to the Military Court: Watch Hamas Terrorist Trial."


Mission includes: "First Class Accommodation: Five-star accommodations at the Dan Tel Aviv, Leonardo Plaza Hotel Jerusalem (Glatt Kosher); Three meals a day (all Kosher); Luxury bus transportation and knowledgeable tour guide; A dedicated Executive Communications Center at the hotel; Personal cell phone for each participant. ... Cost: $2,595. A mandatory tax-deductible donation of $600 - $5,000 per person is required." Via PVB

"Online, there’s no visa problem."

--Zvi Galil, the dean of the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, expecting that, in the coming years, his school's program to offer a master’s degree in computer science through massive open online courses for a fraction of the on-campus cost could attract up to 10,000 students annually, many from outside the United States and some who would not complete the full master’s degree. Image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

The Truth About Egypt - Michael J. Totten, worldaffairsjournal.org: "I recently interviewed Eric Trager, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ... He called out the Muslim Brotherhood as an inherently authoritarian organization while scores of other supposed 'experts' falsely pimped it as moderate. And contrary to claims from the opposing camp, that the army 'restored' democracy with its coup, he saw the recent bloody unpleasantness coming well in advance. ... Eric Trager: When Americans think about Egypt, they think about the pharaohs, the pyramids, and the Bible. They know about the peace treaty with Israel. Some Egyptians get upset when they find out that Americans equate Egypt with the pyramids and the pharaohs, but for whatever reason, Egypt holds a special place in the American imagination. ... And it’s not just that 58 percent of Americans liked Egypt in 2010.


In 2011, something like 88 percent supported the uprising against Hosni Mubarak. That’s incredible. MJT: And what the Egyptians say about that? Eric Trager: One on one, it touches them. So I think it needs to be part of our public diplomacy. We have interests there. The United States Embassy in Egypt is one of the largest in the world. But Americans also like Egypt. They like visiting Egypt and seeing the pyramids and going to Luxor. And they like being with an ally. MJT: Is Egypt really an ally at this point? Eric Trager: Among Egyptians there is strong hostility toward the United States and American foreign policy. Conspiracy theories are rampant, especially about 9/11. Dealing with that will always be a significant challenge. At the same time, Egypt has been basically cooperative with American strategic interests for nearly forty years. We have significant disagreements about Egyptian domestic politics, and it’s a tumultuous place, but unless hostile Islamists emerge yet again—which is certainly possible—Egypt will remain in the American camp. And there’s the odd fact that Americans really like Egypt." Image from entry

Delving into the mind of Islam - mercatornet.com: "The origin of the crisis in Egypt, as in other countries in the Arab world, stretches far back in the history of Islam, says the author of The Closing of the Muslim Mind, Robert Reilly. Here he is interviewed by Alvino-Mario Fantini, the editor of The European Conservative. ... [Reilly:] Oil is the oxygen of the industrialized world and we have the opportunity now in the United States to dramatically transform that because of the enormous reserves that have been discovered here, particularly of natural gas that can fuel


a great deal of our industry and growing oil reserves. Obviously, the Obama Administration is not interested in that, but the less we are dependent on the Middle East, the better for us and for everyone else—particularly in respect to Saudi Arabia, which has the single most retrograde form of Islam that exists and which has out-spent the United States by tens of billions of dollars on its form of public diplomacy in spreading the Wahabi retrograde form of Islam. If you’re hoping for a re- Hellenization of the Muslim mind, give up all hope when you confront the Wahabi strain. It is the single most anti-rational form of Islam. Image from entry

National Conference on State’s Preparedness in National Security - cppr.in: "Centre for Strategic Studies, the Focus Study Centre of Centre for Public Policy Research in association with the Public Diplomacy Division of US Consulate at Chennai, India is organising a two-day National Conference on the theme 'State’s Preparedness in National Security in India'. The Conference will be attended by distinguished delegates consisting of security and strategy experts, bureaucrats, academicians and eminent persons in the domain of National Security. It will be held at Riviera Suites at Kochi, Kerala from November 29-30th, 2013."

Dialogue better option in improving ties: Salman Khurshid - deccanchronicle.com: "Amid heightened tension with Pakistan over the LoC [Line of Control] killings of Indian soldiers, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said 'persistent dialogue' is a better option to normalise ties with neighbours.


'War is no solution. Persistent dialogue is definitely a better alternative through which we are trying to normalise ties with our neighbours,' the minister told a workshop on 'Public Diplomacy Initiative' at the Doon University . ... Khurshid's comments came against the backdrop of strident demands ... asking the government not to resume the dialogue process with Pakistan till it stops ceasefire violations as also anti-India acts emanating from its soil." Khurshid image from article

Diaspora in India’s Foreign Policy and National Security: A Comparative Perspective, 6–7 November 2013, New Delhi - Delanoa, blogs.newschool.edu: "This conference is part of a series on ‘Diasporas, States and the Role of Policies—Locating Migration and Diaspora Studies in International Relations’ that brings together international scholarship and practioners to further our understanding of migrants and diaspora communities in international relations. The conferences encourage dialogue between a wide range of academic traditions in the area of diaspora studies, migration research, foreign policy, public diplomacy, political transnationalism, ethnic interest groups, global and regional migration governance, post-colonial theory, and democracy theory."

Defend Daniel Seaman! - Steven Plaut, israelnationalnews.com: "Israel's Left has a new cause. It is operating a jihad against the freedom of speech of poor Daniel Seaman. He is the outgoing director-general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and he is a man who speaks his mind. Leftists do not mind people speaking their mind as long as their mind is speaking leftism. But Brother Seaman speaks politically incorrect thoughts. Seaman is a Likud activist who has held a series of posts, including serving as head of the government press office.


What has the Left in hysterics is that Seaman has been tapped to head a new experimental governmental program to recruit Israeli college students to serve as public relations activists on the internet, where they would fight anti-Israel demonization and hate propaganda and provide the Israeli side of events. The Left hates that idea. ... [T]he Left is leading a campaign to insist that Seaman be silenced, denied freedom of speech, and removed from the Netanyahu public relations campaign initiative!  Haaretz  published an editorial denouncing Seaman." Seaman image from

Hillary Clinton Excited To Call Clinton Foundation 'My Home' - socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com: "Among other $1 million to $5 million donors: [to the Clinton Foundation:] Video: What about Bill? Harold Snyder, director for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the largest drug company in Israel. His son, Jay T. Snyder, serves on the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, which oversees State Department activities, and served as a senior U.S. adviser to the United Nations, where he worked on international trade and poverty. Jay Snyder donated between $100,000 and $250,000 to the foundation."

Embassy of Finland in London looking for a Press Officer - finemb.org.uk: "The Embassy of Finland in London is looking for a Press Officer for a permanent position starting 1 November 2013. The Press Officer works in a team of three on public diplomacy and communications outreach of the embassy. The work consists of planning and executing day-to-day press relations activities, internet and social media work and organizing events together with stakeholders."

Deputy Director Web – International Relations/Cooperation Department - southafrica.jobistan.co: "Branch: Public Diplomacy ... DUTIES: Oversee the planning, development and management of the Web Portal (Intranet, Extranet and Mission Websites) and other websites of strategic importance to the Department Manage the Sub-directorate: Web and Information Management Work with Business Units and Missions in the Department and other Government departments on the generation of new content and continued updating of current content Identify opportunities for using the Web Portal as a marketing and internal communication tool Monitor national and international information and media sources for the purpose of updating the Web Portal Build good working relations with web developers and Information Technology specialists within and outside of Government Remain abreast of developments and trends in respect of the Internet and electronic information management."

RELATED ITEMS

Egypt's ominous path: The brutal military crackdown on Morsi supporters may force the U.S. to reevaluate its aid - Editorial, latimes.com: Notwithstanding Morsi's overthrow, there has been broad and bipartisan support in Washington — so far — for a continuation of U.S. aid, which is essentially an insurance policy on Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. Even as he condemned Wednesday's violence, Kerry said he thought the path to a political solution was "still open."


But if the Egyptian military blocks that path, there should be consequences. Image from article, with caption: A supporter of deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi walks through the debris left after a violent crackdown by Egyptian security forces on a pro-Morsi sit-in at the Rabaa al Adawiya mosque in Cairo. A state of emergency has been declared for the next month by the military-led interim government to restore law and order after months of political turmoil.

Let Our Client Go - Ross Douthat, New York Times: If we can’t cut the Egyptian military off amid the blood bath in Egypt, we’re basically proving that we never, ever will.

Drone strike campaign in Yemen shows U.S. standards are elastic: The wave of attacks highlights Obama's willingness to accelerate airstrikes even if intelligence on a terrorist plot is imprecise, analysts and ex-officials say - Ken Dilanian, latimes.com: A surge of U.S. drone missile strikes that has killed about 40 suspected militants in Yemen over the last three weeks may appear inconsistent with President Obama's pledge in May to use drone aircraft to target and kill only individual terrorists who pose a continuing and imminent threat to Americans. White House officials say the targeting rules haven't changed for the 10 recent drone strikes. But analysts and former U.S. officials say the current campaign, after the pace of attacks had slowed, shows that the standards are elastic.

Richard Branson and James Cameron want to save the high seas: In international waters, environmental rules are inconsistent, weak or absent. Obama can change that - By Richard Branson and James Cameron, latimes.com: Spearheading negotiations on the conservation and management of the high seas


could give the U.S. a big win on a global issue. Image from article, with caption: The United Nations this week will weigh an agreement to regulate activity in international waters outside the jurisdiction of any country. Above, a sea turtle swims near a coral reef in the Pacific Ocean.

Ta-Ta, London. Hello, Awesome - Sarah Lyall, New York Times: Britons admire and consume American culture, but feel threatened by and angry at its excesses and global dominance. They are both envious and suspicious of Americans’ ease and confidence in themselves. They want American approval but feel bad about seeking it. Like a teenager worried that his more popular friend is using him for extra math help but will snub him in the cafeteria, they are unduly exercised by the “special relationship” — endlessly deconstructing what it meant, for instance, when in 2009 Gordon Brown, then the prime minister, gave President Obama a handsome penholder made of wood from a Victorian anti-slave ship, while Mr. Obama reportedly gave him a stack of movies that were incompatible with British DVD players. Also, Britons are not automatically impressed by attractive American qualities — straightforwardness, openness, can-doism, for starters — and they suspect that our surface friendly optimism might possibly be fake.

Amnesty International, War Propaganda, and Human Rights Terrorism - Gearóid Ó Colmáin, dissidentvoice.org: In Jaramana on the outskirts of Damascus on 7 August, 18 civilians were blown to bits. Among the dead were children. The Russian government condemned the crime against humanity. The crime was hardly even reported in the Western press, not to mention the silence of Western governments who are supplying the terrorists with arms. Perhaps the babies murdered in the attack were supporters of Bashar al-Assad and were therefore guilty. In Jaramana on the outskirts of Damascus on 7 August, 18 civilians were blown to bits. Among the dead were children. The Russian government condemned the crime against humanity. The crime was hardly even reported in the Western press, not to mention the silence of Western governments who are supplying the terrorists with arms. Perhaps the babies murdered in the attack were supporters of Bashar al-Assad and were therefore guilty. Amnesty International was outraged at the violence against civilians in Syria. But there was no mention of the Jaramana massacre.

Chinese propaganda as policy - Andrew Chubb, atimes.com: If outspoken Chinese military officers are neither irrelevant loudmouths nor factional warriors, nor yet the voice of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on foreign policy, and are instead experts in the PLA-party propaganda system, then what might explain the bad publicity they often generate for China? This article explores how the activities of China's military hawks may contribute to the regime's domestic and international goals. On a general level, the very appearance of a hawkish faction serves the domestic purposes of promoting national unity. By amplifying threat awareness and countering perceived Western plots to permeate the psyche of the Chinese populace and army, the "hawks" direct public dissatisfaction with the policy status quo away from the system as a whole. The PLA's external (duiwai) propaganda work system, which most of the "hawks" belong to, has been greatly strengthened in recent years in line with an often-cited "series of important instructions" from Hu Jintao from 2006 onward. This effort has emphasized self-affirming aspects of propaganda-perhaps better translated as publicity and promotion-with particular regard to foreign audiences, aiming to increase understanding of China's policies, diminish "China threat theories" and shape a good international image for the PLA.

Tropico 4 DLC: Propaganda! add-on hits Xbox Live, includes new mission: Communist-themed expansion lets you brainwash citizens, wear a nice warm hat - Matt Cundy, dlcentral.com: Here’s the official description: Tropico is invited



to participate in the International Communist Propaganda competition! Turn the most absurd propaganda slogans into reality using the new Propaganda Tower building which suppresses protesters and converts citizens to loyalists, use the PR Specialist trait to brainwash your people and finally compete with the likes of Stalin and Lenin with the Party Leader outfit. Image from entry

AMERICANA

University in Maryland to install bulletproof whiteboards: University of Maryland Eastern Shore is the first college to adopt the whiteboard that can stop bullets. The inventor says it will 'buy you some extra time' against shooters - Tricia Bishop, latimes.com: Calling "campus violence a reality" to prepare for, a university in Maryland announced last week that it planned to spend $60,000 on the Clark Kent of teacher supplies: an innocuous-looking whiteboard that can stop bullets.


The high-tech tablet — which hangs on a hook, measures 18 by 20 inches and comes in pink, blue and green — can be used as a personal shield for professors under attack, according to the company that makes it, and as a portable writing pad in quieter times. "It needs to be a great whiteboard and a useful tool so that it doesn't get hidden in the closet," said maker George Tunis. His company Hardwire LLC starting out making military armor, then adapted it for the classroom after the shootings last year at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children and six adults were killed. Image from

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“I would show up in Tajikistan with this PowerPoint and tell them about Wikipedia and Flickr and YouTube, they were like: ‘Dude, we have no electricity. What are you talking about?’ ”


--Internet contrarian Evgeny Morozov; image from

“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.”

--Oscar Wilde; via MR; image from

"Follow Under Secretary Sonenshine on Twitter!"

--From "A Snapshot of Public Diplomacy in Action Archives Homepage" (accessed Tuesday, August 20, 12:40 pm); see also: "From One Glass Ceiling to the Next: After a productive tenure at the State Department, Tara Sonenshine asks: when can successful women finally rest on their laurels without feeling guilty?" Daily Beast: "Tara D. Sonenshine served as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs from April 2012 to July 2013. She is enjoying a summer off before starting at George Washington University in the fall."

STUDY IN THE U.S.

Scholarships for International Students Planning to Study in the USA - studyusa.com

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Egypt in the rearview mirror: Whatever the problems roiling Cairo, more weapons sales won't solve them - Andrew J. Bacevich, latimes.com: "The United States has annually funneled billions of taxpayer dollars to Egypt and Israel. Rather than furthering the cause of mutual understanding — funding education programs or cultural exchanges, for example — most of that money has gone to the purchase of advanced weaponry. ... Whatever the problems roiling the Middle East, weapons sales won't fix them. Nor will proxy wars. Nor will the further commitment of U.S. troops. Egypt today offers Washington the opportunity to demilitarize U.S. policy toward this region. Such a change is long overdue. Terminating further assistance to Egypt's army will mark a necessary first step." Image from

Sharpening the Relational Lens in PD, Lessons from Egypt 2013 - R.S. Zaharna, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Moving ahead in the current situation in Egypt requires PD scholars to analyze the multiple layers of entwined relations.


In an increasingly interconnected global environment public diplomacy practitioners need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the relational dynamics. They need to shift from thinking about what messages may work (unilateral messaging strategies) to imagining collaborative relational strategizing. It is not just whose story wins, but who is connected to whom – and why that connection matters in the public arena that PD operates. Defining the relational connections is key to identifying public diplomacy options and developing creative, non-linear strategies for Egypt today and the time ahead." Image from

State Department Holds a Car Show in Afghanistan, Saves Democracy - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: "By default, please assume every article you see here about State Department Public Diplomacy [crossed out in entry] activities begins with 'You just can’t make these things up.' It’ll save me a lot of typing. Thanks. Though indeed 'You just can’t make these things up,' every once in a while something so ridiculous comes along that it refines stupid. Of all the critical issues that need attention in Afghanistan– poverty, corruption, the drug trade, cross-border war with Pakistan, the impending U.S. troop pullout/retreat/giving up because we’re tired thing, most informed people will agree that what has been missing from the conversation is that we need more car shows in Afghanistan.


While there are no quick solutions to complex problems, clearly the missing piece after twelve years and a trillion dollars is a car show. Thus into the breach comes the brave lads and lasses of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul’s Public Affairs staff. In a very neatly-typed press release (the event was not covered by the main stream media, ‘natch), the Embassy congratulated itself heartily on the one-day event. Chargé d’Affaires Ambassador Tina Kaidanow said, 'What you see here today is more than a car show; it is an example of how far Afghanistan has come in economic terms, and it highlights the promise of an even brighter and more prosperous future for Afghanistan if this country can continue on the road of economic reform and commercial development.' Because she works for the State Department, even when boldly fibbing about the idiocy of holding a car show in an active war zone, Ms. Kaidanow had to throw in the final conditional 'if' clause. Well played! Now of course since Afghanistan is indeed still a dangerous, chaotic war zone mostly in the hands of thugs and terrorizers, the car show was actually held deep inside the walled grounds of the U.S. Embassy itself. One does wonder under such circumstances how many 'Afghans,' as we call the still living local fauna, were able to attend. Uncaptioned image from entry

Film and America: A Lesson [...] About Public Diplomacy - theperfectservant.wordpress.com: "American film in general depicts life in this country as something quite distinct from what actually occurs here. For most of us, life is pretty pedestrian – we wake up, we go to work, we pay our bills. If we are lucky we build families, we take vacations, we muddle through. Our lives, our sense of a common humanity are not so much differentiated from those in other countries. Sure, there is the standard economic differential between those of us in OECD states and the developing world. But broadly, the great wonder of humanity is that we are all more or less the same – everyone has the same goals, more or less (love, security, fulfillment, etc). All of this reminded me of the abject failure of U.S. public diplomacy. By that I mean, presenting the American people as sympathetic; illustrating democratic capitalism as something positive rather than something to be loathed; and generally giving an image of the country which is not 'Jersey Shore.' The Bush Administration attempted to do this. And it was a complete failure – recall when George W’s press secretary moved over to State to work on these issues. There were no positive outcomes there. Complete failure. The current administration, conversely, has simply relied on the president – as if the 2008 domestic love fest would somehow convert the world to loving the United States. Naive – as we see more or less constantly overseas today – both sides of the Egyptian civil war (and that’s the appropriate term) hold negative views of the US, achieving that is a special kind of failure. ... And so we come back to US public diplomacy. It’s hard to sell to those who adhere to a more traditional, even Manichean worldview a perspective of the United States and its population as positive when American media sends an image which is anything but that. The image is: rich, dumb, immoral, uncaring. When 'Sex and the City'


is a global brand (a TV show well summarized by another TV show as: 'So, it’s about three prostitutes and their mother?') – pushing a 'we share your values' narrative is probably not going to work. This sort of thing is just going to support a narrative of God-less, selfish, ignorant, and pretty much horrid. Conversely, there are some upsides to it. China for one. The aforementioned 'Sex and the City' (along with 'Friends') have probably done more to teach younger Chinese women English than anything in history – heck, there is even a Chinese version of 'Friends' which is more or less the exact same plots, but in Mandarin, and set in China. Expectations among younger people from Anhui and Shanxi when they move to Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou is that it is going to be like an episode of one of these programs. It’s anything but that. It’s a long, hard, exhausting slog to find work and find a reasonably priced apartment. But, TV has created an image of urbanity – and a set of expectations. The anger, the sense of being cheated – in a rather corrupt bureaucratic-authoritarian state – is probably a good thing. Ditto for Russia. Nevertheless, that domestic discontent does not mean the population grasps that those images in film and TV are not the reality in the United States. Very few people visit Kansas City or Charlotte on vacation (and I understand that) – even most Europeans have a knowledge of the US which is limited to media and those two vacations they took (Orlando and New York, maybe LA, seldom Chicago or Philadelphia, and never the suburbs). So, a question: American media does impact how the United States is perceived globally. The image sent forward (again – dumb, violent, immoral, constant sex, etc) is rather universal. In political economy terms, Hollywood is creating severe negative externalities resulting in significant costs to others. Is that acceptable? Is there a way to resolve this? And if not, how do we incorporate it into a model of public diplomacy which works? We need one – and we need one fast. Ideas?" Image from

Peacock Café Chef and Owner Maziar Farivar Honored at State Department Culinary Partnership - Corrie Dyke, georgetowner.com: "Peacock Café (3251 Prospect St., NW) is a favorite of Georgetown dining. Recently, its chef Maziar Farivar was selected among a group of 60 chefs across the U.S. to the 'Diplomatic Culinary Partnership Initiative, Setting the Table for Diplomacy,' through the State Department.


Farivar received his blue jacket as a member of the State Department Chef Corps for Diplomatic Culinary Partnership. Eleven embassy chefs joined other well-known Washington area chefs for the event at Blair House. Discussion of the universal power of food headlined the event. The State Department's Diplomatic Culinary Partnership looks to promote the role of culinary engagement in America's public diplomacy." Uncaptioned image from entry

Winning Heart Attacks and Minds - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "It is so important to remember that public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy and especially gastrodiplomacy cannot be just about communicating high culture, but also some good ol 'Murican values like a fried twinkie. But for what


its [sic] worth, the State Fair and its deliciously fatty fried foods really showcase Americana in all its caloric glory and help project a simpler down-to-earth America that would resonate abroad in many respects, and would be a good angle for people-to-people connections. This all gets back to my theories on the Bernays-Barnum School of Public Diplomacy. Perhaps all I am at (defibrillated) heart is a PD carnie." Image from entry

Counterterrorism from the Inside: Philip Mudd analyzes the federal response to terrorism - Ralph Bowden, chapter16.org:  "Philip Mudd’s Takedown purports to be Inside the Hunt for Al Qaeda, and in some sense it is. More than that, though, it is a consideration of the way the American intelligence establishment responded to 9/11 and subsequent terrorist threats.


It’s also a career memoir. Mudd ... began in 1985 as a junior intelligence analyst at the CIA and rose to important managerial positions at both the CIA and the FBI. ... Collecting and presenting all the analyzed data to decision-makers required frequent meetings—often several a day—at and between each department, agency, and bureau. Mudd was there in the thick of it, working for George Tenet and Robert Mueller and frequently meeting with people like Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, and Scooter Libby. ... While some have complained about 'the inability of the United States to execute a clear, long-term public diplomacy strategy on terrorism,' Mudd writes, he believes 'this was not, and is not, a critical problem, because Al Qaeda’s actions have already undermined its message irretrievably.'” Image from entry

Prairie Weather: Republicans Are Trying To Be Polite To "Those People": Noted For August 17, 2013 - delong.typepad.com: "batavicus said...'Republicans are still convinced that they can talk their way out of trouble.' It's now an ingrained habit. e.g. Romney's campaign manager's 'etch-a-sketch' remark. My favorite is still when Karen Hughes, who wrote Bush's campaign bio, became head of public diplomacy at state sometime around 2005 and said that it was inconceivable that the U.S., the country with the most highly developed PR industry in the world, could have an image problem abroad. No consideration of policy and its effects on others, only of PR."


Al Jazeera launches in US- metro.us: "The New York offices are quiet, with barely a sign of the new owners and the revolution they are promising. But Al Jazeera America’s Tuesday launch into over 40 million homes is potentially the greatest triumph yet for Qatar, and one that could transform the media landscape. 'I can’t tell you how much enthusiasm there is for what we’re doing', Joie Chen, former CNN and CBS news anchor, told Metro from New York.


Chen is just one of an all-star team assembled by AJA – backed by the endless wealth of owners the Qatari royal family – and in many cases poached from rivals. ... Philip Seib, director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy, believes the majority [in America] will be won over. 'People here don’t know where Qatar is but this will demystify the ‘other’. It’s an Arabic logo but Americans on screen, so there’s a bridge that will be constructive'. Seib added that AJA’s success will also belong to its owners – the Qatari royal family. 'They have made a huge investment, and they want to be influential and respected as the dominant voice of the Middle East. Al Jazeera put them on the map, and now they have taken another big step.'" Chen image from entry

Inside the Beltway: Al-Jazeera America arrives - Jennifer Harper, Washington Times: "A welcome relief for fatigued viewers, or stealthy propaganda outlet?


Al-Jazeera America arrives on the airwaves at 3 p.m. Tuesday with promises of credible news and weighty content, powered by funds from the Qatar government. It’ll have a dozen national bureaus, 70 international bureaus, big-name talent and 900 new employees pulled from multiple news organizations." Image from entry, with caption: 'America Tonight,' a prime-time news show hosted by former CNN anchor Joie Chen, is among the programming scheduled for Tuesday when Al-Jazeera America makes its arrival on the airwaves.

Al Jazeera Can’t Find Advertisers for its US Propaganda Channel- Daniel Greenfield, frontpagemag.com: "Advertisers have no motivation to climb on board the Al Jazeera train considering that its viewing audience consists of people who think MSNBC is too right wing or that you can’t get the truth from American news networks because they’re controlled by the Illuminati.


Advertising is about brand identity. Advertising on CNN associates your product with its brand. Advertising on Al Jazeera associates your brand with the news network best known for airing Bin Laden’s Greatest Hits." Image from entry

Burma Opening Up to Tourism, Investment - reason.com: "Myanmar may be the best example of a once-closed land that has now discovered the upsides (and possible downsides) of openness, public diplomacy, and tourism."
Foreign Policy Needs a Shake up - AIIA NSW Blog:  "ASPI [Australian Strategic Policy Institute] produced its own 60-page foreign policy strategy document this week, which would fuel political debate if only we could have one. It is well worth reading. ... The complex issues in the South China Sea also hold out little prospect of regional stability. Some of us from the AIIA attended a 14-hour ASPI workshop in Sydney last week in a search for confidence building measures that, if introduced, might nurse the various parties towards a resolution. ... The ASPI initiative is a great contribution by a not-for-profit organisation, and others, including the AIIA, can and should engage in public diplomacy over the South China Sea. It is clear Canberra is limited by the deep cuts in public funding at DFAT and the Department of Defence."

Young Armenian and Turkish entrepreneurs sign memorandum of cooperation in Van (PHOTOS) - news.am: "The Armenian-Turkish Young Businessmen Conference kicked off Thursday in Van, Turkey. During the event the parties discussed the avenues for finding a common ground for cooperation and signed a memorandum of understanding.


The young Armenian and Turkish entrepreneurs spoke about the need for cooperation between the two countries, and noted that business contacts should reach a level where they impact politics, the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter informs from Van. Union of Manufacturers and Businessmen of Armenia’s Program Coordinator Armen Melkonyan noted that the Armenian-Turkish state diplomacy has stopped at some unknown point, whereas public diplomacy is gaining new momentum. He added that the business code of ethics is the only thing that currently regulates relations between both countries." Uncaptioned image from entry

Independence Day and National Security - Team SAISA, saisaonline.org: "In the context of national security, from strategic communication and public diplomacy


to the balancing of diplomacy and military power, support and oversight of executive branch institutions, budgets, and programs need to be put in place." Uncaptioned image from entry

Federal Faces: Nursultan Eldosov - washingtonpost.com: "Since he was in elementary school, Eldosov dreamed of being a diplomat. The rising senior at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service has spent the summer interning at the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs. The 21-year-old supports public diplomacy policy and programming for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives. The goal is to help strengthen the relationship between the United States and the citizens of these four countries through cultural programming, academic grants, educational exchanges and international visitor programs. During his internship, Eldosov, a native of Uzbekistan, has organized several events for the International Visitor Leadership program. This program brings current and emerging leaders from across the globe to meet with their professional counterparts in the United States and to visit public and private sector organizations related to their field of interest. Eldosov played a key role in arranging and managing the briefings and logistics for an agricultural delegation from Bangladesh as well as for a judicial delegation from Nepal. Recently, he became the interim public diplomacy desk officer for Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Maldives as a result of the summer transition of Foreign Service officers to new positions. He serves as the voice for the overseas U.S. embassies and must run interference for them, highlight areas of concern and coordinate with different State Department bureaus. ... In addition to his summer internship, Eldosov was selected as a 2013 undergraduate Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellow, a prestigious award that will provide him with financial support as he prepares academically and professionally to join the Foreign Service. Eldosov said his experience at the State Department this summer has reinforced his commitment to serve in government."

Maria Elena Toraño: Passion has always driven her to succeed in business world - miamiherald.com: "Cindy Krischer Goodman, Toraño, born in Havana, has long been an advocate for Latinas. At 75, she is a Renaissance woman who is still going strong, paving the way for other women. ... Toraño’s achievements


have spanned the public sector, too. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, by President George H. Bush to the Oversight Commission to the U.S. Small Business Administration and by President Jimmy Carter as the Assistant Director of Public Affairs for the Office of Economic Opportunity/Community Services Administration." Toraño image from article

Diplomatic lives in and around Finland: Arthur J. Collingsworth, Yuri Deryabin, Krister Wahlbäck - The ogre of the tale: "My name is Louis Clerc. I am a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary History in the University of Turku, Finland. My research interests are in contemporary international history. More specifically, I deal with the History of Franco-Nordic relations, public diplomacy and the history of diplomatic practices."

About Marwa Fikry Abdel Samei - opendemocracy.net: "Marwa Fikry Abdel Samei is Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University. She completed a PhD at Northeastern University on mass media and public diplomacy in the contemporary Arab world. Recent publications focus on rise of Islamists after the Arab Spring."

International Relations Seminar - purvis-blog.blogspot.com: "There will be four major components of the seminar. [Among them:] I. Focus on context and concepts in international relations – past, present, future [.] This segment will include ... Soft power, public diplomacy."

4325 Public Diplomacy Officer - vanuatujobalert.blogspot.com: "Australian High Commission Industry: Non Government Organisation Location: Port Vila, Vanuatu. ... Job Description: Australian Hig Commission in Port Vila is looking for a dynamic individual to fill the position of Public Diplomacy Office. This position is responsible for managing the Australian High Commission's Public Diplomacy Program, which includes managing public information campaigns, organizing public diplomacy events, drafting media releases and speeches and maintaining the Australian High Commission website."

DC Internship, National Council for International Visitors - upspolitics.blogspot.com: "The National Council for International Visitors (NCIV) is now accepting interns for the Fall 2013 Semester. All interns are expected to work for a minimum of eight weeks, but ten weeks or more is preferred. ... Consisting of a balance of short-term tasks and long-term projects, NCIV interns develop their communications, event services, member services, research, nonprofit, advocacy, and public deiplomacy skills. ... Qualifications [:] ... Background and interest in citizen diplomacy, public diplomacy, nonprofit leadership, global engagement, or international education and exchange."

RELATED ITEMS

The Egyptian Debacle - Roger Cohen, New York Times: Far from overcoming the divisions of the society where close to 25 percent of the world’s Arabs live, the developments of the past two-and-a-half years have sharpened them. For the United States and Europe, this amounts to a colossal strategic failure. Nothing — and certainly not the outcome in Afghanistan or Iraq — was more important than getting Egypt right. What now? A knee-jerk reaction would be to cut off U.S. military aid.


That, however, would only increase the possibility of internal and regional mayhem. It is tempting, given the Egyptian military’s unconscionable attack on its own citizens, but should be resisted. The real lesson in Egypt is of America’s dwindling power under a wavering president whose hesitancy reflects that of most Americans after a decade of interventions. The price Egypt will pay has only just begun to be reckoned. Image from article, with caption: Egyptians removing debris from a protest camp in Cairo last Thursday.

False Choices on Egypt - Editorial, New York Times: President Obama’s muted chastising of the generals and his indecisive reaction to the slaughter does not inspire confidence. Instead of wringing their hands, administration officials should suspend the $1.3 billion in annual American military aid to Egypt — including the delivery of Apache helicopters — until the military puts the country on a peaceful path.

Saving Egypt from Syria’s fate - Editorial, Washington Post: The crisis in Egypt demands the delivery of an unambiguous message to the regime that a continued attempt to repress the Muslim Brotherhood by force, or the installation of a new autocracy, will leave Egypt isolated from the West. That means the immediate suspension of all aid and the promise of further sanctions if the deliberate killing of civilians does not stop.

A Policy on Egypt—Support Al Sisi In a zero-sum game, the U.S. should hold its nose and back the military - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal: What's realistic and desirable is for the military to succeed in its confrontation with the Brotherhood as quickly and convincingly as possible. Gen. Sisi may not need shiny new F-16s, but riot gear, tear gas, rubber bullets and Taser guns could help, especially to prevent the kind of bloodbaths the world witnessed last week.


A better foreign policy would be conducted by keeping the Brotherhood out of power in Egypt. Image from article, with caption: Days of rage in Cairo.

College: It's not just 'Made in the U.S.A.': With rising tuition and dropping acceptance rates at many U.S. colleges and universities, it's time to consider Europe - Aaron Rosen, latimes.com: Increasingly, it looks as though the best, cheapest and quickest place to get an American-style education may be in Europe.

Why Fewer Americans Live Abroad - Ken Moelis, Wall Street Journal: U.S. tax laws put Yanks at a disadvantage against Aussies and Brits in growth regions like Africa. Congress should borrow from U.K. policy and provide an immediate tax holiday to any American citizen who takes up residence and works in Africa for more than one full year. There is no doubt that Africa will be the next commercial frontier.

Deadly Spin: Propaganda Practices in the USA - John Scott G, enewschannels.com: Wendell Potter, formerly a propagandist for various avaricious and venal corporations, ‘fesses up and reveals the prevarication, lying, deception, and obfuscation of the industries that pick your pocket every day.


His ‘Deadly Spin’ opens the playbook used by corrupt companies, insufferable industries, and the GOP. Image from article

The Places You Go — Anti-American Incidents by Geographic Bureau - Domani Spero, Diplopundit: Of the 98 incidents that involved U.S. citizens and interests, 91 are believed to have resulted from intentional targeting of Americans. Via Political Violence Against Americans – 2012:


AMERICANA

Ghosts of Tom Joad, A Story of the #99Percent - Video trailer for Ghosts of Tom Joad, A Story of the #99Percent (March 2014) by Peter Van Buren

FORGIVING THE BUSH II ADMINISTRATION


From: "Bush/Condi Affair Rumors Verified By... Oh, Wait, Never Mind, It's Globe Magazine," Princess Sparkle Pony's Photoblog

“Speaking of presidents, George W. Bush had heart surgery. I hope he’s doing well. Doctors say he’s resting comfortably, which is what he did for eight years in Washington.”

--Talk show host David Letterman; from Bulletin News, LLC

TERRORISM

London’s Heathrow Airport on high alert for breast implant bombers - Bob Taylor, Washington Times.


Image from article, with caption: Breast bomb implants, terrorism's newest device

MACHO MAN


--Via a Russian Facebook friend

VISA NOT APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY


-- Image of former Booz Allen Hamilton employee Edward Snowden as seen in his "temporary asylum" Russian visa; image from

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"[C]ulture is central to a civilized society, not merely 'nice to have.'”




--Editorial, "Trifling With the Arts and Humanities," New York Times; Matthew Arnold image from

"Since the masses are always eager to believe something, for their benefit nothing is so easy to arrange as facts."

--Charles Maurice de Talleyrand ; Talleyrand image from

ARTICLES


VIDEO

The Role of Soft Power in U.S.-Russian Relations - culturalvistas.org

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Savir's Corner: Israel's demands - Uri Savir, Jerusalem Post: "As for public diplomacy in peacemaking, it is today no less important than negotiation diplomacy. We live in an age in which people are more and better informed than ever. No peace process can survive and no peace agreement can be accepted without the agreement of the majority of the people. This forces decision- makers and negotiators to engage in public diplomacy. It is about engaging not only governments in conflict resolution, but also their constituencies. It should not be confused with public relations, it is far more important as it aims to have the public participate in the peace process. If the societies do not feel that they have a say in the process, that they are stakeholders and beneficiaries of it, no peace will be sustainable. Public diplomacy is therefore a new form of diplomacy, parallel to classic diplomacy, and it is happening between governments and people, as well as between societies. The Americans are


the first to comprehend this transformation in diplomacy. John Kerry has an assistant secretary of state for public diplomacy and that section of the State Department is engaged in our current peace process. President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel was above all a public diplomacy offensive. ... [P]ublic opinion in Israel and in Palestine will matter ... Therefore the missing link to a successful process is public diplomacy by Israel, Palestine and the United States, galvanizing the constituencies to the peace process, with its difficult compromises yet many dividends. So far the public aspect of the process has been a failure. ... The leaders on both sides are, in their public discourse, creating the greatest obstacles to success and making the failure of peace a self-fulfilling prophecy. Therefore good public diplomacy is of the essence and should be composed of the following elements: a frank dialogue with the people about the purpose of peace and, no less so, about the alternative to peace; a process of humanization of the enemy after the dehumanization of war (the obvious must be understood – Israelis and Palestinians alike are humans); encouragement of people-to-people relations between the two societies, making it part of the peace and reconciliation process; the outlining of peace dividends that can be gained; the essential involvement and vital role of youth from both sides as they are the political barometer of both societies, engaging also via social networks. The only ones who engage in constructive public diplomacy are the Americans, directly addressing the fears and hopes of the two societies, inspired by Obama’s Jerusalem speech. They also engage with social network-based regional peace movements such as YaLa-Young Leaders, with 400,000 members from all over the Middle East. These youth are engaging in an Arab-Israeli peace campaign under the motto 'No More Excuses – Support a Peace Agreement Now.'” Image from

U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Midst of Middle East Turmoil - Philip Seib, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "If America’s overall foreign policy and its public diplomacy efforts are to be effective in the Arab world, they must address economic issues above all else."

The limits of Twitter diplomacy: Rather than chasing record numbers of social media ‘followers’, diplomats should be building trust on all sides - Christopher R. Hill, gulfnews.com: "Most US embassies ensure a constant stream of tweets by relying on public-diplomacy officers to get the word out about what the ambassador is doing day by day, even hour by hour. Many ambassadors have built mass followings in electronic terms and generate numerous 'likes' as they go about their daily routines of meetings and ribbon-cuttings. All fun stuff. But have social media really made for better diplomats or helped solve difficult problems? If so, why are there so many unmitigated and unmediated crises around the world — Syria’s civil war, the carnage in Egypt and deteriorating US-Russia relations, to name just a few. The much-ballyhooed 21st-Century statecraft, it seems, is really not up to the job. Advocates accurately point out that social media are a tool that is ignored at one’s peril. But what is urgently needed today is an understanding that diplomacy is not only about shouting from the rooftops and communicating with the general public. It is about working on relationships one at a time. Above all, it is about keeping the door open to deal with unsavoury governments. ... Secretary of State John Kerry has launched a courageous effort to revive the Israel-Palestine peace process. Given the dearth of public information about his strategy, it is clear that he is not an avid practitioner of 21st Century statecraft — that is, he does not think out loud. And yet he got the parties together by developing trust, which is the coin of the realm for an effective diplomat. ... US diplomats — indeed, all countries’ diplomats — might want to consider that, rather than chasing record numbers of social media 'followers,' they should be building trust on all sides in conflict-prone societies and looking for more leaders willing to take chances for peace. When the shooting has stopped and the sides are talking, diplomats can tweet to their hearts’ content."

The Limits to Obama and Xi's Smiles - Kyle Hutzler, Huffington Post: "Promoting a more balanced American view of China will require the efforts of both nations. In May 2010, the Obama administration launched the 100,000 Strong initiative to increase the number of Americans studying in China over a four-year period. Earlier this year, investor Stephen Schwarzman launched a $300 million private effort to create a Chinese equivalent of the Rhodes scholarship. China too has made nascent efforts with its CCTV America and China Daily news operations and Confucius Institutes that promote Chinese language and culture. None of these initiatives show meaningful signs of impacting perceptions just yet. ... The foundation for a strong U.S.-China relationship must be rooted in deep popular familiarity and, eventually, trust. Such a foundation allows leaders to engage in direct and even heated disagreement with the confidence that compromise will ultimately be reached. In such a relationship, no issue is ever off the table or downplayed in fear that the bilateral relationship is too fragile. As U.S. and Chinese leaders continue to make progress in strengthening ties at the leadership and institutional level, they must also be willing to engage in unprecedented mutual support of each other's public diplomacy efforts. Smiling leaders can last but for only so long among unsmiling people."

Babcock shares vision of lifelong learning at porch discussion - "Sherra Babcock, Chautauqua Institution vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education, provided an overview of the Institution’s education and youth programs and her vision for lifelong learning at Chautauqua in a Trustees Porch Discussion titled 'Lifelong Learning —Chautauqua’s Educational Impact' on Wednesday at the Hultquist Center. ... Babcock spoke of an outgrowth of the CLSC program, the CLSC in Zimbabwe program. Sharon Hudson-Dean, a career public diplomacy foreign service officer, approached the department three years ago with an idea. After her first travels to Zimbabwe, she saw an opportunity to bring together different political parties in the country who were struggling to get along.


Knowing Zimbabwe is a reading culture — the English literacy rate there is higher than in the United States — Dean thought offering a book club could unite people of different political affiliations. Her idea was to invite a group of senior leaders from the Zimbabwe government and also a younger group of people they saw as 'rising stars,' Babcock said. The group applied for a grant for innovations in diplomacy and started meeting every two months to read CLSC selections. So far, there have been 35 graduates from the program. The Department of Education is continuing to send old CLSC books to libraries in Zimbabwe so that other people can start reading the books, too." Image from entry, with caption: Chautauqua Institution trustee Jack McCredie poses a question to Sherra Babcock, Chautauqua Institution vice president and Emily and Richard Smucker Chair for Education, during last Wednesday’s Trustees Porch Discussion at the Hultquist Center.

Cultural Diplomacy: Key to international relations -- What is cultural diplomacy and why could it help with our approach to Egypt: an exclusive look at Scotland's Festival of Politics coming up this weekend - Cynthia P. Schneider, "'Cultural Diplomacy'. The name evokes exchanges of symphonies, international art exhibitions, and the Jazz Ambassador tours of the Cold War era. All these had their place, and updated versions, such as global hip hop jam session, still have value today in bridging divides of geography, culture, and language. But these examples of cultural exchange only tell part of the story of cultural diplomacy in contemporary international politics and diplomacy. In today’s world of 24/7 communication, social media, and citizen journalism, cultural diplomacy has a deeper and wider scope, one that reflects its intersection with politics. For cultural diplomacy centers on people to people communication rather than the more traditional government-to-government relations. In the era of the Arab Revolutions, and with citizens asserting their rights and holding their governments accountable from Brazil to Turkey to Cambodia, the people power of cultural diplomacy is more important than ever. Nigerian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka best explained the nature of this power when he said, 'Culture humanizes; politics demonizes'. Culture in all its forms, whether a narrative in film, theater, or literature, or a piece of music or work of art, digs beneath the surface, beyond the stereotypes to get at the truth of a situation or a person. Take a country in the headlines today: Egypt. Culture and creative expression provided a key to the Revolution of 2011 that confounded the foreign policy experts around the world, and they reveal much about the divisions tearing the country apart today. Anyone who had read contemporary Egyptian literature, such as the widely translated best seller The Yacoubian Building, had seen films such as Heliopolis or Chaos, or had listened to contemporary Arabic rap music was surprised only that the Revolution took so long in coming. Artists hold a mirror up to society, examine its faults, and peal back the veneer of stability governments carefully apply. On the surface Mubarak’s Egypt appeared stable, but writers, artists, and musicians revealed the reality of the pressure cooker beneath: no one at any level of society could advance because of the pervasive, government-led corruption, and the iron fist of the state forbad any dissent. In the Revolution turned coup of June 30th, artists and cultural leaders once again led the way, with the occupation of the Ministry of Culture to protest the Muslim Brotherhood government’s attempts to declare music and dance haram (forbidden under Islam). It was unthinkable that creative voices might be silenced in Egypt, the beating heart of Arab culture. Culture is inextricably linked to identity, and, in Egypt, the reason most frequently given to explain the backlash against President Morsi and his Brotherhood rule is: 'They tried to change our identity'. Fundamentalists and extremists recognize the power of culture, and, therefore target it in their efforts to exert absolute control. The Taliban banned music and television; the extremists expelled musicians from northern Mali, home to the roots of the blues and other forms of modern music; the Khmer Rouge targeted artists and intellectuals, killing 90 per cent of them in the Cambodian genocide of 1975-79. If the enemies of freedom, democracy, and civil society recognize the power of culture, their defenders do not always do the same. Culture plays a key, and often unrecognized, role in rebuilding societies in or post conflicts. At the Festival of Politics, to be held in the Scottish Parliament on Friday August 23rd, cultural diplomacy will be discussed in its full dimension, with important and sometimes unexpected implications for today’s international relations."

But what do you do? - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "A wonderful story of the essence of cultural diplomacy written by John Brown the Elder, kindly posted by John Brown the Younger.  I am posthumously bestowing a gastrodiplomacy croix de guerrre on JB I for the coq gaul[ois] incident."

BBG Board Meets- radioworld.com: "While August is normally a time of dormancy on the Hill, that was far from true for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, whose meeting at their headquarters Aug. 21 reflected the numerous changes the board has been through in recent weeks. Three newly appointed members — Jeff Shell, Matthew Armstrong and Ambassador Ryan Crocker — all attended their first open meeting since unanimous confirmation by the Senate, and appointment by President Obama at the beginning of the month."

New BBG Board to consider extending Kevin Klose’s tenure at RFE/RL - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "BBG Watch has learned from multiple


sources that newly-confirmed Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) members, including the new BBG Chairman Jeff Shell, would like to keep Kevin Klose as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) President." Klose image from entry

BBG Governor Matt Armstrong: ‘Agency is a tremendously important part of our foreign policy and for the United States in general’ - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "While introducing himself at his first open Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) meeting in Washington, DC, newly-confirmed BBG Governor Matt Armstrong said Wednesday that the the agency in charge of U.S. international broadcasting 'is a tremendously important part of our foreign policy and for the United States in general.'


'Anybody who wants to reach out and talk, I’m looking forward to the engagement,' Armstrong also said. He pointed out that he is probably the first blogger to sit on the BBG Board." Image from entry

Al Jazeera America Debuts on Cable Amid Availability Concerns in Crowded Market [video and transcript] - PBS NewsHour: Among the participants in the discussion: Philip Seib, USC Center on Public Diplomacy

Outside View: No easy fixes for NATO - Harlan Ullman, upi.com: "NATO must launch a public diplomacy campaign to make the case for its importance. The easiest way to do that is through talks, public meetings and discussions with elected leaders in parliaments and assemblies on NATO and its future role by former and respected senior military leaders with the experience and background to be credibly received by its citizens."


Image from entry, with caption: U.S. President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House on May 31, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Topics: "On Tour in Germany" convinced international journalists [Google translation from the German] - kultur-port.de: "[There were] 16 participants from 14 countries of the international visitors program 'On tour in Germany.' They came at the invitation of the Foreign Office to Germany to learn about the music scene in a week at first hand. The guests came from the U.S., Canada, UK, Finland, Italy, Poland, Greece, Estonia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, South Africa, Cameroon, Japan and South Korea. ... In the week-long trip, the journalists saw Germany as a modern country with a vibrant, diverse and internationally recognized music scene. 'Music as a cultural asset is of great importance when it comes to shape the perception and image of Germany as a nation of culture abroad and to control,' says Uwe Heye, Head of Unit in the Department of Culture and Communication of the Foreign Office. 'That is why the visitors program of the Foreign Office, including music that invites journalists, analysts and critics from abroad to Germany, an important part of German public diplomacy.'"

Experts call for co-operation between religion, civil society: Civil society can help moderate voices in religious organisations develop a following that helps the region towards European integration - Enis Rexhepi and Ivana Jovanovic, Southeast European Times: "Petrit Selimi, Kosovo's deputy foreign minister and member of the state commission for religious freedom, told SETimes that religious communities themselves are part of the civil society. Kosovo must promote diversity and tolerance in the old tradition of respect for each other's religion, he said.


'We as foreign minister believe that interfaith dialogue is an essential instrument of public diplomacy because it helps to break some prejudices in certain political quarters, helped by the propaganda of the Serbian political past. Such prejudices may hinder Kosovo's goals for NATO and EU integration,' Selimi said." Image from entry, with caption: Men pray at a mosque in Pristina on August 8th following the end of Ramadan. Experts are urging civil society groups to work closer with the religious communities to promote moderate voices and encourage co-operation.

Syrians will win fight against terrorism: Iran deputy FM - presstv.ir: "Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Syrians will definitely emerge victorious in their fight against terrorism and Takfiri militants. 'Even though the war against terrorism in Syria has been drawn out, the Syrian nation will be the main victors of the fight against terrorism and Takfiris; and this victory is guaranteed in Syria,' Amir-Abdollahian said in a meeting with Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari in Tehran on Thursday.


Amir-Abdollahian went on to hail Syria for safeguarding the legitimate rights of its nation - particularly its resistance and struggle against the Zionist regime of Israel and its allies - through international organizations as the country's 'greatest achievement in official and public diplomacy.'" Image from entry, with caption: A Syrian girl flashing the V sign at the camera

What a regional power! - Yusuf Kanli, hurriyetdailynews.com: "Diplomacy often entails give and take, bargaining, compromise… The starting point of an issue between states might be far different than what is eventually told to the public. Secrecy of background work provides flexibility as well. There is as well the need to have public diplomacy so that even some negative developments might be portrayed as great successes. The public diplomacy aspect apparently is the only concern of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. That as well was done in arrogance. Is there any other country where foreign policy is decided and implemented in front of cameras? Perhaps to enchant its long governance-exhausted supporters and cadres Turkey’s absolute ruler and his foreign policy vizier issue their firmans right away, utter their last word before saying the first… Worse, in front of cameras. Turkey is a regional power aspiring to become a global power but SOMEHOW today there is no Turkish ambassador in Damascus, Cairo or Tel Aviv."

Thomas Borer safely reached completely new target groups, but ...»: The former Swiss diplomat Max [Schweizer] sets with "diplomatic life" a new book. In the interview he expressed to professional diplomats and politicians criticism ugly headlines and unsung heroes [Google translation] - Interview: Vincenzo Capodici: "[Q:] Thomas Borer, who was forced to resign for an alleged Sexaffäre as Ambassador in Berlin, coined the 'Public Diplomacy', which was not welcome at the EDA. What's wrong with that? Perhaps more Borer reached its kind for Switzerland as diplomats of the old school. [A:] [T]he 'public diplomacy' can ultimately only be successful when they are in a harmonious lockstep 'central-Outpost' - done - or vice versa. Thomas Borer safely reached completely new target groups. But that is not the senior diplomats classic target activity. If the 'functioning' of domestic political turmoil is questioned, then the air is increasingly thin. Insofar Borer actually reached more than so-called diplomats of the old school - namely his resignation."


Image from entry, with caption: At Carnival in Aachen in 2002 was Thomas Borer - here with his then-wife Shawn Fielding - the "Medal for Combating Deadly Seriousness." Because of an alleged Sexaffäre three months later he had to resign as Swiss Ambassador in Berlin. Borer it of staging public mind. His work was for a "public diplomacy". Borer had gained notoriety in the conflict over the unclaimed assets in the 1990s, when he headed the Task Force Switzerland-Second World War.

Falklands’ lawmakers thank Cristina Fernandez for helping get the Islanders' message to the world - en.mercopress.com: “'We must be grateful for the marvelous chances afforded to the Islands by President Cristina Fernandez who has presented more opportunities than could ever have been envisaged for engaging with media worldwide and getting Islanders views expressed', said Member of the Legislative Assembly, Dick Sawle in direct reference to Cristina Fernandez and the Argentine government’s vocal and aggressive policy on the Falklands issue. ... 'We have been criticized by some (in the Islands) for spending too much time abroad and ignoring domestic issues. I would agree it is a fine balance but the rewards have been truly tremendous,' said MLA Sawle. Those rewards had culminated in the referendum in March, when a 'truly astounding' result which the world could not ignore had been made public. MLA Sawle compared the concerted effort to spread the word overseas as rather like a ship being released on a slipway. 'It starts with very little apparent movement, the bottle is smashed on the bows, nothing seems to happen until there is an almost imperceptible movement and then slowly but surely it gathers momentum,” he said, adding that he truly believed the Falklands were now gathering momentum. 'It takes time, but we must keep the pressure up,' he said. MLA Ian Hansen said the Public Diplomacy move concentrated on over the last two to three years had been a brave and controversial move, but he believed it had 'paid off.' MLA Roger Edwards said this Assembly would leave the Islands in a stronger position with regard to Public diplomacy. 'We have certainly countered the political lies and threats by Argentina and have spread the message about the Falklands across the world,' he said. MLA Mike Summers said it seemed he had spent little time in this House and little time in the Falklands. 'I apologize to those I have a duty to represent, but it is part of the Public Diplomacy process and an essential part of our work,' he said."

Nezavisimaya Gazeta posts article on Azerbaijan and international support for President Ilham Aliyev - bsanna-news.ukrinform.ua: From Russian online newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta: "A member of the Civic Chamber of Russia, deputy head of the working group on the international cooperation and public diplomacy Sergey Markov believes that 'the first visit of the Russian President Vladimir Putin to the South Caucasus, namely to Azerbaijan is undoubtedly an expression of the positive attitude of the Russian leadership towards Azerbaijan."

Never too late to sober up - Emily Amrousi, israelhayom.com: "We are the children of Oslo, 93 (a parody of the nationally recognized song 'the children of winter, 73' about the devastation of the Yom Kippur war) -- as sung by the comedians of the lampoon website Latma -- is a sad satire of the now 20-year-old accords. We were promised doves and olive branches, and instead we got 1,550 terror victims. That is an average of one person every four days over the span of 20 years. The elderly, mothers, babies, teens -- every four days, one is taken. I would like to be able to defend the architects of the Oslo Accords -- maybe they really did long uncontrollably for peace. But that is not how you achieve peace. Trying to achieve peace by placing the security reins in the enemy's hands is like trying to turn the Earth in the opposite direction. Want peace? What you need to do is get down to work and ensure the physical needs of the civilian population: provide assistance to the Palestinian education system and make sure the incitement against Israel stops; invest in public diplomacy; strike a neighborly relationship on the basis of commerce and a solid economy; initiate meetings in efforts to break barriers. The last thing you should do in order to promote peace is to give up control over security issues, hand out weapons and hand over semi-military sovereignty to the very people who constantly declare that they want to destroy you."

60 Years Ago This Month: The Israeli Navy Lay the Foundations for a Long Tradition of Humanitarian Aid - David Saranga, huffingtonpost.com: "Sixty years ago this month, long before the Internet was invented, Greece was devastated by one of the most powerful earthquakes Europe had ever experienced. ... Israeli Navy soldiers ... went on a mission to rescue the residents of the Greek islands. ... This month, the Ambassador of Israel to Greece Arye Mekel received on behalf of the Israeli Government a certificate of honor from the local authorities as a gesture of appreciation for the events that took place 60 years ago.


It was the first act of Israeli humanitarian aid operation in a disaster zone. The heroism of the Navy soldiers laid the foundations for a long tradition of Israeli humanitarian aid operations, used as a Public Diplomacy tool, as witnessed many years later in Japan,Haiti, Turkey, and many other places." Image from entry

Mizoram has a key role in ‘Look East Policy’ - Linda Chhakchhuak, assamtribune.com: "Building on its relationship with ASEAN countries is the cornerstone of India’s Look East Policy (LEP) and for that the Northeastern States, particularly Mizoram has a key role to play, said PS Raghavan, Special Secretary (Development Partnership Administration) in the Union Ministry of External Affairs. He was presenting his key-note address at the International Conference on Regionalism, Sub-regionalism and Connectivity: India’s Foreign Policy in the 21st Century . ... The two day conference is being organised by the Jadavpur Association of International Relations and supported by the Public Diplomacy Division of MEA, the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies (MAKAIAS) and the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR)."

Country Branding: Key lessons and challenges - Mary Kimonye,capitalfm.co.ke: "In March 2008 Kenya took a bold step to put in place a National Branding program. By so doing Kenya joined a small circle of nations that have dared to undertake this awesome and challenging journey. ... Countries often make the mistake of promising similar generic things like educated work force, youthful population, great sites and locations without regard to how potential customers perceive the country.


Most potential customers want more than these. They want stability, security, ease of movement, acceptance, respect etc. Finally, Country branding needs coordination and cooperation across all levels and sectors: trade, tourism, public diplomacy culture, investment, FDI and citizens. This will usually prevail in a situation of visionary leadership at all levels." Image from

Namibia: 2014/15 Chevening Scholarships in Namibia - allafrica.com: "Applications for the 2014/15 Chevening Scholarships in Namibia open online from 01 September to 15 November 2013. What are Chevening Scholarships? Chevening Scholarships are the UK government's global scholarship programme, funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and partner organisations. The Scholarships are an important element in Britain's public diplomacy effort and bring young professionals, who have already displayed outstanding leadership talents, to study in the UK. Chevening Scholarships operate in 116 countries worldwide, and this year will support over 600 individuals. Awards are typically for a one-year Master's degree (although some awards are for tailor-made short courses), in the subjects Trade, Human Rights, Governance, Media, and Climate Change, and at any of the UK's leading universities."

Fall Semester Intern, NSLI-Y - serviceinternships.com: "The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) administration team at American Councils seeks a fall semester intern to assist with tasks in alumni development and program administration under the direction of co-supervisors. ... Qualifications ... Academic or professional interest in international education, public diplomacy, or related field.

Farah Amini - angsamerahclinic.blogspot.com: "Currently, as Public Affairs Specialist for Australia’s Education Partnership with Indonesia, Ms. Amini


developed the public diplomacy strategy to promote Australia’s contribution in education and assisted in the preparation of activity implementation." Image from entry

RELATED ITEMS

Enforcing a 'red line' in Syria: If new reports of a government chemical weapons attack are confirmed, the U.S. must act - Editorial, Los Angeles Times: Last August, even as he resisted the notion of U.S. military intervention in Syria, President Obama said that "a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. That would change my calculus." If new reports of the use of nerve gas to massacre hundreds of Syrian civilians are confirmed, Obama must make good on that warning to punish the government and protect its population. Image from


The Corpses in Syria - Editorial, New York Times: We have supported Mr. Obama’s cautious approach to Syria, his unwillingness to embroil the United States in another Middle East war and his push for a negotiated solution, which Russia and Mr. Assad continue to thwart. But chemical weapons would be a chilling escalation. The White House insisted again on Wednesday that those responsible for using them “must be held accountable.” At some point, those words have to mean something, whether the culprit is the Syrian government or the rebels.

The Case for Cutting Off Aid to Egypt - Max Boot, cfr.org: A suspension of U.S. military aid to Egypt would lessen our complicity in whatever horrors befall the country next and heighten our credibility when we lecture China, Russia, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, North Korea or Iran on the subject of human rights.

The choice in Egypt - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post: What, then, should be our policy? For now, we should not be cutting off aid, civilian or military, as many in Congress are demanding. It will have no effect, buy no influence and win no friends on either side of the Egyptian divide. We should instead be urging the quick establishment of a new cabinet of technocrats, rapidly increasing its authority as the soldiers gradually return to their barracks.

Jordan’s wary welcome to its Syrian neighbors - Michael Gerson, Washington Post: Jordan — a nation of about 7 million next to a collapsing country of 22 million — is in the process of being overwhelmed. And this demonstrates the yield of foreign aid. During the current crisis, the U.S. government has spent more than $1 billion in the region to limit the spread of chaos. In Jordan, for example, it is involved in renovating 100 schools. This is not an altruistic add-on to U.S. policy; it is a particularly successful, non-military instrument of influence. Donors and humanitarian organizations — such as CARE (which hosted my trip), Mercy Corps and Save the Children — are shifting their focus from emergency refugee assistance toward helping whole communities, trying to mitigate the tensions between migrants and hosts. The success of this approach is essential to Jordan, to the region and to U.S. interests.

The U.S. can afford to rethink aid to Egypt - Michael O’Hanlon, Washington Post: The bottom line is that, as a superpower blessed by easy access to open oceans both east and west, the United States has options. The last thing we want to signal to Cairo at this crucial moment is anything to the contrary.

State Department Says Unionizing Its Foreign National Workers Would Threaten Security - Eric Katz, govexec.com: The State Department has rejected an attempt to unionize foreign nationals working for the agency, according to a letter department officials sent a union. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers -- a union housed within the AFL-CIO -- reached out to the State Department about the possibility of unionizing more than 40,000 “locally employed” staff in foreign countries. State responded that it does not have the legal grounds to seek a collective bargaining arrangement with the employees.


Additionally, the State Department said it simply had no interest in seeking to unionize the employees. “Such unionization at diplomatic and consular missions is fundamentally incompatible with the basic functions and operations of such missions,” Steven Polson, State’s chief labor-management negotiator, wrote in the letter. He added unionization “could, frankly put our foreign relations and national security at risk.” Image from

A Question of How Women’s Issues Will Fare, in Washington and Overseas - Sarah Wheaton, New York Times: Secretary of State John Kerry is primarily focused on forging Middle East peace, not women’s issues.

Final call for Propaganda: Power and Persuasion at the British Library - David Blackburn, blogs.spectator.co.uk: Propaganda: Power and Persuasion features more persuasion than power. Goebbels and Uncle Sam are represented, but do not dominate. Indeed, the curators challenge the notion that propaganda is negative or a necessary evil when at war. The curators openly entertain a link between advertising, the media and political parties in the great struggle for the public’s attention, votes and wallets; a struggle in which information is both a coercive and a persuasive tool. The show, then, doubles as a history of mass media and ‘spin’. It concludes that we’re entering a new epoch in which social media and micro-technology are rendering propaganda and message control obsolete. The show’s only weakness is that it doesn’t ask if the old schemes succeeded. To be fair, passing such a judgment would be tricky because many campaigns had unspecific aims. ‘Dig for Victory’ is now thought to have made a negligible contribution to the war effort, but it did boost morale through the dark days of 1940-2. It must have been clear to the government that the nation could not live by allotments alone, so was the purpose of the campaign to be seen to be proactive at a time of crisis? If so, was such propaganda truthful?

RUSSICA


Моя Россия -- "My Russia." Via JJ on facebook

AMERICANA


Via FW on Facebook

"[I]n regards topublic diplomacy. My understanding of the art is 'say much, but say nothing.'"

--Comment by CBT, in Eric Zorn, "The Weeks in Review -- Open Thread," blogs.chicagotribune.com; image from

ROUNDTABLE

Soft power: framing the international agenda (WP1300) - wiltonpark.org.uk: "Wednesday 11 - Friday 13 December, 2013 ... The 7th roundtable meeting in the Wilton Park public diplomacy, soft power series.


The expert roundtable will provide an opportunity to explore ways in which soft power can be deployed and coordinated to best effect, particularly in support of foreign policy objectives." Image of Wiston House, location of the conference

KRISPY KREME [LIN?] AND U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY


From Facebook: "[From Public Affairs Officer, American Embassy Moscow Joseph Kruzich, who added 4 photos (one above).] Krispy Kreme doughnuts have arrived in Moscow. We had some at the American Embassy in Moscow yesterday. Delicious! ... "

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

UN Leader's Visit to Israel Shows Waning US Influence in Middle East - Ben Caspit, al-monitor.com: "Netanyahu is a weak prime minister, a failed manager and a controversial leader. However, when it comes to public diplomacy he is unmatched. ... Whenever we think that the Middle East has hit rock bottom, we hear heavy pounding from below, and then it turns out that hitting rock bottom is still quite a ways away.


There’s one truth, however, that’s emerging right before our eyes: The West is losing control over the events. Western deterrence is already nonexistent.The days when everybody would hold their breath waiting for the daily press briefing from the White House are long gone. US President Barack Obama has made a mockery of himself, so much so that nobody really cares about what America thinks, says or does." Image from

The Rhetorical Trap in US Foreign Policy - Gerard Toal, toal.org: "US political leaders are addicted to rhetoric that soars, and that all too frequently produces severe legitimacy crises like [sic] we see today. [']One Response to The Rhetorical Trap in US Foreign Policy David Grondin says: August 20, 2013 at 1:59 am Reblogged this on Militainment and the National Security State and commented: An astute analysis of the recurring problem in US public diplomacy by Gerard Toal via Critical Geopolitics. How to weigh 'interests' against 'security'. [']"

Israel Behind The Egyptian Military Coup? - jonkofas.blogspot.com: "Tel Aviv made the mistake to declare publicly its support for the Egyptian military and to urge EU and US to back the dictatorship of the armed forces, thus raising suspicions among the already 'conspiracy-minded' Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Naturally, Tel Aviv made a dreadful mistake even commenting on the Egyptian situation, but I suppose the right-wing government could not contain its enthusiasm.


Even with hard evidence that Tel Aviv was behind the coup, it really does not matter. The bottom line is to follow the money, and that has a trail leading right back to the same suspects that want a military dictatorship allied to the West and to Israel. The situation becomes even more complicated because the US government has been following a public diplomacy that is not the same as the private one, something a number of administration critics, including Sen. John McCain pointed out. After all is said and done, it seems to me that ... the military coup of Morsi is ... more complicated, and it could not possibly have taken place without mass public opposition to Morsi." Image from

Egypt: On Calling the Coup that Wasn't a Coup a Coup - karl-naylor.blogspot.com: "[T]he shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander's line on the Egyptian coup that cannot be called a coup by Washington lest it is obliged to suspend the $1.3 billion subsidy it provides to the generals to buy US military hardware is to tell Britain he thinks it really is a coup. ... The only reason Alexander calls it a coup now is because he wants to differentiate himself from those who are not calling it a coup because the US cannot call it a coup. Many people across the world know it's a coup, some why Obama and Hague won't call it a coup and most don't care that Douglas Alexander is now calling it a coup because Hague cannot. The rest of Alexander's article is a mere string of banal and robotic 'public diplomacy' platitudes."

Iraq eyes US to fight insurgents: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s desire for US military help to fight the Sunni insurgency could prove tricky for both Baghdad and Washington - Salah Nasrawi, weekly.ahram.org.eg: "[T]he security deterioration has also forced Al-Maliki to think the unthinkable and seek military and security help from the United States, whose military presence provoked more resistance than it suppressed during its 10-year occupation of Iraq.


Last week, he dispatched Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and two of his most trusted aides to request the United States to provide assistance in combating Al-Qaeda infiltrators in Iraq. While Zebari handled the public diplomacy in Washington, the behind-the-scenes talks were conducted by Falah Fayadh, national security adviser to Al-Maliki, and Tarik Najm, a political adviser to the prime minister. According to US media reports, the Iraqi officials were seeking a military and security package that would include Apache helicopters and the prospect of sending intelligence officers to Iraq to help the security services target Al-Qaeda operatives in the country. Some reports also suggested that Iraq was asking the United States to send drones that could be used in counter-terrorism operations, including the fight against Al-Qaeda." Image from article, with caption: Iraqi security forces inspect damaged vehicles after a bomb attack in Baghdad’s Kadhimiya district. A series of car bombs killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 100 last Thursday.

The original American cuisine; the new American cuisine – Paul Rockower, Levantine: “Two interesting articles, one on Nephi Craig and the rediscovery of Native American cuisine within the American culinary landscape. Oh man, I hope someone at the Culinary Diplomacy Initiative at State reads this piece, because Craig would be the perfect gastrodiplomat. And Native American food would make phenomenal gastrodiplomacy to share around the globe.The other article is an interesting piece on the Goya empire, its connection with Latino consumers and how it brought ethnic food to White America.”

Active Citizen Summit 2.0 - griffin, American Council of Young Political Leaders: "Last year, ACYPL, in partnership with the Department of State’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of Press and Public Diplomacy, hosted the first-ever Active Citizen Summit. The program brought together 49 young political and civil society leaders from across the Middle East and North Africa and gave them the opportunity to engage in interactive leadership and communications training, short-term campaign internships, substantive policy discussions, and informal relationship building. Participants concluded the program with individual presentations on a project they developed during the program, and several of these projects are currently being implemented across the region. Well, we are thrilled to announce that we have been given the privilege and opportunity to host the Active Citizen Summit 2.0, which is focused on issues related to youth employment. The program will begin in the Bay Area with participants attending training sessions, then they will be placed in 2-day internships that align with their work on employment issues in their own countries, and finish in DC at the State Department."

Al Jazeera's American Play -- Interviewee: William Youmans, Professor, George Washington University; Interviewer: Robert McMahon, Editor, CFR - cfr.org: "The launch this month of Al Jazeera America raises questions about the Qatar-funded station's motives and prospects for success in a crowded cable TV marketplace. Qatar's government appears to be trying to advance a public diplomacy mission by emphasizing a strong news presence, says William Youmans, a media expert and assistant professor at George Washington University. The channel, investing hundreds of millions of dollars, could succeed in an increasingly fragmented news landscape, he says. 'There's a large percentage of Americans who still think of Al Jazeera as sort of terrorism TV,' Youmans says. 'But there's a significantly larger population that will be open minded if the product is good, if the product is professional.'"

Reporting Legend Christopher Harper Destroys Al Jazeera for Lifting ‘Old Soviet Propaganda Handbook’- Noah Rothman, mediaite.com:  "Harper and his reporting team were nominated for two Emmy awards before he joined ABC’s 20/20 in 1986 where he worked until 1995. The accomplished reporter has been teaching journalism since then, first at New YorkUniversity and later at TempleUniversity.


Detailing Harper’s background is important because it lends even more gravity to his sharply worded criticism of Al Jazeera America in National Review. Criticism is, in fact, a feeble term to describe Harper’s evisceration of the American arm of the Qatar-based reporting outfit. Harper’s critique is cutting and comprehensive. He takes issue with institutional and mechanical aspects of Al Jazeera’s approach to television news, but he also criticizes the network from a 30,000 foot perspective. Harper identifies a lack of originality in what he perceives to be Al Jazeera’s anti-American mission. Twice, he was transported to the old Soviet Union where anti-American propaganda broadcasts about the United States often focused on systemic poverty, racial tensions, and mistreatment of a ballooning prison population. He does not seem pleased that Al Jazeera is resurrecting these tired propagandist themes, but at least their lack of originality means that it requires slightly less intellectual energy to unpack them."  Harper image from article

Wanted: An Externally Oriented Japan - nippon.com: "Under Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, Japan is charting a more confident course, although one more troubling to some of its neighbors. We spoke with veteran international relations specialist Kent Calder about recent developments and the prospects for Japan’s public diplomacy. ... INTERVIEWER [Peter Durfee, a director of the Nippon Communications Foundation] With respect to the softer aspects of outreach, Japan is spending more these days on public-relations projects, such as its 'Cool Japan' support for culture creators. CALDER It’s certainly a positive thing for Japan to appeal to younger people. No doubt in the longer term that will be important. Coming from Washington, though, the more immediate issue I see is insufficient understanding of where Japan is right now, in terms of its policies and the way it looks at the future. There are still lingering remnants of things that happened in the first Abe administration that are misperceived. His second administration has a different stance in some ways, which isn’t adequately understood. I think the immediate priority for Japanese diplomacy and policy right now is to foster an understanding that Japan is back, that it’s contributing to the global economy in very constructive ways. ... INTERVIEWER Do you think that Japan is unskilled at this sort of public diplomacy, or at relating to other cultures? CALDER I’m actually doing a comparative study on this right now. I feel that Japan is internally oriented, even in some of its external diplomacy. There’s real value in having an on-the-ground presence in key countries—not only in the United States, but in Southeast Asia, as just one area that I would stress. Interaction with the outside world through other foreigners, as well as through articulate Japanese representatives, is key, as is wider use of social media and the Internet. Certainly, there have been some very articulate Japanese ambassadors, in Washington in particular. But it’s tremendously important to have spokespeople, a presence on the ground, in a range of institutions—in Washington and elsewhere, especially on the nongovernmental side—to present Japan’s views, or views that show an understanding of Japan."

Turkey, Greece sign deal to cooperate on press: The agreement between the two countries underlines friendship between their peoples; mutual understanding; and their aim to develop cooperation - worldbulletin.net: "According to Article 1 of the agreement, the two countries should promote, when needed, the consultation and cooperation that take place between public information and communication offices, namely Turkey's Office of the Prime Ministry and the Directorate General of Press and Information and their counterparts in Greece.


In accordance with Article 2, the countries should encourage cooperation between their respective newspapers, news agencies and other information services with a view to promoting the exchange of information and printed material. Article 4 underlines that the countries should establish a Committee of Strategic Communication that would draft the two countries' Annual Plan for Strategic Communication on an annual basis. Through that plan, measures promoting public diplomacy and communication should be decided on and implemented, aiming to bring closer the people of the two countries by promoting mutual understanding, cooperation and friendship." Image from

A Typical Day at a UNRWA Summer Camp - Miriam Woelke, meashearim.wordpress.com: "The vast majority of the world’s population hates Israel and favours Palestinians but has no clue of what is really going on in the Middle East. It is more than obvious that Arab countries are able to spend tremendous amounts of money of their own PR. Israel has, compared to the Palestinians, a terrible Hasbara (public diplomacy). One reason is the lack of money and, secondly, mainly idiots seem to work in the Israeli Hasbara field. At least employees with no clue about how people outside of Israel view the international media."

Falklands’ lawmaker begins round of contacts in Brazil’s main cities: Falkland Islands lawmaker Dick Sawle is expected next week in Brazil where he will be meeting representatives from the business community, students’ organizations and share lunch with a group of members of Congress, announced British ambassador in Brasilia Alex Ellis - "Falklands MLAs have been actively involved in an intense public diplomacy campaign in Latinamerican countries to give


their side of the Islands sovereignty dispute with Argentina, and have been quite successful in achieving their goals with a strong echo in the media of different countries visited. But Brazil was still missing and MLA Sawle will be doing the round of talks and PR in Latam’s largest economy and with great influence over regional diplomacy." Image from article, with caption: MLA Sawle is fluent in Spanish and has good command of Portuguese

Why I ambushed Russia’s news network with rainbow suspenders - James Kirchick, Washington Post: "Formerly 'Russia Today,' RT is Moscow’s multilingual, global cable news network. ... RT’s pernicious influence [is that of] ... an outlet that poses as a legitimate news organization, yet is anything but.


For too long, journalists in democratic countries who take Western freedoms for granted have either accepted job offers or appeared on this network and others like it, lending these propaganda outlets undeserved credibility. They should instead treat RT with the contempt it merits." Image from; on RT, see

Students size up Cuba — a country frozen in time - Greg Asciutto, news.usc.edu: "USC students studied the shifting political, social and economic landscapes in Cuba for the second consecutive summer as the result of a collaboration of three schools — the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Price School of Public Policy. Under the


direction of professors Roberto Suro and Pamela Starr, 25 students from several disciplines — public relations, public diplomacy, specialized journalism, strategic communications and international relations — spent one month immersed in research and investigation of all things Cuba. Image from entry, with caption: The streets of Havana offered students a chance to find experiences relevant to their own interests. 

Economic Development through Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and a Sustainable Private Sector in Palestine Ahmad Hassanein, techwadi.org: "Sabry Saidam, Founder, Palestine Digital Library and e-Republic ... Dr. Saidam has completed numerous ICT- related studies, the last of which was on ICT in the MENA region (2011-2015). He is the Co-founder of PNB, the Palestine Institute of Public Diplomacy, and of the Palestine Education for Employment (EFE). Dr. Saidam received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in the U.K. and a certification in Human Development at Oxford University."

RELATED ITEMS

What the U.S. should stand for in Egypt - Anne Applebaum, Washington Post: It’s none of our business


who runs Egypt and we shouldn’t be “backing” anybody at all. Now that the military is in power, we should come out loudly and clearly against its coup and use whatever limited influence we have to persuade the generals to return Egypt to constitutional rule. Image from

The Ugly American Telegram - Andrew J. Bacevich, New York Times: In Washington, the conviction that removing obstreperous leaders, whether adversaries like Saddam Hussein or “friends” like Hosni Mubarak, facilitates Washington’s ability to steer events remains the most persistent — and dangerous — of illusions. Yet time and again, the effect has been to let loose the forces of anarchy.

El-Sisi’s reign of terror and the propaganda of ‘Fascism': Discourses about the legitimacy of the interim government continue to obscure the reality on the ground, writes scholar - Irfan Ahmad, aljazeera.com: On August 17, the military regime’s mention of ‘potential terrorism’ as the enemy became amply official with the press conference of Mustafa Hegazy, advisor to the ‘President’ Adly Mansour. As he began to speak in English, itself quite a statement about who his principal audience was, on the top left of the TV screen appeared a crisp phrase in English: ‘Egypt Fights Terrorism’.


Obediently rehearsing Islamophobia, Hegazi mentioned ‘religious fascism’ and ‘theological fascism’ more than once to justify the brutality of the regime and hundreds of deaths it orchestrated. His attack on foreign media to suppress truth was indeed to hide the falsehood of the military regime he was paid to speak for. Hegazi’s press conference will go down in history as shameless propaganda, in some respects outsmarting even Goebbels’, in instituting lies and vilifying the Egyptians fighting for civil rights, freedom and democracy. Importantly, the pro-coup Egyptian media as well as the mainstream Western media like CNN continued to call the anti-coup demonstrators either pro-Morsi or Brotherhood supporters. The designation ‘Pro-Morsi’ personalised the issue without ever telling people the just cause they stood for. It also downplayed the fact that those participating in sit-ins were not just pro-Morsi supporters; they also included people unaffiliated with the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) but supporting democracy. Image from article

Egypt uses victims’ bodies as weapons in propaganda war - Catherine Philp, The Times [subscription]. Image from entry, with caption: Egyptians seeking


the bodies of relatives killed at protest camps have been asked to lie about the cause of death.

Syria's propaganda war over chemical weapons - dw.de: The Syrian opposition has claimed once again that the Bashar al-Assad regime has used chemical weapons against its own people. But a gas attack would not fit in with the president's strategy so far, say analysts. Coincidence, or deliberate provocation? Just as the UN weapons inspectors arrived in Syria to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use by the government, the opposition groups have reported more use of such weapons. Margret Johannsen, Middle East expert at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH) at Hamburg University, said the exact circumstances of the attacks needed to be established.

Syria gas attack story has whiff of Saudi war propaganda -William Engdahl, rt.com: The reports of massive chemical attacks in Syria might become the “red line” for the US for active military intervention. But even rudimentary analysis of the story shows it is too early to believe its credibility. The Middle Eastern newspaper, Al  rabiya, reports that “At least 1,300 people have been killed in a nerve gas attack on Syria’s Ghouta region, leading opposition figure George Sabra said on Wednesday…” The paper went on to claim that the Government of President Bashar al Assad was responsible for the attacks. If confirmed it could be the “red line” that US President Obama previously stated would tip the US into active military intervention in Syria, using No Fly Zones and active military steps to depose Assad.


That in turn could erupt into a conflagration across the Middle East and a Super Power confrontation with Russia and China and Iran on one side, and the USA, UK, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar on the opposite side. Not a happy prospect for world peace at all. Therefore the story is worth analyzing carefully. When we do, several things jump out as suspicious. First the newspaper breaking the story was Al Arabiya, initially saying that at least 500 people have been killed, according to activists. From there it got picked up by major international media. Making the story more fishy by the minute were reports from different media of the alleged number of dead that changed by the minute - 635 then to 800 by USA Today and 1,300 by Rupert Murdoch’s SkyNews. Image from article, with caption: Handout image released by the Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows bodies of children and adults laying on the ground as Syrian rebels claim they were killed in a toxic gas attack by pro-government forces in eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21, 2013

A Peek Inside Kerry’s ‘Peace’ Efforts Or Propaganda?– Sam Bahour, Palestine Chronicle, posted at Eurasia Review: If the U.S. and Israel continue to choose the game of might is right, then they should expect, sooner rather than later, a new generation of Palestinians to look Israel straight in the eye and say, “You win! You get it all Israel: Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, both east and west sides, all of the settlements, all of the water, all of the Jordan Valley, all of the electromagnetic spectrum, all of the airspace, and most importantly, you also get all of us. Now, we heard you have free health care in Israel; where do we pick up our medical cards? We also want some of that free education too.” In other words, if the U.S. and Israel are adamant to throw into the sea international law, humanitarian law, UN resolutions, human rights, rights of refugees, and sheer common sense, then expect the Palestinians to redefine their self-determination from a struggle for statehood to a struggle for civil rights between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. In the words of the late Palestinian (and global) intellectual, Edward Said, it’s “equality or nothing.” What is it about these three simple words that are so hard to comprehend?

Protons and propaganda: A visit to Israel's new nuclear science museum -- The Nuclear Science Museum in Be'er Sheva is, instructive, perplexing and unique – the only other nuclear museums are located in France and in the U.S. - Roy (Chicky) Arad, haaretz.com: "[I]t quickly becomes clear that this is not your usual science exhibit, but rather a propaganda campaign aimed at thousands of schoolchildren. More than it’s geared to reveal, the Nuclear Science Museum is designed to screen and calm the revulsion and criticism likely to be aroused by the topic of nuclear reactors and atomic bombs.

My suspicion is validated when, in the museum’s main hall, I spy a sign about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The whole text is 23 words long: 'The bombs were dropped in August 1945 to end World War II. Japan surrendered five days after the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.' Nothing negative is mentioned about the bomb that will be forever remembered as a scar in the human chronicle; its 200,000 dead and countless cancer victims are entirely ignored. The bombing is made to seem reasonable and effective, just another kids’ activity." Image from article, with caption: 'The Nucleus of Science' exhibition

Neo-Nazis Use Leo Frank Case for Anti-Semitic Propaganda Push: White Supremacists Exploit Interest in Jewish Lynch Victim - Paul Berger, forward.com: The conviction and lynching of Leo Frank a century ago galvanized the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan. Today, the centenary of Frank’s murder trial is galvanizing neo-Nazis. A slew of anti-Semitic websites, some professionally designed and purporting to be balanced online archives with URLs like leofrank.info and leofrank.org, are seeking

to attract curious researchers and to revise history. “This is an attempt to reach the minds of young people and poison them,” said Mark Potok, editor-in-chief of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Report. Leo Frank was convicted of the murder of 13-yearold Mary Phagan in Atlanta in 1913. Two years later, after his death sentence was reduced to life in prison, a group of men kidnapped Frank from prison and lynched him. Image from entry

Ad-Free’ Cuba far from being propaganda free - Alberto de la Cruz, babalublog.com: In an article in Forbes, Eric Goldman explores the lack of commercial advertising in Cuba. He surmises that the reason Cuba is "ad free" is because basically, the Cuban people cannot afford to purchase much of anything. Instead of 11-million consumers, Cuba has 11-million people living in poverty and misery under the jackboot of a communist dictatorship that owns everything and controls practically every single aspect of the economy and society. While Goldman (to his credit) was able to determine the correct reason behind the lack of commercial advertising on the island, he is completely off the mark in his declaration that advertising in Cuba is for all intents and purposes non existent. In reality, there is a plethora of advertising throughout the entire island that on a daily basis assaults the senses of both Cubans and tourists alike. That advertising can be seen on almost every street, on most of the buildings, on billboards in cities and highways, on radio, and on television. That advertising is called propaganda. Images from article





PLA officer criticises 'Pacific Rim' as US propaganda - James Griffiths, shanghaiist.com:

America Lite: America's diminished credibility and influence - Bob Taylor, Washington Times: There was a time when the United States stood for something and usually responded with action. Today we seem to stand for nothing and only respond with words. We have become the Twitter States of America. We are now America Lite. Our country cannot, and should not, be involved in every situation that arises around the globe, but our presence as a deterrent against evil should always be recognized as a threat to rogue nation. In that regard, our global influence has been greatly diminished by the present administration. The time has come to stop pretending domestic and international problems do not exist and start doing something about them.

How the NSA’s boss can believe his agency’s own propaganda - Timothy B. Lee, Washington Post: National Security Agency director Keith Alexander is hardly the only leader of a powerful institution who is unduly optimistic about the benevolence and effectiveness of the organization he leads. Think, for example, of George W. Bush with his “Mission Accomplished” sign.


Spending time at the apex of a powerful institution almost inevitably gives people a skewed understanding of the world. The tendency to promote team players and marginalize dissenters creates a danger of groupthink at the highest levels of the organization. The problem is exacerbated by people’s reluctance to tell their bosses bad news. Each level of the bureaucracy gives its bosses a sugar-coated version of the information it receives from subordinates. By the time information reaches the top, it can be dramatically skewed. Alexander image from article

Propaganda: Key To The Communist Takeover In Russia - Monica Showalter, news.investors.com: Propaganda was decisive in the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution of 1917. From its very beginning, "The Soviet state was more permeated with propaganda than any other," wrote University of California historian Peter Kenez in "The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929." It was astonishing that a ragtag, uncouth band of conspiratorially inclined communists, led by V.I. Lenin, managed to topple the mighty czar of Russia and the weak social democratic government that followed him, decisively taking power in the October 1917 revolution. But much of it can be explained by their mastery of propaganda, which was stronger, simpler, more centralized, more national and more quickly delivered than that of any of their socialist rivals.

In pictures: World War I propaganda posters to go on sale online - dailyrecord.co.uk: A lottery grant of £51,300


will allow the McLean Museum in Greenock to scan the collection of around 300 original posters and make them available on the internet. Image from entry

Propaganda Posters Urge You To Resist The 'Super Mario Bros.' Threat! - Charles Webb, multiplayerblog.mtv.com: What if the the Koopas started up an all-out, World War II-style propaganda campaign against the murderous Italian plumber, leaping his way through their homeland, attempting to interfere with the internal politics of the Mushroom Kingdom? That's more or less the premise of the "Mario WW2 Propaganda series" of which you can see more after the jump.


The posters are the work of the Fro Design Company aka L.A.-based graphic designer and web artist Fernando Reza. The images evoke the print propaganda campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic against the Nazi threat, one image drawing directly from the iconic first issue of "Captain America" where our hero socks old Hitler in the jaw. Image from entry

VIDEO

WoW Moviewatch: Horde Propaganda - Michael Gray, "Horde Propaganda is a little bit of a diversion from Slightly Impressive's usual style, but it's one that I enjoy. Taking a page from those old timey propaganda films, Griff commits a solid send up of both the Garrosh loyalists and the all over war effort."

SOVIETICA


-Via LH on Facebook

"How did the world turn before acronyms? I think it probably did just fine."

--Cathy Davidson, "MOOC, SPOC, DOCC, Massive Online Face2Face Open . . . (Uh Oh!): Age of the Acronym," hastac.org; image from

CONFERENCE

Eastern Partnership – Perspectives of Cultural Diplomacy | Conference 29-31 August, Kraków, Poland - eastbook.eu: "The main goal of this event is to initiate discussion on prospects of development of the Eastern Partnership and set new goals in the context of Cultural Diplomacy. The organizers want to analyse completed projects and try to anticipate future policy. The conference will promote active cooperation between state institutions and non-governmental organisations from the European Union and the countries of the Eastern Partnership that carry out activities in the domain of culture and art. ... Project co-financed by the Department of Public and Cultural Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland as part of the Call for Proposals 'Cooperation in public diplomacy 2013'."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Nigeria: U.S. - Nigeria Requires Strong Character to Overcome Terrorism - Chineme Okafor, allafrica.com: "A statement issued Wednesday, from the Public Affairs Section of the US Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria in Abuja, which contained a summary of propositions presented to the federal government by its Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman, disclosed that Sherman had also asked the Nigerian government to provide more training for the Nigerian military and other services to address the challenges it faces, particularly with the insurgency in the North. The statement, which was part of the conclusion reached at the ninth meeting of the


Nigerian-US Bi-National Commission (BNC), also stated that the US acknowledged the need for greater public diplomacy in terms of communicating to the people that justice and accountability are important in the fight against terrorism." See also (1) (2). Image from

U.S. Consul urges Nigerian youths to emulate Luther King’s virtues- ngrguardiannews.com: "United States (U.S.) Consul General, Jeffrey Hawkins, has urged Nigerian youths to emulate the late American civil rights leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by tapping their creative abilities to dream big in order to forge a better and brighter Nigeria. Hawkins made the call through the Public Affairs Officer of the United States Consulate General in Lagos, Mrs. Dehab Ghebreab, at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the 'I Have a Dream' Speech by Luther King, Jr. at the Magnolia Hall of the City Mall in Lagos. The event was attended by almost 1,000 Nigerian youths, mostly members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the Lagos State Coordinator of NYSC, Mrs. Adenike Adeyemi. ... Also, Public Diplomacy Officer Rhonda J. Watson announced the consulate’s launch of a 'Dream or Prophecy' essay /speech contest and delivered remarks aimed at motivating the youth to be inspired by King’s selfless dedication to service to improve the lives of others. Using MLK’s ability to articulate his dream for equality for all people using persuasive oratorical skills as a model, she announced the launch of the consulate’s essay speech contest from September 1 to October 31, 2013 and encouraged Nigerian youth between the ages of 18-30 to submit their 500-word essay entry explaining their dream for Nigeria and what role they can play to improve the country. Essay entries should be submitted to: http://tinyurl.com/essay50mlk."

Lebanon: Strida Geagea’s Failed Media Spectacle - Ibrahim al-Amin, english.al-akhbar.com: "Despite being thoroughly prepped for her first television appearance on MTV, Lebanese Forces MP Strida Geagea – wife of civil war militia leader Samir Geagea – nevertheless missed her cues and forgot her lines. The Lebanese Forces decided to bring out the heavy guns. Feeling compelled to respond to many unanswered questions and a recent report in Al-Akhbar about marital problems with her controversial husband, Strida Geagea took to the airwaves to set the record straight.


The interview was little more than a co-production between the Lebanese Forces and MTV, planned carefully to avoid any embarrassing gaffes on the part of the Lebanese Forces’ first lady. ... Strida and MTV in American Eyes [:] ... [a] cable in February 2009 (BEIRUT147), this time by [U.S. Ambassador] Michele Sison, takes up the issue of MTV’s intention to begin broadcasting again after being closed down for a few years: [']A MTV senior source told Embassy Public Diplomacy[PD] staff there are two main reasons for re-launching the station. The first reason is that, during this election period, many politicians are willing to pay money and, therefore, this is the best time to raise funds. The other reason is that Arab advertising tycoon Antoine Choueiri pulled out from LBCI (the major TV station in Lebanon) and is willing to cover MTV. They can now guarantee at least ten million dollars in advertising revenues but they are still negotiating the deal.['] Image from entry, with caption: Poor Strida. She apparently got lost in all the details and may have memorized her lines wrong, for the first edition of Al-Akhbar did not appear until several months after both men were killed!

Hanging out with Chimamanda and friends - Akintayo Abodunrin, tribune.com.ng: "The National Institute for Cultural Orientation got a surprise gift during its 20th anniversary marked with a series of activities last weekend in Lagos. It was celebration galore for the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) last weekend as it marked its 20th anniversary with two events in Lagos. The first was its fourth annual public lecture entitled ‘Nollywood as an Instrument for Nigeria’s Cultural Diplomacy: Reflections of a Cultural Administrator’ on Friday, August 16 while the maiden convocation ceremony of its training school happened the following day. Actor and academic, Professor Ayo Akinwale delivered the lecture at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island.


Eminent theatre and film scholars, filmmakers, culture activists and people of goodwill gathered to hear Akinwale speak on the phenomenal Nollywood and its utility as a tool for cultural diplomacy. ... Chair of the occasion and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Management Services), University of Lagos, Professor Duro Oni, noted that the lecture was in line with NICO’s mandate and that the topic was timely and significant. He said that given the popularity of Nollywood, it has not only become a phenomenon in the art circuit, it has also become a potent tool for Nigeria’s cultural diplomacy. ... Akinwale, the Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Ilorin appraised the content, form and structure of Nigerian films to highlight the ones that can promote the country positively and those that cannot. He highlighted how countries are increasingly using their films to sell their cultural values and images but that this is not the case with majority of Nigerian films." Image from entry

Mozambique Seeks Diamond Partnership With Angola - Israel Diamond Portal: "Angola has vast experience in the area of diamond mining, and Mozambique, its neighbor two countries over to the east, would like to draw on that experience, All Africa reports. Mozambique


Minister of Mineral Resources Esperanca Bias met in Maputo, the nation's capital, with her Angolan counterpart Minister of Geology and Mines Manuel Queiroz, and stated publicly that his country could benefit from Angolan technical knowledge. ... Queiroz noted that the two countries have long coordinated their public diplomacy but potential economic ties between the two southern African nations have not been maximized - a situation their respective governments now hope to remedy, according to All Africa." Image from entry, with caption: Diamond miners in Africa

Foreign Policy: Formulation and Strategy; Interview with Dr. Anindya Jyoti Majumdar - "Graduated from Presidency College, Kolkata, Dr. Anindya Jyoti Majumdar pursued Ph.D. program of studies in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi where he specialized in Disarmament Studies. He at present teaches in the Department of International Relations, at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He had been a Research Consultant with the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi. He visited University of South Carolina, USA, under a Fulbright Program and attended various other international schedules including regional Defence and Cooperative Security workshops in Shanghai and Colombo. ... [Q:] 1. How can more youth participation be ensured in matters of foreign policy formulation, keeping the level of expertise intact? Foreign-policy makers in the Ministry of External Affairs have initiated the Public Diplomacy Division to establish links with the civil society ostensibly for better interactions. The youth may use the PD programs as a platform to express their views, provide feedback and response and influence the decision-making process. However, formulation of foreign policy still remains a domain of the experts. The youth may be encouraged to enter the channels of diplomacy via the Indian Foreign Service and thereby bring in a fresh outlook."

4 tips for an effective outreach into India - Madhur, The Public Diplomacy Blog: This year’s been difficult for India. From economic policy paralysis, corruption of a scale unheard of earlier and a rapidly depreciating Rupee, it is not a very happy situation. Nonetheless, given the country’s strong institutional framework, its influence in South Asia, commitment to a democratic tradition, size of economy and size of population, attempts to engage with India (politically, socially, culturally or for business) will continue. Besides, India underwent a lot of changes in the last two decades and is a very different country today. For an effective communications outreach into India, remember to factor in the following: I. AUDIENCE: Youth will be the primary drivers of your message. ... II. MESSAGE: Localize your message and content for India; for each of its regions. ... III. TONALITY: Aspiration is what it should represent. Irrespective of geography or socio economic standing. ... IV. MEDIUM: Do not forget alternative media, the ubiquitous mobile phone and social co-creation. ... See this excellent slideshare presentation below by Mohit Chhabra:


Bayani V. Mangibin: Promoting culture, pride and the Filipino identity - Pacific Daily News: "Consul General Bayani V. Mangibin says having pride in the Filipino national identity means spreading cultural awareness to the community through leadership, determination, dedication, and passion. ... To this end, the Philippine Consulate General, in cooperation with the group, Guam-Filipino Artists, has tried to promote Filipino culture in Guam through the arts.


Bayani says every first Friday of the month, the PCG ... feature[s] Filipino and Filipino-Guamanian artists, showcasing their works of art through various media. In addition, every Independence Day, the PCG and Guam Reef Hotel sponsor a Filipino food festival to promote the national cuisine. ... From a broader perspective, Mangibin is currently tasked with implementing the CUISIA Plan for Guam. CUISA stands for Country USA Intensified and Strategic Integrated Action. The plan aims to develop Guam as a staging post to maximize its resources, and political and commercial potential based on its strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region. The plan requires intensified cooperation between the PCG in Guam and the Philippine Embassy in Washington, DC. The plan will essentially adopt and promote a variety of programs focused on national and economic security, the welfare and interest of Filipino nationals, Philippine culture for national development, public diplomacy towards the improvement of the nation's image and organization development AND institution building." Image from entry, with caption: Consul General Bayani V. Mangibin delivered opening remarks during the 8th Guam Filipino Artists' Monthly Exhibit held on Sept. 7, 2012 at the Philippine Consulate General.

How Powerful Is The Pro-Russian Lobby In Ukraine? - news.kievukraine.info: "On August 9, the leader of the Ukrainian Communist Party, Parliamentarian Petro Symonenko, told Golos Rossiyi that the Communists would begin a campaign to collect four million signatures (a three million threshold is required) for a referendum for Ukraine to integrate into the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the Customs Union, and not into the European Union.


Russian leaders and think tanks close to the Kremlin support these public efforts, which appear to be lobbying to restrain Ukraine from its Western integration path. The Moscow-based Gorchakov Fund for the Support of Public Diplomacy, which describes itself as a 'public-private partnership' to promote Russian foreign policy objectives, serves as one of the key sponsors of this activity. In June–July 2013, the Gorchakov Fund supported the Eurasian Youth Camp Forum in the Crimea, a geopolitics conference in Odessa, and several other policy events in Russia and Belarus, where Ukrainian representatives participated. These events clearly promote the Russian policy of Ukraine’s Eurasian integration, which also means Kiev’s actual subordination to Moscow’s power in relations with the EU. ... Source: The Jamestown Foundation." Image from entry: Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov

Climate Change May Disrupt Monarch Butterfly Migration: Scientific … - Umberto Tassoni, umberto-tassoni.net: "Climate Change, Terrorism, and Public Diplomacy [:] Perhaps the greatest deterrent to extremism is prosperity. If people have a decent place to live, can put food on the table for their families, and see their children healthy and being educated, they are likely to tune out recruitment efforts by … See all stories on this topic."

Disruptive Force? Or Force Multiplier?: Foreign Policy and Diplomacy in the Digital Age - James Stavridis: The Fletcher School, Tufts University: "Dean James Stavridis is the 12th leader of The Fletcher School since its founding in 1933. A retired Admiral in the U.S. Navy, he led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as Supreme Allied Commander. ... [W]e’ll be hosting some exciting speakers here at Fletcher, drawn in part by this extraordinary alumni network and contacts


we’ve made throughout our careers. Our Edward R. Murrow Center of Public Diplomacy, named for the American journalist who essentially reinvented news in the 20th century, will be working on this." Image from entry, with caption: Dean Stavridis with his basset hound, Lilly.

School sets fall Research Colloquium schedule - Indiana University School of Journalism: "The Research Colloquium is designed to give researchers and scholars an opportunity to discuss their work with colleagues for feedback and advice. ... Nov. 22 Assistant professor Emily Metzgar, 'Charting a Discipline’s Development: A


Meta-Analysis of Public Diplomacy Literature.'” Image from

Michael B. Goodman, Ph.D. - corporatecomm.org: "Michael


is Professor and Director of the MA in Corporate Communication at Baruch College, The City University of New York. ... He has edited a Special Issue of the Journal of Business Strategy on 'The Role of Business in Public Diplomacy.'" "Michael"image from entry

RELATED ITEMS

A report card for U.S. policy in the Mideast: How Washington is doing on such issues as winding down military involvement, fighting terrorism and reducing our dependence on its oil - Aaron David Miller, latimes.com: U.S. credibility and its image in the Middle East have taken a real beating. And our policy on the so-called Arab Spring, or what's left of it, is pretty much at sea, largely because we can't shape the internal dynamics of these societies. Still, on many things that really count and those we can actually affect, the situation isn't as gloomy as many suppose. We are now less bogged down in the Middle East than ever before. That growing independence — along with a recognition that there are limits to U.S. power and we can't fix everything — is a good thing. And it couldn't have come at a better time, particularly for a nation whose own house is so badly in need of repair.

Foreign Policy by Whisper and Nudge - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: Our rising energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling are making us much less dependent on the Middle East for oil and gas. The Middle East has gone from an addiction to a distraction.


Obama knows all of this. He just can’t say it. But it does explain why his foreign policy is mostly “nudging” and whispering. It is not very satisfying, not very much fun and won’t make much history, but it’s probably the best we can do or afford right now. And it’s certainly all that most Americans want. Image from article, with caption: Protesters in Giza, Egypt, near Cairo earlier this month. American foreign policy cannot be fully effective unless locals accept responsibility, too.

In Syria, America Loses if Either Side Wins - Edward N. Luttwak, New York Times: Maintaining a stalemate should be America’s objective. And the only possible method for achieving this is to arm the rebels when it seems that Mr. Assad’s forces are ascendant and to stop supplying the rebels if they actually seem to be winning.

Yesterday’s report of an alleged ‘chemical weapon’ attack near Damascus has prompted the US and UK media machines to spin into overdrive in the push for a military intervention and regime change in Syria - 21stcenturywire.com: ‘Chemical Weapons’ media propaganda in US, UK is designed to hide the truth in Syria - The report of an alleged ‘chemical weapon’ attack near Damascus has prompted the US and UK media machines to spin into overdrive in the push for a military intervention and regime change in Syria.


Image from article: Today’s headline on the UK Daily Mirror. Who are these children in the photo, are they alive and what exactly happened to them?

Olympic Ban On Political Propaganda Is “A Means To Protect The Athletes,” IOC Official Says -- “It is thanks to this rule that athletes from over 200 nations can and will continue to compete in a neutral environment,” a spokeswoman from the International Olympic Committee says - Chris Geidner, BuzzFeed: A rule banning “political … propaganda” from Olympic sites is not “a sanction,” an International Olympic Committee spokeswoman told BuzzFeed, but rather “a means to protect the athletes” from outside pressure. The possibility of protests at the planned Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, because of the country’s passage of a law that could ban almost all public support of LGBT rights sparked the response from the IOC. The response came after BuzzFeed published a report detailing a series of questions the committee has not answered in advance of games. Specifically, the IOC has invoked Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter, which bans “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” from Olympic sites, when asked about the potential for pro-LGBT displays at the games. “Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter is in place to ensure the Games remain free from proactive protests and demonstrations of any kind.


It should not be seen as a sanction but rather as a means to protect the athletes who might be pressured to use the Games as a platform to make statements,” Emmanuelle Moreau, an IOC spokeswoman, told BuzzFeed Monday. She added, “It is thanks to this rule that athletes from over 200 nations can and will continue to compete in a neutral environment.” Notably, Moreau’s statement did not respond directly to BuzzFeed’s request for information about how Rule 2 — the Olympic rule that mandates the IOC “act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement” — figures into the IOC’s consideration of whether an action would be subject to the confines of Rule 50. Regarding the secondary question of what would happen to athletes who take action in violation of Rule 50, Moreau continued to provide an indefinite answer — although she did say that “often” an “informal conversation” would be the first step in addressing any situation that might arise. “[T]he IOC will always take a sensible approach when dealing with potential actions and always act on a case by case basis. This often starts by having an informal conversation with the athletes concerned who in most cases understand the spirit of the rule and subsequently refrain from any proactive action,” Moreau told BuzzFeed. Image from article

“The Butler” and other Hollywood propaganda - neoneocon.com: Propaganda is extraordinarily powerful. It exploits hearts, it shapes minds, and it affects history. Films are just one form of propaganda, but an exceptionally popular one that often reaches people who are disinclined to dig deeper and find the historical truth, and yet still vote. As Churchill said, “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” Nowadays the only revision I’d make to that comment is that the lies travel even faster and further. How are we to counter this? Yes, there’s the internet and conservative newspapers and TV and talk shows and even movies and books. But they are few and far-between compared to the absolute barrage of the opposite messages, plus of course what is delivered every day by the school system.

FOUND ON THE WEB

Patrick Jagoda, "Public Diplomacy and the Emergent Future of Massively Multiplayer Online Games," hastac.org

PUTINIANA


Via VD on Facebook

ENJOYING A HOLIDAY


Via GD on Facebook

“Air power is an unusually seductive form of military strength, in part because, like modern courtship, it appears to offer gratification without commitment.” Image from

--Eliot A. Cohen, who directed the U.S. Air Force’s Gulf War Air Power Survey from 1991 to 1993

VIDEO

Russian Army Choir Sings in English; via JMcC

SCHOLARLY RESOURCES

Bruce Gregory's Public Diplomacy Resources: Public Diplomacy: Books, Articles, Websites # 65
May 28, 2013

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

John B. Emerson is the new U.S. Ambassador: With Berlin Döner is even more beautiful; Today, the new U.S. Ambassador John B. Emerson presented his credentials to the President. Before he made a tour with his wife and three daughters -- and discovered  [Google translation] - tagesspiegel.de: "Emerson in blue and white polo shirt beige for jeans is very relaxed. This may be because Barack Obama has personally sent him to Berlin. A little bit but it probably has something to do with his wife Kimberley, also a lawyer as he and diverse dedicated expert on public diplomacy.


The early nineties, she worked as a public worker for the Clinton administration. At the time this subject was not so strictly involved in the government apparatus as today. In times of upheaval in Eastern Europe there were so room for creative solutions." Image from article, with caption: His daughters, Jacqueline, Taylor and Hayley and wife Kimberley showed the designated U.S. Ambassador John B. Emerson his new work in Berlin.

An Interview with Michael McFaul, U.S. Ambassador to Russia - Uriel Epshtein, thepolitic.org: McFaul: "My job is not actually to improve U.S.-Russia relations . ... I’m not sure that as an outsider, before I became the ambassador, I fully appreciated that this is what diplomacy is all about. ... A part of my job now is virtual diplomacy, where almost every day I am communicating directly to the Russian people something about our policy or our country. I have over 50,000 followers on Twitter and 12,000 Facebook friends and subscribers, for example, most of whom are Russians. Today, much of it is about Mr. Snowden, but it may also be about issues like how many Russians get visas. This is actually a great example because there is a great misperception in this country that you have a 50/50 chance of getting a visa. When I heard about this, I decided to investigate and found that over 90 percent of Russians who applied received visas. I tweeted this information and the tweet got a lot of attention. This was a major diplomatic success correcting misperceptions."

It’s Worse Than You Think - The Federalist, "Let’s focus on one area of inquiry – the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) and its Middle East Broadcasting Network (MBN) of Radio Sawa and Alhurra television in particular. That takes us on a short road trip south of DC to what we will call 'Fortress Springfield,' the location in suburban Northern Virginia of MBN, Radio Sawa and Alhurra television. Infrequently, some attention has been paid to these operations. ... These stations have been broadcasting to the Middle East for the better part of 12 years – first with Radio Sawa then followed by Alhurra television. The American taxpayer has been 'dimed' for millions of dollars for this effort which supposedly was intended to change the paradigm in the Middle East following the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. ... It’s worth repeating: we don’t know what this operation is doing. To all appearances, it is in 'lockdown.' Don’t be looking for transparency from this operation or its senior bureaucrats. And that is wrong. We’re paying for this operation and need to know what we are paying for. We need to know what it is doing, the nature of program content being broadcast on Radio Sawa and Alhurra television. Since many of us are not conversant in Arabic, we need independent, authoritative Arabic linguists to assess the program content of these stations. Just as important, we need serious congressional scrutiny of these operations. Clearly, the sentiment in the Arab and Muslim world is increasingly hostile toward the United States, its government, its citizens – our way of life. That in itself is a clear indication that the millions of dollars spent on MBN programs over the past twelve years has been a bust. It is also an indication of how successful al-Qaeda has been with billions of US taxpayer dollars spent on an expanded domestic security apparatus to contend with an asymmetrical threat."

We need Voice of America here - Letter to the Editor, Marcus Sopher, Milford, Letter to the Editor, ctpost.com:  "Does anyone remember the Voice of America? It is the official broadcast arm of the federal government. Its charter contains the following statement: 'VOA news will be accurate, objective and comprehensive.' It was designed to accurately inform people in countries where news and information was suppressed by their governments through official propaganda outlets. I propose that the VOA begin to broadcast to another country: the USA. It would be a welcome relief to have it pierce through our official news media to make people aware of important facts and information that is effectively being suppressed." Via TL on Facebook

2013 Fulbright Symposium pictures: Pictures from the [Australian-American] Fulbright Symposium - fulbright.com.au: Among them:


A group of guests relaxing between sessions

Achievement in Korea-U.S. collaboration to correct N.K. history- english.donga.com: "The 'Modern Korean History Portal' opened last Thursday by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a think tank dedicated to history of the U.S. Cold War era, can be considered an important step in this mission. ... Marking the 60th anniversary of the signing of the South Korea-U.S. Alliance this year, the governments of South Korea and the U.S. have been busy celebrating the bilateral ties through glaring commemorative events and various projects, and trying to establish vision for the next 60 years. The Modern Korean History Portal can be considered a meaningful achievement that has been created through collective efforts by private think tanks and academia of the two allies, and 'semi-public, semi-private' public diplomacy. It is even more meaningful, given that to establish an accurate North Korean history will lay cultural foundation for reunification of the two Koreas."

2013 EPICS Forum, Sport for Development and Peace - aroundtherings.com: "2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade Organizing Committee (hereafter GUOC 2015), in collaboration with the UN Office on Sport for Development and Peace (UNOSDP), held the International Youth Mentoring Program, the EPICS Forum, on the 23rd in Gwangju. ... Laima Janusonyte, the first female vice-president of the International Sports Press Association, Jang Mi-ran, Olympic Gold medalist and chief director of her own foundation, and Ma Young-sam, the first Korean ambassador for Public diplomacy, attended the forum and gave inspiring speeches to the students and talked about their personal experiences in their field of expertise."

Syrian official: Israel 'first victim' in case of strike- ynetnews.com: "A member of the Ba'ath Party in Syria, Halef al-Muftah, said that Israel will be under fire if the US strikes in Syria. Al-Muftah, until recently the deputy to the Syrian public diplomacy minister, claimed that 'Israel is the one moving the American government.' He also warned that the Mideast 'will go up in flames' in case of a strike in Syria."

Why is a BBC journalist on an expenses-paid propaganda junket to Israel? - Benjamin Doherty, electronicintifada.net: "Dozens of young journalists, including at least one working for the BBC, are in Israel this week for a government-backed junket designed to give them 'a more positive attitude' toward Israel’s policies. The journalists are attending the Media in Conflicts Seminar (MICS) at the InterdisciplinaryCenter at Herzliya (IDC Herzliya).


Now in its fifth year, the seminar is the brainchild of the advocacy group StandWithUs. The Media in Conflicts Seminar is 'hasbara for foreign media personnel, diplomats and youth from all over the world,' according to the website of Israel’s Ministry for Public Diplomacy (which was recently absorbed into the prime minister’s office). Hasbara is a Hebrew word that literally translates as 'explaining' but is used specifically to describe government propaganda and outreach efforts to gain support for Israel’s policies. According to the ministry, the Media in Conflicts Seminar specifically targets non-Jewish Europeans. Image from entry, with caption: Israeli army spokesperson Avital Leibovich speaks to MICS 2011 participants at IDC Herzliya.

Brand Israel self-destructs - intifada-palestine.com: "This month saw a further escalation in Israel’s propaganda activity rather than improvements to the Israel product. The Times of Israelhttp://www.timesofisrael.com/pmo-stealthily-recruiting-students-for-online-advocacy/ reported that 'The Prime Minister’s Office is working to set up a network of advocacy units in Israeli universities, operated by students who will receive scholarships for their efforts totalling nearly $845,000.' The plan aims to harness 550 bilingual students drawn from the student pool at the country’s seven universities, who will target their efforts abroad. Haaretz, in its report, calls the initiative 'online public diplomacy (hasbara)'. ... PressTV points out that a liaison officer for the Zionist regime will oversee the dissemination of 'rapid responses' from Israeli officials to news events, and coordinate with the regime’s other official bodies that deal with public diplomacy, including the Israeli military. ... These are desperate times for the Israel brand… and truly desperate measures.


The regime will eventually have to face it. Theirs is the worst brand reputation on the planet because they have nothing to give the world except trouble. They can’t patch it up or make it smell sweet with more lies and distortions." Image from article

Fear and doubt about Indonesia - Bernard Lane, theaustralian.com.au: "Almost 50 per cent of Australians believe Indonesia is a threat to our national security, according to a landmark study that testifies to government concern about the effect of popular attitudes on bilateral relations. In the opinion poll ordered by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, more people (59pc) agreed with the mostly misleading statement that Indonesia's law-making is based on Islamic codes than were able to recognise our neighbour as a democracy (47pc). The survey of 1,202 people, carried out by Newspoll in 2012 and yet to be released, is the first of its kind and will be used in efforts to promote better 'people to people' relations as DFAT pursues so-called public diplomacy."

New era for seaweed - Anshoo Chandra, fijitimes.com: "A new era has begun with the development of the seaweed industry in Fiji. ... While elaborating on the success of the seaweed industry, Abdurrahman M. Fachir, Director General for Information and Public Diplomacy at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it


provided a gateway to massive investment opportunities." Image from article, with caption: Mau villagers hold up seaweed collected during their seaweed training conducted by Indonesian seaweed experts last month at Mau Village.

Review – New Public Diplomacy in the 21st Century - Sue Jansen, e-ir.info: "Public diplomacy (PD), traditionally defined as state-sponsored communications that strategically target citizens of other nations, has a long and controversial history. However, the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States triggered an urgent rethinking of the theory and practice of PD: an effort that soon expanded beyond the United States (U.S.), now involving academics and practitioners from many nations. James Pamment’s book contributes to this reassessment. Pamment’s work represents the inaugural volume in the Routledge series, New Diplomatic Studies, edited by Corneliu Bjola and Markus Kornprobt.


He distinguishes between traditional, gatekeeper and mass-mediated models of PD as well as newer approaches which take into account twenty-first century market-based globalization as well as new digital and satellite media environments. Contending that the ‘new public diplomacy’ (NPD) represents a paradigm shift in political communication theory, Pamment compares NPD theory to actual PD practices using case studies from three countries: the United Kingdom (U.K.), Sweden and the U.S. He offers systematic assessments of each case examining national policies, objectives of specific campaigns and evaluation methods, use of official documents, campaign artifacts, secondary accounts and interviews with senior diplomats, campaigns managers and measurement and evaluation consultants. The early chapters of the book distinguish between traditional PD and NPD, engage in extensive definitional exercises and examine some of the factors motivating the paradigm shift. They include a brief history of PD, an overview of NPD’s theoretical challenges, a critical assessment of PD evaluation methods and a preliminary examination of the theory-practice tension. Pamment then devotes a chapter to each of the three aforementioned countries and concludes with a provocative synthesis of his findings, which he uses to assess the future prospects of NPD theory." Image from entry


European integration without EU membership: The different paths of Norway and Switzerland - events.carleton.ca: "H.E. Mona Elisabeth Brøther


was appointed Norwegian ambassador to Canada in September 2012. ... Since 2009, she has been deputy director general of the department for cultural promotion, public diplomacy and protocol at the ministry of foreign affairs." Uncaptioned image from entry

Public Intellectuals: Theory and Practice [Course syllabus] - Henry Jenkins, henryjenkins.org "Among the readings in the course]:  Shiela T. Murphy, Heather J. Hether, Laurel J. Felt, and Sandra de Castro Buffington, 'Public Diplomacy in Prime Time: Exploring Potential of Entertainment Education in International Public Diplomacy,' American Journal of Media Psychology 5(1-4), 2012, pp. 5-32."

Jenkins image from entry

POSCO Visiting Fellowship Program for International Applicants at East-West Center in USA, 2014 - scholarship-positions.com: "The East-West Center is inviting applications for visiting fellowship program for outstanding scholars and policy makers. The East-West Center invites four to six visiting fellows to spend one or two months from March 1, 2014 to February 28, 2015 for carrying out research activities on Korean topics at the East-West Center. ... Fellows are provided with a stipend and round trip economy airfare between their home base and Honolulu. They are required to give one seminar, prepare a high quality paper to be submitted for publication, and join in East-West Center activities. The Fellow may also be asked to participate in local outreach and public diplomacy activities. Proposals for cost-shared fellowships are welcomed."

RELATED ITEMS

Questions for President Obama — Before He Pulls the Trigger on Syria - Andrew Bacevich, billmoyers.com: Let us posit that the Syrian government did, in fact, order last week’s chemical attack that killed hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women, children and others who had not taken up arms against the Assad regime.


First, why does this particular heinous act rise to the level of justifying a military response? Second, once U.S. military action against Syria begins, when will it end? Third, what is the legal basis for military action? Bacevich image from article

Syria Side Effects: Chemical weapons and other costs of doing nothing - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: As President Obama again considers military action in Syria, it's worth recalling that the use of chemical weapons isn't the only nasty side effect for the Middle East and U.S. interests from the 30-month uprising against Bashar Assad. No one knows if U.S. intervention two years ago would have prevented any of this, though we think it had a good chance of doing so. But one argument no one can credibly make is that U.S. action would have made things worse. Doing nothing made it worse. The United States can’t dictate the outcome in Syria, and it would be foolish to send ground troops in an effort to do so. But by combining military measures with training, weapons supplies and diplomacy, it could exercise considerable influence

Syria strategy can’t rely solely on military might - Editorial, Washington Post: The dangerous outcomes that Mr. Obama worried might be precipitated in Syria by U.S. involvement have mostly come about in the absence of such involvement. The fact that Syria offers no perfect outcomes or options does not mean that all possible outcomes are equally undesirable.

Syria's Gas Attack on Civilization: It takes a barbarian to employ poison gas. Assad joins the ranks of Mussolini, Hitler and Saddam Hussein - Andrew Roberts, Wall Street Journal: There is

a long and honorable history of the civilized world treating those dictators who use poison gas as qualitatively different from the normal ruck of tyrants whose careers have so stained the 20th and 21st centuries. President Obama, who talks endlessly of the importance of civilized values, must now uphold this one. Image from

Obama already missed chance on Syria: Analysts - As the international chorus grows louder for a military strike, some Middle East specialists believe such action would be too late to weaken the position of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. “Even if the U.S. does intervene militarily, the time window for its best option has already passed,” said Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Syria will require more than cruise missiles - Eliot A. Cohen, Washington Post: As weak as the United States now appears in the region and beyond, we would look weaker yet if we chose to act ineffectively. A bout of therapeutic bombing is an even more feckless course of action than a principled refusal to act altogether. The question before the president is whether he will make matters worse by convincing himself that he has found a minimal solution to a fiendish problem. He will convince no one else.

While Egypt and Syria burn, Obama is Arsonist in Chief - Doni Kandel, Washington Times: If America attacks Syria, it is Israel that will be attacked in retaliation.


Obama has played a large part in setting the Middle East on fire and it is Israel that is constantly getting burned. Uncaptioned image from article

Adrift on the Nile - Bill Keller, New York Times: In the excruciating test that Egypt has become, America has seemed not just cautious (caution is good) but timid and indecisive, reactive and shortsighted, stranded between our professed commitment to change and our fear of chaos.

Reading Tweets From Iran - Editorial, New York Times: President Rouhani is sending strong signals that he will dispatch a pragmatic, experienced team to the table when negotiations resume, possibly next month. That’s when we should begin to see answers to key questions: How much time and creative thinking are he and President Obama willing to invest in a negotiated solution, the only rational outcome? How much political risk are they willing to take, which for Mr. Obama must include managing the enmity that Israel and many members of Congress feel toward Iran? And finally: Do the two sides have the courage to resolve a conflict that has been decades in the making?

Artists protest Russia's anti-gay-'propaganda' law - dw.de: German artists are showing solidarity with gays and lesbians in Russia. However, while some are calling for a boycott, others believe there are better ways to get their voices heard and make a difference.


Image from entry, with caption: Gay rights activists demonstrate in Moscow, with a banner reading "Love is stronger."

Propaganda Pictures Depicting Women’s Role in World War II - Kaushik, amusingplanet.com:

"In short, Luck's always to blame."

--Jean de La Fontaine; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

The Case for Blowing Things Up - PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "Despite the allure of soft power as a way to deal with international disputes, there is no getting away from the sad reality that hard power is sometimes needed.


Forceful action will speak to global publics as its own kind of public diplomacy. It is time to blow up at least part of Assad’s capability to slaughter innocents." Image from

US envoy bowing out - with satisfaction: But outgoing ambassador will stay on here to pursue business interest - Ravi Velloor, The Straits Times, posted at If Only Singaporeans Stopped to Think [scroll down link for item]: "Sitting on the verandah of his sumptuous villa near Holland Village, comfortably clad in a cotton shirt and khakis held up by a golfer's belt over leather loafers, Mr David Adelman looks out on tropical vegetation as he expresses satisfaction over his 31/2 year stint as the American envoy. Still, his innings in Singapore had a hint of controversy even before it began. At his confirmation hearings before the US Congress, Mr Adelman said he intended to use public diplomacy to work towards greater press freedoms, freedom of assembly and ultimately, more space for opposition parties in Singapore. Perhaps it did not need a heave from the American ambassador to accomplish that. 'Singapore has changed in many ways over the last four years,' he notes. 'PM Lee Hsien Loong described the elections in 2011 as a watershed. And he recently gave an interview to The Washington Post where he describes Singapore's politics as to-ing and fro-ing. Singapore's politics is increasingly a marketplace of ideas and continues to develop.' The Government here has made nascent moves to regulate the online media during his tenure here, prompting companies such as Google to write letters of concern. Mr Adelman defends online freedom, saying the content brought to the public square by such companies is a great benefit, promoting open discussion, which is a bedrock American principle. ... So, what now that his tenure is ending? Back to the land of Coca- Cola, as Bob Dylan would say, or is Georgia on his mind? Well, here is the surprise. 'I am going to stay here,' says Mr Adelman. 'I am going back to private life. I am going to have a business interest in Singapore and elsewhere in the region. My family is thriving here. The US will always be home. But Americans are increasingly engaged around the world and I am a part of that.'" Adelman image from below entry


S'pore top destination for US investments in Asia - Outgoing US envoy lauds country's 'very hospitable business climate' - Ravi Velloor, The Straits Times, posted at If Only Singaporeans Stopped to Think:  "Singapore, for the first time, has emerged as the most attractive investment destination in Asia for American companies, outperforming even China. 'The 10-year cumulative US investment in Singapore stood at US$138 billion (S$176.6 billion) at the end of 2012,' United States Ambassador David Adelman, who leaves his post this week, told The Straits Times in an interview. ... People-level contacts also have accelerated, with 27,000 American residents on this island, thousands of Singaporean students enrolled in American universities and at any given time, between 800 and 1,000 Singapore military personnel training in the US."

Back to the Future of Public Diplomacy - taliawhyte.com: "In order to create an effective public diplomacy campaign, the United States might need to seriously


re-evaluate its own domestic and foreign policies that create unfavorable information." Image from entry

The Role of Social Entrepreneurship in the U.S. and Indonesia - atamerica.or.id:


Image of event from entry

AM Fachir: ASEAN Community by 2015 Fast Should Socialized [Google translation] - Sutanto Johannes de Britto, jaringnews.com: "When holding Halal bi Halal and Media Gathering, Director General of Information and Public Diplomacy Ambassador AM Fachir convey that meaning and opportunities of the ASEAN Community from 2015 to be completely and immediately disseminated to the people of Indonesia. 'People should know what the impact of the ASEAN Community.


If employers likely already know, but people generally do not know,' said Ambassador AM Fachir at Warung Daun, Menteng, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, 27/8. ... On this occasion Mr PM Fachir also introduced a number of new Echelon II officials within DG IDP, including Director of Information and Media Sudarma Sofia, Director of Public Diplomacy Al Busyra Basnur for Diplomatic Security and Director of I Gusti Ngurah Ardiyasa." Image from article, with caption: Director General of Information and Public Diplomacy Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, AM Fachir
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Netanyahu resurrects government's student public advocacy unit: The government would like to harness the skills of Israeli students to the make the case for Israel using social media; Israelis, who must have a command of a second language, would be part of an effort similar to the one Netanyahu ran as a diplomat - Shlomo Cesana, israelhayom.com: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to resurrect the government's student public advocacy unit to improve Israel's image overseas. After Operation Peace for the Galilee was launched in 1982, the Foreign Ministry had Israeli students and faculty members in American universities serve as unofficial spokespeople to make the case for Israel. At the time, a young Netanyahu served as a the head of the Public Diplomacy Department at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Although the student-led effort operated out of New York, the activities were held in campuses all over the U.S. After the Jan. 22, 2013 election, the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry was disbanded. Its various functions were transferred to the Prime Minister's Office, where Deputy Prime Minister Ofir Akunis runs the office's student-related activities. The new unit is designed to address the need for an effective body that would deal with contemporary challenges facing Israeli public diplomacy by tapping Israeli students' command and access to social media. The project will be run together with the National Union of Israeli Students.


Some 2.7 million shekels ($740 million) have been earmarked for this project, some of which would go towards scholarships for Israeli students who partake in this endeavor. ... The project would cater to Israeli students who have a command of foreign languages and who have lived abroad. They would be tasked with communicating Israel's policies by telling their own story as Israelis who have lived in the Jewish state and who have their own unique experiences, all the while steering clear of ideological refrains. The focus would be on Israel's right to exist and to defend itself. Students would counter the delegitimization efforts and highlight Israel's positive traits. Dr. Motti Friedman, who headed the public diplomacy organization in the U.S. during its previous iteration in the 1980s, says things are very different this time around. 'We didn't have Facebook; the cutting-edge technology at the time was a slide projector, but it was still effective,' he says. 'These new things can be harnessed to great use.' 'The trick is to use what is available,' says a veteran of Israel's public diplomacy apparatus." Image from article, with caption: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

RELATED ITEMS

Why ‘triplomacy’ is the new diplomacy - Deborah Winslow Nutter, globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com: "Is diplomacy dead? No, but perhaps it could do with a name change – think triplomacy. Governments today can no longer rely solely on 'diplomats' in the traditional sense. They need to harness the participation of multiple government agencies, private industries, NGOs and international institutions – specialists from various fields of expertise who as a group view issues through a triplomatic lens and who can collaborate in cross-cutting alliances."

Before You Conclude That 'Precision' Bombing Makes Sense With Syria ... - James Fallows, theatlantic.com: Fact 1: Atrocities are happening in Syria. Fact 2: The United States has bombers, cruise missiles, and drones. Putting those two facts together does not make the second a solution to the first. Consider the last twenty years: What has been achieved by (1) using cruise missiles to bomb a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan and (2) an obstacle course in Afghanistan, or (3) the endless attacks on air defense sites in the Iraqi no fly zone in the 1990s, or (4) the bombing campaigns of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars; and now (5) Obama’s ever growing drone campaign in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and god knows where else? While such precision-guided coercion operations may infatuate the foreign policy wonks, media elites, and feather the nests of defense contractors, the resulting strategy of drive by shootings has failed utterly to coerce the likes of Milošević, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi, or the Taliban to behave in ways our pol-mil apparachiks deem to be acceptable. Only ten years after the disastrous "what could go wrong?" "something must be done!" rush to war in Iraq, you would have thought these cautions would not need restatement. They do. In the face of evil we should do something, except when the something would likely make a bad situation worse.

The Problem Is Assad: The goal of U.S. military action should be regime change in Damascus - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: The real problem in Syria isn't the chemical weapons. It is the leader who has used them, Bashar Assad. This is where to focus the military response.

Target Assad A strike directed straight at the Syrian dictator and his family is the only military option that could hasten the end of the civil war - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal: The world can ill-afford a reprise of the 1930s, when the barbarians were given free rein by a West that had lost its will to enforce global order. Yes, a Tomahawk aimed at Assad could miss, just as the missiles aimed at Saddam did. But there's also a chance it could hit and hasten the end of the civil war.


And there's both a moral and deterrent value in putting Bashar and Maher on the same list that once contained the names of bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki. Image from article, with caption: Cruel duo: Syrian President Bashar Assad (right) and his brother Maher.

The U.S. must act against Assad - Eugene Robinson, washingtonpost.com: If it is true that the regime killed hundreds of civilians with nerve gas in a Damascus suburb last week — and Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Monday that the use of chemical weapons is “undeniable” — then Obama has no choice. Such use cannot be tolerated, and any government or group that employs chemical weapons must be made to suffer real consequences. Obama should uphold this principle by destroying some of Assad’s military assets with cruise missiles.

Syrian war leaves no easy choices - Michael Gerson, Washington Post: A cruise-missile campaign to protest and deter the use of chemical weapons would do little to change the situation on the ground. And Obama would need to decide if this is his goal.

Enforcing a 'red line' in Syria: If new reports of a government chemical weapons attack are confirmed, the U.S. must act - Editorial, latimes.com: For almost a century there has been an international consensus that chemical weapons are beyond the pale because of their cruelty and potential for widespread loss of life. That understanding was reflected in Obama's comments about a "red line." The Syrian government must not be allowed to cross that line with impunity.

Attack on Syria could trigger terrorists acts against U.S., Israel - Guy Taylor, The Washington Times: With the White House closer to launching a surgical military strike on Syria, questions swirled Monday over the extent to which such an attack could trigger a wave of terrorism directed at the U.S. and Israel.

The evidence of chemical attack seems compelling – but remember - there’s a propaganda war on
The evidence so far for the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army is second-hand and comes from a biased source (August 22) - Patrick Cockburn, Independent: Pictures showing that the Syrian army used chemical weapons against rebel-held Eastern Ghouta just east of Damascus are graphic and moving. But they are likely to be viewed sceptically because the claims so much resemble those made about Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) before the US and British invasion of Iraq in 2003. Nevertheless, the present claim differs from previous ones in the number of dead, variously put at between 213 and 1,360 and the quantity of YouTube evidence of the dead and dying supported by interviews with local activists. Like the Iraqi opposition to Saddam, who provided most of the evidence of WMDs, the Syrian opposition has every incentive to show the Syrian government deploying chemical weapons in order to trigger foreign intervention.


Although the US has gone cold on armed involvement in Syria, President Obama did say a year ago that President Bashar al-Assad’s use of such weapons was “a red line”. The implication is that the US would respond militarily, though just how has never been spelt out. But the obvious fact that for the Syrian government to use chemical weapons would be much against their own interests does not prove it did not happen. Governments and armies do stupid things. But it is difficult to imagine any compelling reason why they should do so since they have plenty of other means of killing people in Eastern Ghouta, such as heavy artillery or small arms, which they regularly use. Every day, Damascus resounds to the sound of outgoing artillery fire aimed at rebel strongholds. The problem is that the evidence so far for the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian army is second-hand and comes from a biased source. Image from article, with caption: A man inspects a site hit by what activists said were missiles fired by Syrian Air Force fighter jets loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, in Raqqa province, eastern Syria on 21 August 2013

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad takes to Instagram as a propaganda tool (photos) - blog.al.com: In the midst of the Syrian civil war that has left more than 100,000 dead, according to a June U.N. estimate, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has taken to Instagram to showcase the good side of the conflict, or of his administration, anyway. Since his social media account became active in late July, Assad has been busy. He's posted more than 130 photos. Using the handle @syrianpresidency, Assad's new propaganda arm steers clear of the images of people in the hospital suffering from a chemical weapons attack (Assad denies his troops used chemical weapons), and instead focuses on photos of Assad shaking hands with troops on Syrian Army Day, meeting citizens (some in hospitals), Syrian award winners and recipients, and Assad's day-to-day work. The account also spotlights Syrian first lady and wife of Assad, Asma al-Assad, a British-born Syrian who married Assad in 2000. Asma al-Assad is shown serving food to "internally displaced families," kneeling to greet a woman in a wheelchair, and reaching out to children.

800 Public Libraries Bringing Islamic Propaganda to your Children - Janet Levy, familysecuritymatters.org: This is a dangerous companion program to Common Core and CSCOPE designed to indoctrinate your children and grandchildren about Islam.


As part of a National Endowment for the Humanities program funded by $150 million of our taxpayer dollars, 25 books and a DVD are being provided to 800 public libraries. No books are included on Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. Image from article

Winery says Hitler-themed bottles aren't propaganda, 'it's history' - Alyssa Kleven, mynorthwest.com:  Lunardelli, an Italian winery, has been using Hitler and other fascist dictators to sell their wine for nearly 20 years. It certainly has always faced its share of criticism, but with a rise in anti-semitism in Europe, many are calling for the winery to change its ways. The winery contends it's not propaganda "it's history" and treats the marketing as black humor, since Hitler was actually a teetotaler.


KIRO Radio host Tom Tangney said at the heart of the matter, it is not an interest in history or fascist dictators that keeps the winery labeling their bottles with Hitler's face. It's capitalism. "I think if I ran across it, I would think of it as a novelty item," said Tom. He said if he were to buy a bottle, it certainly wouldn't be to support the Nazi cause. Image from entry, with caption: Gianfranco Bettiol receives wine from a bottle bearing the image of former Nazi dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler, made by winemaker Alessandro Lunardelli, in a bar in in Acilia, near Rome, in this Aug. 21, 2001 file photo.

AND THEY SAY LEARNING CHINESE IS DIFFICULT


Via TP on Facebook

AMERICANA (VIDEO)

Hot-Dog Legs hit Hollywood

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Bruce Gregory's Public Diplomacy Resources: Public Diplomacy: Books, Articles, Websites # 66 August 20, 2013. Gregory image from entry


EVENT

Russian-American Youth Summit - geekwire.com: "The 2013 Russian-American Youth Summit (RAYS) will take place from August 27 – 29, 2013, bringing together entrepreneurs create a platform for cooperation and trust amongst the first generation of Russian and American leadership born after the Cold War. Participants will collaborate within six specialized working groups dedicated to identifying opportunities for civilian Russian-American cooperation: entrepreneurship, information technology, sustainable development, student leadership, media communications, and scientific research. ... WHERE Savery Hall (SAV) University of Washington Seattle, WA USA." Via BB on Facebook

VIDEO: AMERICAN  PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN ACTION


US Embassy Malta Gets a Viral Video But — Not the Kind You Want - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: "On August 28, the US Embassy has reportedly admitted that the American [arguing about parking] in the video is an embassy employee. 'The US Embassy can confirm that the subject of this video was an embassy employee who has since departed,' the embassy said in a statement cited by The Times of Malta." Image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Egypt Ambassador's Parting Letter Shows You Don't Mess With 'Murica - Brian Principato, policymic.com: "Outgoing United States Ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson did not take too kindly to personal accusations made in an article featured in Wednesday’s Al Ahram newspaper, an Egyptian daily. The official correspondence posted on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo’s website is hardly the State Deparment's status quo approach to public dissent, but it underscores the prevalence of misinformation and ambiguity in


the turbulent Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. ... Earlier this summer, Ambassador Patterson was accused of supporting the pro-Morsi Muslim Brotherhood despite no evidence to support the claim. At the time, Patterson said that she follows the unspoken diplomatic call to maintain a decorum of neutrality and was supportive of movements towards peace and democracy in Egypt.  ... Ambassador Patterson, as well as many of her U.S. Foreign Service colleagues leading missions around the world and members of their teams, experience criticism of all degrees from official and unofficial stakeholders. Rarely do diplomats, who serve as champions of public diplomacy, respond so starkly and transparently, though it has happened in the past. Patterson's letter is an example of hard-hitting diplomacy (read: soft power) and she should be commended for defending the Egyptian people's fundamental right to have uninhibited access to correct and fact-based information. Well played, ambassador.” Patterson image from article

Washington Watch: Public diplomacy, not threats, needed - Douglas M. Bloomfield, Jerusalem Post: "Getting the Israelis and Palestinians to the peace table wasn’t easy, and keeping them there is proving a challenge for a very determined Secretary of State John Kerry. His greatest worry has to be that both sides may be looking for a blame-avoiding excuse to take a walk. ... [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas broke Kerry’s gag rule on the talks by complaining to visitors that no progress had been made in the first three sessions because of Israeli foot-dragging. Kerry has insisted – and until now successfully – that what happens in the room stays in the room. He was to be the only one authorized to speak publicly; in his view the less that leaked out the better the chances to avoid pressure from the varied interests outside the room and the greater the chances for success. Abbas’ leak may be part of his strategy to raise the pressure on Washington and Jerusalem. It came in a meeting last week with leftist Knesset members in which he complained that the Israelis are stalling.


If it were up to him they’d be meeting every day or two instead of every week or 10 days, he said. His interview also serves a worthy purpose that Netanyahu could do well to emulate: Public diplomacy. ... Remember it was Sadat’s public diplomacy in November 1977 that changed the Middle East; there may be no Sadats today, but even lesser men like Netanyahu and Abbas can reach out across borders and speak directly to the people. ... Netanyahu needs to engage in greater public diplomacy, not with speeches on Capitol Hill, lectures in European capitals or cartoons at the UN but right in his own back yard. ... It is time for both leaders [to speak frankly to their own people and to their neighbors about the compromises ahead, and how neither can have everything they want – or have been promised. There will be compromises on borders, refugees, security and Jerusalem. It makes no sense to persist with maximalist demands unless you’re making a case against peace. It’s time to stop making threats and questioning the other’s side’s motives. Leadership means leading, not kvetching." Image from article, with caption: Secretary of State John Kerry hold press conference with Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat, July 30, 2013.

White House hiding Rice role in Syria outreach? - Ed Morrissey, hotair.com: "My friend Olivier Knox points out a curious omission (Olivier calls it 'maddening') from the White House’s data on their diplomacy in dealing with the chemical-weapons attack in Syria. Susan Rice, who had conducted public diplomacy as the administration’s UN ambassador for more than four years, has moved to the national-security adviser position this month. She has been active in conducting diplomacy, but the White House won’t account for her calls ... [T]he decision to leave her outreach out of a White House-released list of calls that President Barack Obama and senior national security aides placed to their foreign counterparts is one reason it’s impossible to use the list to get a clear picture of the U.S. response. The other reason is that the National Security Council quite forthrightly described the list as accurate, but incomplete — that there have been other phone calls 'at all levels' that are not included. This looks more like protocol than malice, but it’s still odd. ... Rice ... has a ... track record as a public face for Obama’s foreign policy, and certainly as a diplomat. Why not highlight Rice’s role in the efforts to craft a coalition to support intervention in the Syrian conflict? Or does the White House worry that the Benghazi debacle that they hung around her neck is a liability to their credibility now?"

U.S. Department of State Announces Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship Winners- Media Note, Office of the Spokesperson, Washington, DC: "The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and mtvU, MTV’s 24-hour college network, announced today the four 2013 Fulbright-mtvU Fellowship recipients. Fulbright-mtvU is an academic exchange program established in 2007 to promote 'the power of music' as a global force for mutual understanding. The Fellowships were awarded to: Phil Babcock, a graduate of Tufts University, who will create an online record label devoted to digital distribution of music in Ghana; Garret Rubin, a graduate of the University of Rochester, who will create a music outreach program for Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan; Melinda Reyes, a graduate of Georgetown University, who will research musicians specializing in hybrid genres of national identity in Turkey; and Sara Skolnick, a graduate of Boston University, who will research Internet-driven, low-barrier access to digital music production in Colombia."

Protocol Chief Marshall Bids Farewell to Diplomatic Corps - Gail Sullivan, washdiplomat.com: "Martha Stewart may be the American icon of hospitality, but Capricia Penavic Marshall gives her a run for her money. As U.S. chief of protocol at the State Department since August 2009, a position that carries the rank of ambassador, she has been on the front lines and behind the scenes of America's diplomatic engagement at home and abroad. ... When it comes to meeting the cultural expectations of a global guest list, Marshall consults her counterparts in protocol offices around the world and seeks input from embassies here in Washington, D.C. (also see 'Meridian Spotlights Work of Embassy Social Secretaries' in the February 2013 edition of the Diplomatic Pouch online). Last year, Marshall convened the first-ever Global Chiefs of Protocol Conference (also see 'The Power of Protocol' in the August 2012 edition of Pouch). Almost 100 representatives of nations and organizations from five continents gathered at the State Department to discuss best practices and share ideas for strengthening the role of protocol in diplomacy. ... As chief of protocol, Marshall has been an innovator. She founded the Diplomatic Partnerships Division to implement four programs aimed at encouraging cultural exchange and giving the local diplomatic corps more insight into American people, culture and institutions. The State of the Administration Speaker Series provides an opportunity for off-the-record discussion between foreign ambassadors posted in D.C. and high-level U.S. officials, including cabinet secretaries and White House chief of staffs.

America's Battle Cry Again -- This Time Syria - Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich, opednews.com: "In the fall of 2001, the Rendon Group was given a contract to handle PR aspects of the U.S. military strike in Afghanistan. One year later, in September 2002, a 'meticulously planned strategy to persuade the public, the Congress and the allies of the need to confront the threat from Saddam Hussein' was devised ... . As part of this strategy, an interagency 'Iraq Public Diplomacy group' comprising of NSC, CIA, Pentagon, State and USAID staffers was created. This group produced documentary and press releases showing interviews with Iraqi exiles and dissidents, chief among them the Iraqi National Council (INC) -- a 1992 project of the Rendon Group with Ahmad Chalabi at its head. ... Soraya has lived and studied in-Iran, UK, France, and has obtained her Master's degree in Public Diplomacy from USC Annenberg and USC School for International Studies, Los Angeles."


Uncaptioned Image from entry

Jimmy Leach: Add Digital Diplomacy to the Long List of Failures Over Syria - Tech News: "Digital diplomacy, the hipster cousin of public diplomacy, has been enjoying something of a Golden Age recently, with any (Western) diplomat or minister of any note (and the more forward looking senior officials too) offering digital pronouncements, policy engagement and two-way conversations as a mechanic for gathering support and understanding around often complex areas of foreign affairs. It’s all been a very smooth digitisation process, with discussion not around whether public figures should take to the web, but how quickly. And not about whether it’s effective, but how to measure its impact.  And now digital diplomacy has run headlong into its first crisis of credibility. In the elongated Arab Spring (where are we now, Arab Winter?) digital diplomats had a ‘good war’. The emergence of digital tools to act as what Alex Ross, late of the US State Department, calls the ‘Che Guevara of the 21st Century’ gave foreign ministries the chance to listen, engage and understand with a whole new array of actors on the world stage. Where once the crowds who hits the streets in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and so on would have been ‘mobs’, we now had the chance to listen to the voices of protest on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere and understand the motivations and (sometimes) connect with the leading, or most coherent, figures. Digital diplomacy emerged from all that smiling with self-importance at its new influence and smirking at its cool-but-with-power status. Now, everywhere you look in diplomatic circles, there’s an ambassador blogging here, tweeting there, and hanging out just over there. From signing treaties to sharing moods, all has been fair game for sharing. And then Syria happened. And digital diplomacy never looked so small. Assad’s is a regime that doesn’t care what most other governments think, that doesn’t care for public support and could not give less heed to the molecule-thin trivialities of being a trend on Twitter. It’s not just digital diplomacy which is failing. The atrocities of Syria show up most aspects of diplomacy as ineffectual. Soft power and country brands suddenly seem like vanity projects when a figure like Assad reduces previously subtle power-and-influence games to callous murder and the strange maths of the UN where two (China and Russia) is more than three (US, UK and France). And two years of ‘hard diplomacy’ of condemnation and public and private diplomatic alliances have achieved almost nothing. All diplomacy requires participation to succeed, but nothing falls so flat as public digital pronouncements where one set of participants are banging in impotent fury on a door that nobody answers. A tweet saying how jolly cross you are about genocide just doesn’t make a mark. Even the ‘enabling’ side of digital diplomacy – keeping digital networks open to allow opposition groups to communicate, seems to have floundered. Military might and callous disregard for human life trumps all. Does this even matter? Is anyone looking to social media for answers in the face of atrocity anyway? The answer is, of course, no, but the (relatively minor) point is that digital diplomacy has too often become a vanity project – a mechanic of broadcast, measured in the number of followers, rather than in minds changed or policies influenced. Digital diplomacy has stagnated. Where there have been digital battles, they have been fought around issues of veracity and governments and foreign ministries have watched, largely silent, as those battles are fought between the Syrian regime and media organisations. Finding the truth about what’s happening in Syria is hugely difficult, and that work is being done by non-governmental organisations – Storyful’s verifications of videos of atrocities for example, and the global use of Twitter as a news feed to deliver more and more horror. The Syrian Electronic Army seems to be looking to attack media organisations, rather than governments, for a reason. The use of digital to monitor situations and opinions within Syria will, largely, have followed public accounts, like the rest of us, and relied on the verification processes of the media and social media, like the rest of us.

The cyber threat from Syria - James Lewis, CNN: "On Tuesday afternoon, the New York Times website experienced wide outage for several hours. Who has the nerve and ability to take down one of the most iconic newspapers in the world? The Syrian Electronic Army, which is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, takes responsibility for the hack. This is not the first time the Syrian Electronic Army has attacked news organizations. The Washington Post, AP and others have been targeted in recent months as well. ... The Syrian Electronic Army's attacks are a form of protest against Western media's portrayal of the Assad regime. Most experts think the Syrian Electronic Army is not the Syrian government, but "patriotic hackers" who support it. This makes them harder to control and harder to find. The Syrian Electronic Army takes public diplomacy to a new level, letting individuals make their voices known on issues as easily as a government."

Iran: une femme porte-parole de la diplomatie pour la première fois - rtl.fr: "Une femme a été nommée porte-parole du ministère des Affaires étrangères iranien pour la première fois dans l'histoire de la République islamique. C’est une première en Iran.


Une femme, diplomate de carrière, a été nommée porte-parole de la diplomatie. Marzieh Afkham, qui travaille au sein du ministère depuis près de trente ans, était depuis 2010 la directrice du Département des médias et de la diplomatie publique, ont ajouté les médias sans plus de précisions." Image from entry, with caption (in English): Negar Mortazavi @negarmortazavi #IRAN Foreign Ministry's first female spokesperson, Marzieh Afkham, appointed today. Was head of public diplomacy. pic.twitter.com/MO3Lso0AQj.See also (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

Sharing the gains of cooperation - Pu Zhendong, China Daily: "Liu Guijin, China's former ambassador to Zimbabwe and South Africa and current president of the Asia-Africa Society of China, says mutual benefits and win-win results should be the cornerstones of all Chinese economic activities in Africa. ... Liu, who retired last year after a diplomatic career of more than 40 years, was also the special representative of the Chinese government on African affairs. He has handled several important assignments in Africa, with the most notable being his role as special envoy of the Chinese government in Darfur in 2007. 'As the special representative of China in Africa, I was responsible for clarifying China's stance on several important topics of interest, mostly through public diplomacy and conflict mediation measures.


It was not only a reflection of China's new diplomatic stance in Africa, but also of the way forward,' Liu says." Image from article, with caption: Liu Guijin, former Chinese diplomat and leading expert on African affairs, says that the Chinese government will continue to increase its input in Africa.

Most misunderstood country in the world: Projecting soft image of Pakistan - Malik Muhammad Ashraf, pakistantoday.com.pk: "We often hear our leaders hankering about projecting soft image of Pakistan internationally and calling for a paradigm shift in the conduct of our foreign policy, with greater emphasis on public diplomacy as an effective and indispensable ingredient of the strategy to achieve the desired objectives. But an incisive look at what has been happening over the years in regards to realigning our foreign policy objectives with the new emerging global realities and the new mechanisms evolved as a consequence of the ability of the emerging technologies to expand the horizons and options available to conduct public diplomacy, our record shows a rather regressive approach steeped into a visceral aversion to the well thought out and well researched decision making processes. The focus regrettably remains on traditional diplomacy and mechanisms devised to promote and facilitate state-to-state relations rather than public diplomacy which from its previous


emphasis on developing contacts between a state and publics of another state has of late transited into the realm of people-to-people contacts on bilateral level as well as state-to-global audience outreach. A phenomenon made possible by the new technologies like internet, digital communications and new techniques of public relations on the global plank through the use of the vast array of media outlets. Pakistan is the most misunderstood country in the world and the phenomenon of terrorism and religious extremism, arguably, is a leading factor in distorting its image on the global level. Pakistan as a front line state in the war on terror has suffered the most in men and material, has helped in dismantling the terrorist network of Osama bin Laden but regrettably our allies and western countries look askance at our endeavours, doubt our commitment to the cause at hand and decidedly remain oblivious to our national and strategic interests in the region. ... Traditional diplomacy has its own advantages and efficacy but it cannot match the power of public diplomacy conducted through media in changing perceptions and attitudes of the people and influencing their judgments. Pakistan needs a sustained and well orchestrated effort to use the power of media and the PR regime to address the issue of image building in the larger and long term interest of the country. Ashraf image from article

Russian interpretation of direct dialogue - messenger.com.ge: "Sometime ago, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili expressed readiness concerning engaging in direct dialogue with Abkhazian and South Ossetian citizens. Ivanishvili was referring to the possibility of conducting dialogue with the occupied regions’ people and overcoming the current obstacles in relations. The statement suggested that solutions to the various problems can be found in public diplomacy. Direct contact, sharing of common joys and sorrows, mixed marriages, creating joint business ventures and similar activities, would facilitate the alleviation of the strain between Georgia and the separatist regions. 'Georgia’s democratic development and economic process will turn Abkhazians and Ossetians towards us and finally convince them that Georgia is their motherland,' stated Georgian PM. Just couple of week’s later Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, commented and provided an interpretation regarding the Georgian PM’s words. He emphasized that Russia welcomes the Georgian government’s position with regard to direct dialogue with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia’s desire is for Georgia to sign a direct agreement with the breakaway regions on the non-use of force. So, According to Lavrov, the reality is that Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia will sign the agreement. The position is absolutely unacceptable for Georgia, as signing such a document would represent indirect recognition of the occupied regions as independent juridical entities – independent states. Of course, neither Ivanishvili nor any other future leader of Georgia will take this step. Moreover, Georgia categorically demands that an agreement on the non-use of force be made and signed by equal, internationally-recognized entities, between Georgia and the Russian Federation. Georgian Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze, commenting about Lavrov’s statement, stressed that Lavrov gave the wrong interpretation of Ivanishvili’s statement."

Jewish Diplomatic Corps to rejoin World Jewish Congress - worldjewishcongress.org: "The Jewish Diplomatic Corps (JDCorps), an international network of Jewish professionals engaged in public diplomacy will be reintegrated into the structure of the World Jewish Congress (WJC)


and see its global budget and staff boosted. The corps’ precursor was set up in 2006 under the auspices of Peleg Reshef of the WJC. Today, the network comprises 130 young Jewish lay leaders from 30 countries world-wide." Image from entry

Adjournment Speech by The Hon Mr Ian Hansen 22/8 - Hon Mr Ian Hansen, MLA, falklandnews.com: Hansen: "I think the achievements of the past four years have been quite significant. I am not going to run through them all but certainly one that stands out to me is the fact that the public diplomacy move has been concentrated on the last four years. Certainly over the last two or three anyway it s been really quite successful and in some ways rather a brave and controversial move but I believe it has paid off." Image from


Adjournment Speech by The Hon Mr Mike Summers 22/8 - The Hon Mr Mike Summers, MLA, falklandnews.com: Summers: "Madam Speaker, Honourable members, it seems as though I spent little time in this House during the course of this year and little time in the Falklands. And for that I apologise to those who I have a duty to represent. But it is part of the public diplomacy process that my Honourable Colleagues have mentioned and in the central part of our work."

Adjournment Speech by Roger Edwards 22/8 - The Hon Mr Roger Edwards, MLA, falklandnews.com: Edwards: "I think we leave the Falkland Islands in a much stronger position, particularly public diplomacy where we have certainly countered the political lies and threats by Argentina and we have spread the message about the Falklands across the world."

First Resident Ambassador to Canada Takes Office - news.err.ee: Gita Kalmet, Estonia's first resident ambassador to Canada, presented her credentials to Governor General David Johnston in Ottawa yesterday. ... Kalmet, born in Tallinn in 1959, attended the Estonian School of Diplomacy and Oxford University.


She has been with the Foreign Ministry since 1993 and was appointed ambassador to Holland in 2006. Since 2011, she has worked as the head of the ministry's public diplomacy department." Image from entry, with caption: Gita Kalmet (left) and David Johnston.

Public Diplomacy and the Third Metric - James Pamment, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "The metrics used by PD practitioners do not determine the metrics used by students and scholars. They may be focused on money and power, but we retain the right to analyse PD campaigns according to criteria such as fairness, inspiration, wisdom, generosity, and well-being. While I do think PD research is better when it accurately represents the perspectives and problems of practitioners, one of the most important contributions a PD scholar can offer the field is alternative metrics rooted in reliable data."

New Rule-Makers in the CSR Game: The Dominican Labor Movement - Chanelle Yang, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "I spent the past few weeks in the Dominican Republic with United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), witnessing workers’ grassroots efforts to further basic human rights in the workplace. Conducting cultural diplomacy, American college students of USAS also work closely with Dominican workers to reform corporate social responsibility."


RELATED ITEMS

Obama Will Seek Syria Vote in Congress - Peter Baker, New York Times: President Obama stunned the world and paused his march to war on Saturday by asking Congress to give him authorization before he launches a limited military strike against the Syrian government in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack. In an afternoon appearance in the Rose Garden, Mr. Obama said he had decided that the United States should use force but would wait for a vote from lawmakers, who are not due to return to town until Sept. 9. Mr. Obama said he believed he had the authority to act on his own, but he did not say whether he would if Congress rejects his plan.

War in Syria: Wading Into Chaos But What Happens After? – By Domani Spero, DiploPundit: The ‘we’re going to war’ news is on a furious march today.

U.S. must act against crimes against humanity - Editorial, Washington Post: Some ask why the United States should care about 1,400 deaths from gassing when more than 100,000 have died in Syria’s war. We’re among those who believe the administration should have done more, short of boots on the ground, to forestall those deaths, and we believe that any military action should be part of a strategy to influence the war’s outcome. But these deaths are different. A line has been crossed; if there are no consequences, it will be crossed again. Someday U.S. soldiers on a battlefield could be the victim of the resulting impunity. If the United States does not ensure that Syria faces consequences for crossing the line, no one will, and the U.S. response should be strong enough to prevent Mr. Assad from committing further atrocities.

On Syria, a measured response: Though a military strike appears likely, Washington should resist the siren call of regime-change - Editorial, latimes.com: Although conventional weapons cause death and injuries, since World War I chemical weapons have rightly been viewed by civilized nations as particularly abhorrent; if their apparent deployment in Syria goes unpunished, other governments and movements might be emboldened to violate that taboo, with far-reaching and potentially tragic consequences. The U.S. has made it clear that Syria would be better off without Assad. It has promised additional aid to some rebel groups and has worked to ensure that a post-Assad government would be democratic and inclusive. But a U.S. military campaign designed to overthrow Assad would be dangerous and provocative.

The risk of taking on Syria: Quick strikes rarely achieve enduring political goals -- and often produce more costs or unintended consequences than benefits - Robin Wright, latimes.com: As the U.S. and its allies take on Syria, they need to ensure that the costs do not ultimately outweigh the benefits, and that another military mission doesn't backfire.

Obama's limited Syria goals: The aim of any U.S. military action in Syria won't be to topple Assad's government but to deter it from using chemical weapons - Doyle McManus, latimes.com: Obama's immediate goal is to keep the crisis over chemical weapons limited, and to deter Assad from using them again. His medium-term goal is to keep the Syrian civil war within manageable bounds in hopes that the pro-Western rebels will gain strength. It's not a promising picture. The war could continue for years, claiming more dead on all sides. And, in the end, the moderates may lose. But the alternatives all look worse. Deterrence may be the least bad option there is.

Loose Lips on Syria: U.S. leaks tell Assad he can relax. The bombing will be brief and limited - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: The attacks are primarily about making a political statement, and vindicating President Obama's ill-considered promise of "consequences," rather than materially degrading Assad's ability to continue to wage war against his own people. There is likely to be no good outcome in Syria until Assad and his regime are gone. Military strikes that advance that goal—either by targeting Assad directly or crippling his army's ability to fight—deserve the support of the American people and our international partners. That's not what this Administration seems to have in mind.

The Wise Men of Iraq Give Us Counsel About Syria: Karl Rove, Bill Kristol, Paul Bremer, Elliott Abrams, and other experts speak - James Fallow, The Atlantic: Perhaps you will be surprised to learn that the experts recommend resolute military measures. Or perhaps you won't, since that is what they recommended for Iraq and are still recommending for Iran. Of course these would be controlled, "standoff" uses of force that will work just as planned and will bolster only "vetted moderate elements" of the opposition. Very much as the same experts foresaw the last time they had the stage.

Strike on Syria targets could draw U.S. into civil war - Ernesto Londono and Ed O'Keefe, Washington Post: An imminent U.S. strike on Syrian government targets in response to the alleged gassing of civilians last week has the potential to draw the United States into the country's civil war, former U.S. officials said, warning that history doesn't bode well for such limited, retaliatory interventions. U.S. diplomat Christopher Hill, dispatched as special envoy to Kosovo, said there was an expectation that U.S. military intervention would be short and decisive. Some thought the bombing campaign would last a few days, he said, but it dragged on for 78. "The problem is that people expect, when U.S. military assets are deployed, that we will do so until the regime goes away."

Syrian rebels used Sarin nerve gas, not Assad’s regime: U.N. official - Shaun Waterman, The Washington Times: Testimony from victims strongly suggests it was the rebels, not the Syrian government, that used Sarin nerve gas during a recent incident in the revolution-wracked nation, a senior U.N. diplomat said Monday. Carla del Ponte, a member of the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, told Swiss TV there were “strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof,” that rebels seeking to oust Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad had used the nerve agent. But she said her panel had not yet seen any evidence of Syrian government forces using chemical weapons, according to the BBC, but she added that more investigation was needed.

Bomb Syria, Even if It Is Illegal - Ian Hurd, New York Times: As a legal matter, the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons does not automatically justify armed intervention by the United States. There are moral reasons for disregarding the law, and I believe the Obama administration should intervene in Syria. But it should not pretend that there is a legal justification in existing law. Image from



How to Legitimize Intervention in Syria - Carol Giacomo, New York Times: While President Obama can’t expect much from Congress, he should still, at a minimum, secure backing from legislative leaders for military action. It would be better if the United States, Britain and their partners sought authorization, and legal justification, from the United Nations Security Council for any military action. Whatever Mr. Obama decides to do on Syria, he needs to clearly explain to the American people the legal basis of any operation, his strategic and tactical intent and how he plans to keep the United States from getting mired in another Middle East war.

Let’s Not Have Another War (Syria Edition, A Handy Checklist) - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: Regarding intervening in Syria, he United Nations does not say to do it. The United Kingdom voted against it, the first time in two decades the U.K. has not supported U.S. military action. The U.S. Congress will not have an opportunity to vote on it, though many members have reservations. Many in our own military have doubts. Half of all American oppose it. Why does the president insist America must attack Syria? Obama’s reasons seem vague at best, something from the 19th century about “firing a shot across Assad’s bow” as if this is a pirate movie.

The Chemical Evidence: Kerry echoes Bush in making the case on WMD in Syria - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Kerry and the Administration are making a compelling case against the depredations of Bashar Assad and the need for a forceful world response. What they haven't done is make a case that their military punishment will be enough to match the magnitude of the harm and threat they describe.

Show of Farce: Obama's Syria approach defies satire - James Taranto, Wall Street Journal: Indications are that the Obama administration's response will be to drop a few bombs, break some stuff, and maybe kill a few bystanders. That comes nowhere near being a just punishment for the crimes alleged.

In trying to help Syria, an intervention would destroy it - Steven A. Cook, Washington Post: The complex and dreadful evolution of the conflict has shaken the moral and strategic justifications for intervention, even a short one focused on punishing the regime for its use of chemical weapons and deterring future use. American and allied cruise missiles would be degrading the capability of the regime’s military units to the benefit of the al-Qaeda-linked militants fighting Assad — the same militants whom U.S. drones are attacking regularly in places such as Yemen.

Absent on Syria - Editorial, New York Times: As President Obama moves toward unilateral military action in response to a chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed more than 1,400 people, he is doing so without legal justification and without the backing of two key institutions, Congress and the United Nations Security Council. Both have abdicated their roles in dealing with this crisis.

Cameron's Defeat on Syria Is Also President Obama's: The prime minister's loss in the House of Commons was the first on such a question since 1782 - Daniel Johnson, Wall Street Journal: President Obama has "led from behind," which is as much as to say that he has not led at all. This abdication of leadership is apparent in the president's naïve mishandling of the disintegration of the old order in the Middle East, in his failure to anticipate or respond adequately to the wave of Islamist extremism that has imperiled Western interests in the region, and above all in his arrogant treatment of America's closest ally, Israel.

A Much Less Special Relationship - Roger Cohen, New York Times: Something broke in the U.S.-British bond with the Iraq invation. It is now clear that Barack Obama, for all the hopes vested in him, has failed to rebuild it. Britain and the United States will continue to matter a great deal to each other. But for anyone who believes in the ultimate beneficence of Pax Americana, in the values of the trans-Atlantic world and in the critical importance of American credibility on the red lines it draws for global security and against the horrors of gassing, the British vote represents a bleak turning point.

Egypt and the limits of democracy: For now, a liberal dictator may be better than an elected thug - Tsvi Bisk, latimes.com: The events in Egypt are causing a great deal of moral and intellectual confusion in Western circles, preoccupied as they are with the concept of democracy (after all, ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was elected).


Populist sentimentality abounds. But better a liberalizing dictator than an elected thug. Morsi was an elected thug; Gen. Abdel Fattah Sisi, the head of the Egyptian armed services and now in charge of the nation, might turn out to be a liberalizing dictator who at least protects minorities and women. Image from article, with caption: Supporters of army chief General Abdel Fattah Sisi carry his portrait and wave the Egyptian flag in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

U.S., China and an unthinkable war: Both have planned for a conflict they hope to avoid - David C. Gompert and Terrence K. Kelly, latimes.com: Although the China-U.S. agenda is jammed with pressing issues, from cyber espionage to currency rates, time must be found to improve procedures and channels to defuse crises and avert military miscalculation, lest the unthinkable becomes unavoidable.


And political leaders in each capital should not wait for a crisis before scrutinizing war-fighting plans and insisting on ones that strengthen, not weaken, stability. Given the stakes, plans to win must not be allowed to make war more likely. Image from entry, with caption: President Barack Obama is seen with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Annenberg Retreat of the Sunnylands estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Arab revolutions pose [sic]  - Joseph Nye, Jr., Washington Post: When we cannot be sure how to improve the world, prudence becomes an important virtue, and grandiose visions can pose a grave danger. This is sometimes forgotten by those who want Obama to place bigger bets in the revolutions of today’s Middle East.

Obama's Foreign Failure: The world hasn't lived up to his Pollyannaish expectations - Pete du Pont, Wall Street Journal: Overall the Obama foreign policy team seems to suffer from a Pollyannaish approach to the world. They do not seem to understand that those who hate America will hate us, and will try to harm us, whether our president is Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. They do not seem to understand that the U.S. president simply declaring the war on terror to be over or that al Qaeda is decimated and on the run does not make such things true. They do not understand that, while it's good to extend an offer of peace to those who hate us, those who continue to abuse that effort and harm others need to know with certainty that they will feel the appropriate unpleasant consequences. They fail to understand it's OK to "speak softly" only as long as our enemies know we've got that "big stick" and are not afraid to use it.

RUSSICA

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CHINOISERIE

22 Chinese Signs That Got Seriously Lost In Translation - buzzfeed.com. Among them:


ONE MORE VIDEO

War Propaganda And Media Lies Within The Syria Conflict - YouTube

"Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom."

--Francis Bacon; image from

NEW PUBLICATION

Introducing our Winter 2014 Issue: Gastrodiplomacy by Public Diplomacy Magazine Editors. Image from entry, with caption: South African “Gatsby” Sandwich


PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Just War or just, war? - Ray Haberski, s-usih.org: "Mark Edwards on August 30, 2013 at 6:55 pm said: I guess I’m hung up on the notion of an 'American public.' When it comes to popular involvement in foreign policy in particular, Lippmann is still right that it’s a 'phantom'–in reality, 'public' means 'organized interests.' Following the Iraq war in 2003, the Council on Foreign Relations renewed its interest in 'public diplomacy.' http://www.cfr.org/diplomacy-and-statecraft/public-diplomacy-strategy-reform/p4697 Has any progress been made on this front?"

France: A bookish haven for Americans in Paris: Thriving since the days of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, the library is a welcoming chat spot and author hangout. Check it out while near the Eiffel Tower - Craig Turner, latimes.com: "Founded in 1920 using leftover books that had been shipped from American households to U.S. doughboys fighting in World War I, the library has a colorful history and distinguished literary pedigree. Edith Wharton was a founding trustee. Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein wrote for its literary journal. Stephen Vincent Benét composed his poem 'John Brown's Body' at the library. When the Nazis occupied Paris in 1940, director Dorothy Reeder defied them by smuggling books to Jewish members who had been banned from the building. ... Despite its popularity among expat and French literati, the library is unknown to most American visitors. I've known Trueheart since the mid-1990s, when we were foreign correspondents in Toronto, he for the Post and me for the Los Angeles Times. When he told me on an earlier visit to Paris that he'd taken the director's job at the American Library in Paris, it was the first I'd heard of the institution. ... Today the library, on a narrow street on the Left Bank with the Eiffel Tower looming overhead, houses 122,000 books, most in English, counts about 2,500 individuals and families as members, only about half of them self-identified Americans, and runs on a budget of about $1.45 million a year, none of which comes from the U.S. government."

Closing the chapter that is Paris - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "I say goodbye to Paris tomorrow, and hop a bus to Belgium. So ends my stint of living in Paris. I hadn't expected to spend two months living in Paris, but I hadn't expected to fall in love with the city as deeply as I did. ... Unfortunately, I did not get to write my magnum opus memoir or tome of public diplomacy played out in the field. The only mistake I made was to think that I could focus on the past while being surrounded by such present adventures."

Denmark defends whale and dolphin slaughter in Faroe Islands– 1,085 dolphins killed since 21 July 2013 - Erwin Vermeulen,desdemonadespair.net:  "On August 27, around 2pm local time, another 51 Pilot whales were butchered in the Ferocious Isles. This time in the village Hvalvik, in the East of the Faroe island, Streymoy, not far from the capital, Tórshavn. The name means WhaleBay and 188 Pilot whales were killed here in May 2009. Thankfully, on the evening of the 26th, a Grind was reportedly aborted in Suðuroy when darkness fell, otherwise the kill numbers would be even higher.


When we reported on the bloody grind season earlier this month (Brutal Death and Suffering; Business as Usual in The Faroe Islands) we asked you to write to the Danish authorities. On 8/22/13, Maria Padilla Arndt (mararn@um.dk), Assistant Cultural and Press Officer of the Danish Consulate General in New York, replied to a concerned world citizen in the following email to defend the Grind. ... Maria Padilla Arndt (mararn@um.dk), Assistant Cultural and Press Officer/Culture,Press and Public Diplomacy.”  Image from entry

Susanna Niinivaara appointed Press Officer in St. Petersburg - Press release, Ministry for Foreign Affairs for Finland: "The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has appointed Susanna Niinivaara as Press Officer at the Finnish Consulate General in St. Petersburg for a three-year term starting 1 October. Niinivaara is moving to her new post at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from her own communications company, which specialises in Russia and Finnish foreign and security policy. In 1998–2010 she worked as a journalist on various desks of Helsingin Sanomat and also served as the newspaper’s Moscow correspondent. Niinivaara has a Master’s degree in social sciences. The Press Officer’s role is to promote Finnish public diplomacy in St. Petersburg and southwestern Russia, to increase Finland’s visibility and to develop Finnish-Russian networks. A key partner in cooperation in the context of the Team Finland network is the Finnish Institute."

RELATED ITEMS

Fox News Quotes Syrian Propaganda To Suggest Obama Emboldened Assad And Iran - Igor Volsky, thinkprogress.org: Fox News’ Chris Wallace referenced Syrian propaganda to suggest that President Obama handed a victory to the Syrian regime by asking Congress to authorize military action against President Bashar Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons. During his interview with Secretary of State John Kerry for Fox News Sunday, Wallace quoted “officials in Damascus” and a Syria state-run newspaper — Al-Thawra — to argue that the administration has shown weakness in failing to unilaterally strike Syria after presenting evidence that the regime carried out a chemical attack against its own people last month. “Haven’t you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory,” Wallace asked: "WALLACE: You talk about this is going to make it worse for Assad. After the president announced his decision, officials in Damascus were saying that the president had flinched. Had made a joke of the American administration. A newspaper out in the streets of Damascus calls this, 'the start of the historic American retreat.' Haven’t you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory?"  "KERRY: I don’t believe so at all and that is in the hands of the Congress of the U.S. The president has made his decision. The president wants to stand up and make certain that we uphold the international norm…. I think the Assad regime needs to recognize that they have refocused the energy of the American people on him, on his regime." Al-Thawra, “which as a government outlet reflects regime thinking, also claimed that Obama’s reluctance to take military action stems from his ‘sense of implicit defeat and the disappearance of his allies.’” During his appearance on all five Sunday political talk shows, Kerry stressed that Obama believes that he has the “right” to launch military action against Syria, but argued that Congressional authorization would only strengthen the U.S. response. He predicted that Congress would vote in favor of military strikes. On Sunday, the Syrian opposition issued a statement urging lawmakers to approve military action.

Syria's propaganda machine goes into overdrive - israelhayom.com: Syria's propaganda machine has gone into overdrive, with Syria's Information Ministry merging all government media outlets and broadcasting pro-regime content. Over the weekend, Syrian government


channels broadcast videos showcasing the Syrian military's capabilities, while radio stations played pro-army songs. Government TV stations showed pictures of the long lines for gas masks in Israel, while Damascus residents were filmed proudly telling TV crews they were confident Syria would be victorious. Image from entry, with caption: Syrian soldiers over the weekend.

The art of propaganda: US intelligence assessment of Syrian chemical attack [includes video] - allvoices.com: The United States has released a document providing the preliminary assessment of the alleged chemical weapons attack on Damascus suburbs recently. This article consists of just a few preliminary observations on the information provided in the document. The entire original document is available here. Before reading the document, several factors should be kept in mind. First, this document consists of selectively declassified material. The practice of selective declassification is a favorite tactical move by the Obama administration in the constant use of psychological warfare techniques to convince the public of the merits of the government's policies. The move was almost transparent with the drone program. The ACLU cannot even get confirmation that the program even exists through the courts, yet The New York Times and other news sources manage to get considerable information about the program.

Obama’s Decision to Seek Approval First Lengthens Suspense of Attack - Anne Barnard and Hala Droubi, New York Times: At the end of a nerve-racking day in the cross hairs of American gunships, Syrians gathered around televisions to watch President Obama announce the start of an expected American missile strike. People fearing American strikes left an area of Aleppo on Saturday. Syrian officials said they were ready to respond to any attack. When he instead declared that he would seek Congressional approval for the strikes — telling them, essentially, never mind, for now — Syrians were shocked. Also relieved, bewildered, confused, triumphant and angry.


Many Syrians feel deeply ambivalent about a strike, hoping it curbs the government’s indiscriminate use of force — by punishing Mr. Assad for deadly chemical attacks on Aug. 21 that American officials blame on his government — but also fearing it could unleash new chaos. Image from article, with caption: A family crossed the border into Turkey on Saturday as people across Syria, including rebels and government troops, scurried to prepare for American strikes.

Obama goes to Congress on Syria as his International Support Collapses - Juan Cole, Informed Comment: President Obama did not have a favorable international climate for a Syria strike. As time went on, he became more and more isolated. The Arab League declined to call for intervention even though it condemned Damascus for chemical weapons use. Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and other Arab countries forthrightly denounced the idea of foreign military intervention in Syria. Then NATO declined to get involved. Then the British Parliament followed suit. Then Obama’s own intelligence links cast doubt on whether President Bashar al-Assad had actively ordered the chemical weapons attack of August 21. So by Friday, Obama had painted himself into a box with repeated statements that he had to attack Syria because of the gas attack. With regard to domestic politics, Obama would be pilloried on Capitol Hill if he backed down as his international support (and elements of his case) collapsed. Obama made a clever political calculation. The Tea Party and the GOP in general had been demanding that he submit the Syria file to them. So he obliged them. If they say ‘no,’ as the British parliament did, then Obama is off the hook. If they say ‘yes,’ then they are full partners in any failures that result. Either way, the issue is taken off the agenda of the 2016 election and Democrats are held harmless.

First Take: Obama's decision a risky precedent? - Susan Page, USA Today: The danger of Obama's decision to seek congressional authorization on Syria is that he is setting a precedent that could weaken his presidency and the presidency itself.


In an NBC News poll released this week, nearly eight in 10 Americans said he should seek congressional authorization before striking Syria. Image from article, with caption: President Barack Obama meets in the Situation Room with his national security advisors to discuss strategy in Syria, Saturday

Analysis: Isolated Obama turns to Congress for support - Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times: President Obama, who unilaterally authorized a full air campaign in Libya in 2011, is taking a different approach this time with Syria — mindful both of the political price he paid for that earlier effort and of the far more thorny questions involved in attacking the Assad regime. Since he made clear his intention to retaliate against Syria for what he says is clear evidence of an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack, Mr. Obama had been priming the country for a unilateral decision to take military action. But over the last 48 hours he saw growing resistance in Congress, he lost his chief international partner when the British Parliament rejected joining in any military action, and he realized he wouldn’t be able to get U.N. backing. Faced with the choice of going it truly alone, he instead decided to throw the issue to Congress, asking them to share responsibility for the decision.

Syrian state-run newspaper calls Obama move a retreat - AP, USA Today: A Syrian state-run newspaper on Sunday called President Obama's decision to seek congressional approval before taking military action against Syria "the start of the historic American retreat." The gloating tone in the front-page article in the Al-Thawra daily followed Obama's unexpected announcement on Saturday that he would ask Congress to support a strike punishing the President Bashar Assad's regime for the alleged use of chemical weapons. The decision marked a stark turnabout for the White House, which had appeared on the verge of ordering U.S. forces to launch a missile attack against Syria.

US Syria strike is against International Law, but it's not the first - Paul Samakow, washingtontimes.com: Assad’s illegal use of chemical weapons against his own population provides no legal justification in either international or in U.S. law for a military strike against Syria.


The world recognizes only two justifications for armed intervention: self-defense, and U.N. Security Council approval. Uncaptioned image from article

War games and settlement excursions: inside a pro-Israel propaganda tour for student activists - Rebecca Pierce, mondoweiss.net: War games and settlement excursions: inside a pro-Israel propaganda tour for student activists - mondoweiss.netIn over fifty entries on the BlueStar Fellows program blog (penned with the assistance of a writing coach) participants from UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, San Francisco State, San Jose State, and Pitzer College reflect on a trip itinerary that often glorifies Israeli state violence while promoting a dehumanized image of Palestinians.


 Image from entry, with caption: Students on the BlueStar trip to Israel and the occupied West Bank participated in a paintball session at Caliber 3, a privately-owned counter-terrorism training facility in the illegal Israeli settlement bloc of Gush Etzion.

U.S.-Russia feud over Snowden cuts both ways: The U.S. is angry that Russia gave asylum to leaker Edward Snowden, but Moscow also is upset – about Russians given haven in the U.S. - Tina Susman, latimes.com: President Obama canceled a September meeting with Putin after Russia's decision to take in NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Russia responded by blaming the United States for the standoff, saying Washington had avoided signing an extradition agreement that could enable Snowden's return to the U.S., but that would also open the door to Russians to be sent home to face justice. Russia is also angry over the imprisonment in the United States of Russian citizens arrested on U.S. warrants in third countries.

Yemenis launch artistic campaign to counter global media propaganda‎ - presstv.ir: Project "Inside out Sana'a" is a newly established project which has been launched in the Yemeni capital by a group of community organizers and rights activist, to challenge the notion of Yemen being a terrorist state. Through the art of photography, these community activist, hope to illustrate an accurate portrait to the world to show the true identity of Yemen and its people- who according to Rooj Alwazir -one of the main organizers, have been thoughtlessly generalized by global media as terrorists. Many of the participants expressed concern about the US drone strikes which have increased dramatically in the country this year.

Liberal Education in Authoritarian Places - Jim Sleeper, New York Times: Diplomats have good reason to encourage educational collaborations with strategically vital nations. And higher education is under great strain in the United States — witness President Obama’s plans to make colleges more affordable and accountable by rating them — so the temptation to raise money by expanding into rapidly growing (or resource rich) countries is understandable.


But if you look past their soaring rhetoric, you’ll see globe-trotting university presidents and trustees who are defining down their expectations of what a liberal education means, much as corporations do when they look the other way at shoddy labor and environmental practices abroad. The difference, of course, is that a university’s mission is to question such arrangements, not to facilitate them. Image from article, with caption: New York University’s campus in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, opened in 2010.

BETTER DAYS?


--Above image via MT on Facebook

DEFINITIONS

"[T]werking is a dance move typically associated with lower-income African-American women that involves the rapid gyration of the hips in a fashion that prominently exhibits the elasticity of the gluteal musculature."


Image from, with caption: Muscles of the gluteal and posterior femoral regions. Gluteus minimus and the origins and insertions of medius and maximus labeled

--Teddy Wayne, New York Times

IMAGE


--From Princess Sparkle Pony's Photoblog

"This guy is the Director of the Center on Public Diplomacy at USC?"

--Reaction of Huffington Post reader robertdoss to the article by USC Center on Public Diplomacy Director Philip Seib, "A Case for Blowing Things Up," Huffington Post; article which first appeared in PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy, August 26, cited as lede item in the Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, August 27; image from
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Rethinking Syria: An Open Letter to President Obama- Jerrold Shapiro, Huffington Post: "We wish we knew how to resolve the multiple dilemmas in the Middle East, or in the U.S. We wish we knew a way for Congress to focus on doing what's best for those they purportedly represent. We don't, and greater minds than ours have tried for years to unwind the quandaries and impasses.


But as a clinical psychologist/therapist and graduate student in Public Diplomacy, we do know something about the process of human interaction. From that perspective, we can see that we are in a no-win situation; damned if we act; damned if we do not. We also know that when faced by that apparent choice between two poor outcomes, we need to leave the game and play by a new one that has more equitable rules." [JB Note: Unclear who the "we" in this article are]. Image from

Dr. Martin Luther King, President Obama, and Decapitating The Syrian Government - developingtomorrow.wordpress.com: "I have been thinking about this interesting scenario posed by Dr. John Brown. Dr. Brown presented a hypothetical scenario: ['] I wonder what MLK, a statesman most remembered for his calls for non-violence, would react to a Chief Executive praising him while, at the same time, targeting cruise missiles against a country that has not attacked us. ['] ... By my review of the telegraph correspondence from Dr. King to President Kennedy, I think if Dr. King were alive, he would call on all parties to take a non-violent approach. However, I think he would draw some sort of line to establish a force necessary to prevent a genocide, if I may dare use that term to describe such mass killings. ... Source Material:  http://johnbrownnotesandessays.blogspot.com/2013/08/honoring-martin-luther-king-and-bombing.html

The Iraq Technique: How to Sell a War - Jeffrey St. Clair, CounterPunch: "The Bush claque of neocon hawks viewed the Iraq war as a product and, just like a new pair of Nikes, it required a roll-out campaign to soften up the consumers. The same techniques (and often the same PR gurus) that have been used to hawk cigarettes, SUVs and nuclear waste dumps were deployed to retail the Iraq war. To peddle the invasion, Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell and company recruited public relations gurus into top-level jobs at the Pentagon and the State Department. These spinmeisters soon had more say over how the rationale for war on Iraq should be presented than intelligence agencies and career diplomats. If the intelligence didn’t fit the script, it was shaded, retooled or junked. Take Charlotte Beers whom Powell picked as undersecretary of state in the post-9/11 world. Beers wasn’t a diplomat. She wasn’t even a politician. She was a grand diva of spin, known on the business and gossip pages as 'the queen of Madison Avenue.'


On the strength of two advertising campaigns, one for Uncle Ben’s Rice and another for Head and Shoulder’s dandruff shampoo, Beers rocketed to the top of the heap in the PR world, heading two giant PR houses: Ogilvy and Mathers as well as J. Walter Thompson. At the state department Beers, who had met Powell in 1995 when they both served on the board of Gulf Airstream, worked at, in Powell’s words, 'the branding of U.S. foreign policy.' She extracted more than $500 million from Congress for her Brand America campaign, which largely focused on beaming U.S. propaganda into the Muslim world, much of it directed at teens. 'Public diplomacy is a vital new arm in what will combat terrorism over time,' said Beers. 'All of a sudden we are in this position of redefining who America is, not only for ourselves, but for the outside world.' Note the rapt attention Beers pays to the manipulation of perception, as opposed, say, to alterations of U.S. policy. Old-fashioned diplomacy involves direct communication between representatives of nations, a conversational give and take, often fraught with deception (see April Glaspie), but an exchange nonetheless.Public diplomacy, as defined by Beers, is something else entirely. It’s a one-way street, a unilateral broadcast of American propaganda directly to the public, domestic and international, a kind of informational carpet-bombing. The themes of her campaigns were as simplistic and flimsy as a Bush press conference." Image from

Belgique - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "Brussels is apparently a comic-con capital, and I found all sorts of murals to comic book characters like Asterix and Tintin. Immediately I was buzzing with Belgian cultural diplomacy to Japan (Belgian-Anime connections!). And perhaps a lil Belgian comic-con diplomacy? Why not, comic book nerds can be valuable audiences of outreach too. ... Brussels and I are quickly becoming bons amis/goede vrienden over Belgian gastrodiplomacy ideas. ... More to come on


Brussels as the Capital of Europe, and I remain inherently curio[u]s about European public diplomacy internally. I need to investigate pan-European public diplomacy via the EU, and I am quite curious about pan-European cultural and gastrodiplomacy--if you want to bring Europe together as one, the euro is not the ticket, but rather connecting Europe through music, culture and food. More to come on such biz." Image from

State Comptroller's report || Aliyah organization sending mixed messages to Russian Jews: Come, or stay there: State comptroller's report accuses Nativ of budget inconsistencies, wasteful spending, lack of coordination and encouraging emigration from Israel - Ofer Aderet, haaretz.com: "The comptroller found ... examples of wastefulness as the bureau expanded activities into areas not in its purview, such as cultural events and public diplomacy (hasbarah) – targeting audiences that may not have been eligible for aliyah at all. According to the comptroller, these activities took up a major part of the bureau's operations, 'without examining to what extent they serve the goals set by the government.'


In fact, the comptroller expressed concern that this development served as a retroactive justification for the expansion of the bureau’s initial role." Image from article, with caption: Immigrants from the former Soviet Union. On aliyah, see.

Economic corridor links China, Pakistan dreams - Xinhua, africa.chinadaily.com.cn: "The proposed economic corridor between China and Pakistan will connect the dreams of the two countries, experts have said. The China Dream refers to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, while a similar dream in Pakistan is called making the country into an Asian tiger. The notion was raised and well received at the two-day First Annual Meeting of China-Pakistan Thinks Tanks that concluded Sunday. The event was co-hosted by the Tsinghua University's Center for Pakistan Culture and Communication Studies, the China-Pakistan Joint Think Tank at Pakistan's National University of Science and Technology (NUST) and the Chinese Academy of World Agendas. ... During the meeting, the Association of Chinese and Pakistani Scholars was set up and Tsinghua University also handed out the second batch of 'the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Public Diplomacy' to two laureates: senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Wang Shaofeng, vice-general manager of China Water AND Electric International Investment Limited (CWEI). Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed is also chairman of the Pakistan-China Institute and the Committee on Defense and Defense Production of the Pakistan Senate."

Translating Lessons Learned in Colombia and Other Wars Among the People: Confronting the Spectrum of 21st Century Conflict - Max G. Manwaring, smallwarsjournal.com: "[I]t is important to understand that information—not firepower—is the strategic currency upon which modern unconventional war is conducted; and that key operational instruments of power are intelligence, propaganda, public diplomacy, the media, time, and flexibility.


These are the kinds of instruments of statecraft (i.e., power) that can ultimately capture public opinion and influence decision-makers. Thus, contemporary war among the people employs a combination of possibilities (i.e., hybrid war) that is only limited by imagination and willingness to use all available methods and means, and in which the various 'battlefields' (i.e., spectrum of conflict) may be extended to everyone, everything, and everywhere." Image from

New UN Online Courses: Public Diplomacy in a Multipolar World - Student Editor, internationallawobserver.eu: "The courses of Public Diplomacy in a Multiploar World will take place from 23 September – 20 October 2013."

RELATED ITEMS

A Look at Syria Developments Around the World - The Associated Press

Forcing Obama’s Hand in Syria - Vali Nasr, New York Times: Americans are justifiably weary of war, but the lesson of Syria is that shirking from our global responsibilities will only create bigger problems that will eventually raise both the cost and the likelihood of American intervention. It is in America’s strategic interestto take decisive action to mortally wound the Assad regime. Ensuring that Syria does not become a haven for Al Qaeda — a legitimate fear — would have to immediately follow.

Obama Will Launch a Huge Propaganda Blitz -- And May Attack Syria Even If He Loses the Vote in Congress - Norman Solomon, Huffington Post: A careful reading of Obama's Rose Garden announcement on Saturday verifies that he never quite said he will abide by the decision


of Congress if it refuses to approve an attack on Syria. At the grassroots, people across the United States will be working very hard to prevent congressional approval of an attack on Syria. Image from

Sarin Gas: A New Propaganda Campaign against Syria - globalresearch.ca: According to the Free Syrian Army, the Syrian authorities have bombarded the ghoutta, a suburb of Damascus, with sarin gas, Wednesday, August 21, 2013, resulting in a total of 1700 deaths. This announcement was immediately commented on by German, British and French authorities who have called an emergency meeting of the Security Council so that UN observers can be allowed to investigate. All of this information is taken over by the Atlanticist media as a certainty, the conditional being formally employed to allow investigators time to report evidence in the West. This propaganda operation is grotesque: as everyone can observe on YouTube, the video evidence of the massacre of August 21st having been posted by the “Majles Rif” account … the day before, on August 20th . On these videos, shocking at first, one quickly detects a setup: the wounded children appear haggard or drugged, do not have parents who accompany them. Boys are often naked, while the girls are all dressed. We see no hospital structure, not even a clandestine one, except screens and pockets of serum. Some photographs had already been distributed by the Atlanticist media to accuse the Egyptian Army of a massacre at a camp of the Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo. [See below image:]


U.S. intervention in Syria: War for virtue - Henry Allen, Washington Post: The United States doesn’t fight for land, resources, hatred, revenge, tribute, religious conversion — the usual stuff. Along with the occasional barrel of oil, we fight for virtue. Never mind that it doesn’t work out — the Gulf of Tonkin lies, Agent Orange, waterboarding, nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, the pointless horrors of Abu Ghraib, a fighter plane wiping out an Afghan wedding party, our explanation of civilian deaths as an abstraction: “collateral damage.” The latest target of opportunity for our patient bombers is Syria. The purity of our motives is unassailable. We would fire our missiles only to punish sin, this time in the form of poison gas. No land grab, no oil, not even an attempt to install democracy.

Assad's Inevitable Propaganda Victory - Hassan Mneimneh, realclearworld.com: Damascus, on the other hand, is poised to declare victory irrespective of what happens. If limited U.S.-led military strikes do take place, the regime will claim victory in repelling foreign aggression and foiling the West's plans. Assad's propaganda machine is already setting the stage for this narrative by suggesting that a full scale invasion is in the works. Worse, if a strike does not happen, the regime will boast of its deterrence power and declare the end of U.S. hegemony. Rather than being punished for its lethal use of chemical weapons against its own civilians, the Assad regime is almost guaranteed to achieve a propaganda victory. Obama has fallen into a trap

Are we about to see a repeat performance of the Iraq war in Syria? In a clear-headed blogpost, former Guardian Middle East Editor Brian Whitaker explains why the answer is no, and how the shadow of the Iraq war deception is making rational debate about Syria increasingly difficult. It’s a difficulty, he says, that’s compounded by the war hysteria in the mainstream and social media, and the chaff that’s contaminating much of the social media – talk of an invasion, troops going in, a lack of exit strategies and the “false flag” theories.


In his blogpost, Whitaker points out three key differences between Iraq in 2002-03 and Syria now: 1. Syria has chemical weapons, and the regime has said so itself. 2. President Obama has been palpably reluctant to get involved, directly and militarily, in Syria. American public opinion is strongly against it and there is no significant war lobby in Washington as there was when the neocons held sway. 3. The US does not particularly want Assad to be overthrown at the moment because it’s too worried about what might follow. Image from

Iraq Syndrome afflicts critics of intelligence on Syria - Michael McGough, latimes.com: Call it the Iraq Syndrome. Because the United States and its allies invaded Iraq a decade ago under the erroneous assumption that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, President Obama, Secretary of State John F. Kerry and British Prime Minister David Cameron are encountering skepticism when they argue that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against civilians. Yet the differences between Iraq and Syria are as notable as the similarities. In Iraq, the question was whether Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons; in Syria, it seems undeniable that such weapons exist and were used. The question is whether they were deployed by the Assad government, either on orders from the top or as part of a rogue commander’s operation.

Syria is for dummies - Armstrong Williams, Washington Times: President Obama learned nothing from the war failures of President George W. Bush. In fact, he continues to make the same (and worse) mistakes under the cover of a sympathetic media and a blindly loyal Democratic electorate. We absolutely should not directly intervene in Syria. There are two reasons why: (1) the entire situation was brought on by a reckless ad-libbing policy to the media; (2) we have no end-state objective.

Who wins in Syria? Why, the world's arms makers, of course - Paul Whitefield, latimes.com: Against Assad, $25 billion to $30 billion worth of U.S. military hardware, all warmed up and ready to go.


Skipping over the people, of course; you go ahead, but I’m not going to put a price tag on human life. Image from article, with caption: The guided-missile destroyer Stout will join U.S. forces in the eastern Mediterranean.

Analysis: Syria shows Obama’s unsteadiness in conducting foreign policy - John Solomon, Washington Times: No matter where one stands on the crises in the Middle East, there’s little argument right now on either side of the political aisle that the president’s handling of Syria is no way to conduct American foreign policy. It has defied all the rules, conventions and wisdom accrued on the global stage since the days of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

The U.S. ranks 17th in confidence in President Obama - rankingamerica.wordpress.com: Image from entry:


Explosions and Robot Propaganda Spotted on the Set of Transformers 4 - comingsoon.net: We've seen many videos from the set of MichaelBay's upcoming Transformers 4 but none this exciting. Many passersby have snapped videos from the film's shoots.

IMAGE


--Via MR on Pinterest

--A letter to the Financial Times 8/22/2013 by Mr KN Al-Sabah, of London; via SL; image from article

VIDEOS

EP11: Sports Diplomacy with Michelle Kwan - vimeo.com: "Michelle Kwan, a five-time world figure-skating champion, talks about her work as a public diplomacy envoy for the State Department, meeting with athletes and youth in foreign countries, and her new life in Washington (September 3, 2013)."

Syrian S-300 Surface-To-Air Missile Propaganda Video - Tyler Durden, zerohedge.com

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

As Much Power as a Word: Fulbright and Soft Power - Tom Healy, chairman, Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, Huffington Post: "[T]he activities of soft power -- whether it's educational exchange like Fulbright or foreign aid programs or other projects -- cost money. Nowhere near as much money as war. But interestingly, when you look at the history, the major expenditures and commitments to soft power usually come after war: funded through the sales of military surplus after World War II, the Fulbright Program was formulated along with other extraordinary achievements like the Marshall Plan. Budgets for educational and cultural exchange have always increased after violent events. This does not diminish the urgency or the effectiveness of education and international cooperation, of all the engagements of friendship, trust, mutual understanding, but it does mean we must be wary of the kind of utopian confidence one can often hear in safe and prosperous places that programs of peace can overcome the habits of hate and war, that they can offer sufficient alternatives to defense, to our natural wariness of those who might do us harm."

Veteran Journalist Douglas Frantz Heading To State Department - Michael Calderone, Huffington Post: "Veteran journalist Douglas Frantz is joining the State Department as assistant secretary of state for public affairs, according to a source familiar with the move. An official announcement is expected Tuesday. This will be Frantz’s second time working under Secretary of State John Kerry. In 2009, Frantz was hired as an investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by then-Sen. Kerry (D-Mass.)


Frantz, who had previously spent more than three decades at publications such as The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, returned to journalism in May 2012 as The Washington Post’s national security editor. ... He won't be the only journalist on the State Department payroll, either. Former Boston Globe politics editor Glen Johnson joined a senior adviser to Kerry earlier this year." Via PVB. Image from article

Acting Head Kevin Klose Appointed RFE/RL President And CEO - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "As suggested by recent BBG Watch reporting, the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) acting through the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) corporate board, approved a multi-year contract for Kevin Klose to become RFE/RL President And CEO. Klose, who was hired by the BBG in January 2013, has brought reforms and stability to the organization which was badly shaken by the firing of dozens of Radio Liberty journalists in Russia under his predecessor Steven Korn. All BBG members who all serve on the RFE/RL corporate board have approved Klose’s appointment, a BBG press release said."

Gulf News columnist says Voice of America lost much of its relevance - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "Voice of America has been badly managed, its news reporting staff reduced, employee morale at record low levels, original news reporting de-emphasized by top management and replaced with short wire service news items. A few remaining VOA English Service correspondents, even those based in Washington DC, are seeing their reports discarded or edited down by the VOA website team. News on the VOA English news website are often posted late

and include few details international audiences want. While Al Jazeera news reports, even those originating from Washington, get hundreds and thousands of Facebook 'Likes' from online readers, VOA stories on the same topics often get less than a dozen 'Likes.' Voice of America no longer has its own Arabic Service. Consequently, many interesting stories, such as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson’s August 28 letter to Al Ahram newspaper, in which she denounced as 'absolutely absurd and dangerous' the state-run paper’s claims that she was personally involved in a conspiracy to divide and destabilize Egypt, has not been covered at all on the VOA English news website. ... In fulfilling its obligations under the VOA Charter, Voice of America should have reported on the media controversy in Egypt and the letter from the U.S. Ambassador to a major local newspaper, even if reporting on this story was already provided by Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa which are overseen by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), as is VOA." Image from

Israel steps back from war footing - jewishnews.net.au: "Despite rumours of dissatisfaction in Jerusalem at Obama’s decision to seek the support of Congress before attacking, there was notable silence from ministers and the military. 'This was important because Israel recognises this is an important decision for the US, and it’s important that Israel isn’t seen as involved,' said Yehuda Ben-Meir, a security analyst at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. Ben-Meir told The AJN: 'It’s not in Israel’s interests to be seen as trying to influence them in any way,' saying that the impression that action had been promoted by Israel could be bad for the country’s public diplomacy."

Brand Israel self-destructs - Stuart Littlewood, redressonline.com: "A brand is only as good as the actual product, its reputation and how it scores on all the measures people use to evaluate it. Upgrading the Israel brand can only be achieved if the product itself changes for the better. That would require a courageous and seismic change of attitude by committed Zionists, which isn’t about to happen. So, it remains a mission impossible."

Europe's institutionalized anti-Semitism: Op-ed: Jews chosen as scapegoats of extremist leaders who gained power due to economic crisis in Europe - Yuval Canfi, docstalk.blogspot.com: "The author is a public diplomacy professional and Director of the 'Students for Israel' program for combating online anti-Semitism."

Soft Power 2.0: Reshaping Russia’s foreign policy - Anastasia Markitan, Russia Beyond the Headlines: "Russian foreign policy is focusing more and more on soft power, presumably in an effort to improve its international position. Russia Direct will publish its Quarterly Report Soft Power 2.0 on Sept. 3, analyzing Russia’s efforts in the areas of international development and exchange. ... Drawn by the huge potential of soft power in shaping a country’s global agenda, on Sept. 3, Russia Direct will publish RD Quarterly Report Soft Power 2.0 which analyzes possible overlaps of international development efforts and traditional public diplomacy initiatives to suggest specific policy directions that would be most applicable for Russia to increase its international standing. Written by Alexey Dolinskiy, a Partner at Capstone Connections consultancy and Director of Ward Howell Talent Equity Institute, the report includes broad overview of global soft power practices as well as Russia’s approach to international development, educational exchange programs and establishing international development bodies. ‘Public diplomacy is aimed at benefiting the nation that sponsors it and international development is aimed at benefiting the nation that receives it,’ the author starts his analysis with a controversy that lies in the core of the soft power. However, a closer look to both concepts reveals intersection between them. Public diplomacy evolved into cooperation between the business sector, civil societies, media and general populations of different nations where international organizations, private companies, NGOs and individuals have become full-scale public diplomacy actors. At the same time, international development is not only about providing unconditional aid from a donor country to its recipient but also about building up bilateral relations that help to achieve such a level of appreciation in a host country that its leaders become likely to concur with the sponsor’s policy in a specific situation. ...The ... report describes the role of educational exchange programs as the effective tool for strengthening a country’s influence. The author describes how the educational programs are implemented in countries, traditionally leading in this field: the United States, Germany and Canada. Surprisingly enough, but Russia, which was one of the leaders in the educational exchanges in 1950-1986, is still a big player, being the eighth-most popular higher education destination with 4 percent of the global market of international students. ... Dolinskiy concludes the analysis with a twelve-step program envisaging the steps Russia should take to strengthen its ‘soft power’ positions ahead of the crucial events it is going to face within the next years (presiding overG8 in 2014 and BRICS in 2015 as well as Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and the FIFA World Cup)."

“Digital Kosovo” Launches to Empower Digital Diplomacy - yenidiplomasi.com: "Speaking about the work of the British Embassy and British Council on supporting Kosovo's Digital Diplomacy efforts, Myrna Macgregor from the British Embassy said: 'Digital Diplomacy is changing the way we do foreign policy. With governments, businesses and charities online, we all need to have a strong digital presence. Internet recognition of Kosovo is of huge practical and symbolic importance and it is unacceptable that Kosovo still doesn't appear on so many websites.


Digital Kosovo is therefore a welcome initiative, which will enable Kosovo's web-savvy youth to become advocates for their country's online inclusion.' The Digital Kosovo site was officially launched in a media conference at Hotel Sirius in Pristina, with guests including the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Petrit Selimi, IPKO Foundation Board Member Kushtrim Xhakli, Norwegian Ambassador Jan Braathu, and Myrna Macgregor from the British Embassy." Image from

“From Beirut to Jerusalem” by Thomas Friedman - themagicofreading.wordpress.com: "We had a class on Public Diplomacy which was prepared by an American Diplomat. He, unaware of several Palestinians studying in our course, invited a Diplomat from Israel to explain their Public diplomacy in Spain (In Spain, they are really anti-Israel). So the Diplomat from Israel starts his class with a statement that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel and nobody has any right to claim otherwise. Then he starts to talk about what kind of people Palestinians are. At some point, people from Palestine start the discussion and show their point of view. However, nobody wants to listen and a huge argument arises. Basically, people where shouting at the Diplomat, insulting him, and the Diplomat did no better: he insulted everyone back, telling that no wonder nobody wants to live in Palestine. And meanwhile, the American was trying to stop all the mess telling that the class was supposed to be about Public Diplomacy, not Politics. However, nobody hears him."

serious damage to SinoJapanese relations - webcoms.nevadastateblog.org: "Should the Japanese side, the Chinese side agreed with the Japanese deputy foreign husband on the river with week 24 to 25 September in China, to hold consultations with China. However, according to some media reports the news, the visit is difficult to achieve positive results. A prompt such a public diplomacy United Nations General Assembly places China can not give up, but also put forward their positions, the complainant own history has sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands in particular legal backing, but also to the reasons mentioned in the Japanese refute fight."

Guangzhou City, the opening of the Second Session of the CPPCC second session of - feriepenger.com: "Chen Jianhua, director of Municipal People’s Congress Zhang Guifang on the rostrum, congratulated the General Assembly convened. Municipal Committee, Municipal People’s Congress,ray ban pas cher, the municipal government leaders Fang Xuan, Ling Weixian, Wu Sha, Wang Xiaoling, Yan Xiaoming,ray ban pas cher, Chen Rugui, Ding Du, Chen Mingde, Gan Xin, Chen, Zhang Ji,louboutin, Victor Chan, Xie Baohuai, Wushu Jian, Zhao Sui, Chia-pole,louboutin pas cher, Writer Jane opened the General Assembly moderator, members should attend the meeting 640 people,longchamp, real to 609 people, the number of compliance. unique advantages, continue to promote friendship and solidarity work, etc. five public diplomacy work. He said the past year,Railways train two-dimensional code to respond Railways kept hidden leaks, the city CPPCC proposals were received 508, 472 filed after examination,ray ban, the filing rate of 92.9%."

RELATED ITEMS

Egypt press crackdown and propaganda: The information wars are heating up in Egypt - Dan Murphy, Christian Science Monitor: The big picture: It appears that a battle has been joined in Egypt, with the military and its appointed civilian leaders seeking to put the genie of greater media freedom back in the bottle. The presence of Al Jazeera and other regional broadcasters in Tahrir Square during the uprising against Mubarak electrified not just the country, encouraging more people to get out of the house and join protests, but the region. Controlling the flow of pictures and reporting stems the chances of a repeat. Meanwhile, the Brotherhood are no friends of press freedom either. Pro-Morsi protesters attacked reporters from local station ONTV, a staunch supporter of the coup, and broke their equipment on Friday. During Morsi's year in power, defamation suits and suits alleging defamation of religion were used to silence critics. The increasing flow of disinformation, fabrications, and outright lies on Egyptian media pushed outgoing US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson into a rare, extremely angry statement holding Egypt's interim rulers responsible for a fabricated article in Al Ahram late last month. An article written by the government newspaper's Editor in Chief Abdel Nasser Salama reported that Patterson was part of a conspiracy with Muslim Brotherhood members and foreign militants to destabilize Egypt and divide it into two smaller countries.  "I am writing to adamantly deny the outrageous, fictitious, and thoroughly unprofessional headline article that appeared in your paper on August 27. Your article’s claim that


I personally am involved in a conspiracy to divide and destabilize Egypt is absolutely absurd and dangerous," Patterson wrote to Mr. Salama. "I am particularly disturbed to think that Al Ahram, as the flagship state-run paper in Egypt, is regarded as a representative of the government’s viewpoint. We will, therefore, raise this article at the highest levels of the government to protest its publication and the irresponsible behavior that led to it." Ahram has long been a tool for state propaganda, and is emerging as an important figure in Egypt's ongoing information wars.  Image from article, with caption: Ambassador Patterson hasn't been getting warm treatment in the Egyptian press as her tour winds down

NewsSpeak -- Al Jazeera and Russia Today Propaganda or Factual Reporting? - BATR, marketoracle.co.uk: So what is the material difference between Al Jazeera America and RT broadcasting their variant of foreign policy from what the U.S. government does?


Actually the imperial message in jingoistic disinformation out of the federal agencies and think tanks, are far less credible than the reporting by the international press. However, most people avoid getting their news from written accounts.


The trend for foreign interests acquiring or starting a television network on satellite or cable will accelerate. Only distribution over the internet will grow faster. Let’s hope the message will be worth viewing, since all news is a form of propaganda. Images from article

Debating the Case for Force - Editorial, New York Times: It is unfortunate that Mr. Obama, who has been thoughtful and cautious about putting America into the Syrian conflict, has created a political situation in which his credibility could be challenged. He did that by publicly declaring that the use of chemical weapons would cross a red line that would result in an American response. Regardless, he should have long ago put in place, with our allies and partners, a plan for international action — starting with tough sanctions — if Mr. Assad used chemical weapons. It is alarming that Mr. Obama did not.

The Stakes on the Syria Vote: America's credibility as a guarantor of international order is on the line - Eliot A. Cohen, Wall Street Journal: Barack Obama does not need congressional approval to launch a war. Even under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which is of dubious constitutionality, the president has only to notify Congress within 48 hours of initiating military action. He also has a 60-day window to conduct operations (plus 30 to withdraw) absent congressional authorization. If the U.S. -- after its president said two years ago that Assad must go and then, a year later, drew a red line at Syria's use of chemical weapons -- now does nothing, profound conclusions will be drawn by a China ready to bully its neighbors, by a North Korea whose scruples are already minimal, and by an Iran that has already killed many Americans in a covert war waged against us in Iraq and Afghanistan. America's friends will realize that its word means nothing.

Leading From Behind Congress: Obama recklessly gambles with American credibility - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: President Obama's Syrian melodrama went from bad to worse on Saturday with his surprise decision to seek Congressional approval for what he promises will be merely a limited cruise-missile bombing. Mr. Obama will now have someone else to blame if Congress blocks his mission, but in the bargain he has put at risk his credibility and America's standing in the world with more than 40 months left in office. This will go down as one of the stranger gambles, if not abdications, in Commander in Chief history

Obama Pivots to Syria From Asia: Allies are starting to suspect that Washington is no longer looking their way - Michael Auslin, Wall Street Journal: American allies in Asia might soon stumble across a startling realization, if they haven't already: A superpower that implicitly admitted it feels incapable of focusing on more than one area at a time—hence the need for a pivot toward Asia, away from somewhere else—is now not as focused on Asia, after all.

Say no to a feckless Syria strike - Marc A. Thiessen, Washington Post: It is true that U.S. credibility is at stake given Obama’s red line on Syria’s use of chemical weapons. But the purposefully weak response Obama is planning — one he has telegraphed weeks in advance, allowing the Assad regime to move assets out of harm’s way — will do nothing to salvage U.S. credibility. Quite the opposite.

Obama has no moral authority to punish Syria - Frank Kacer, Washington Times: There are no good guys currently in the Syrian civil war, only bad guys. We can do very little to resolve this conflict unless we are willing to take on another major military role in the Middle East. This would take boots on the ground and enormous resources to ensure Assad’s ouster and the securing of any WMD. The current desire to lob dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of Tomahawk missiles into Syria will only demonstrate how impotent the United States has become.


Instead of giving the Syrian people hope for an end to the civil war, it could actually prolong it by provoking Assad’s allies to provide him with even more support. Image from article

On Syria, Obama had to go to Congress - E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post: In seeking congressional authorization for military strikes against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, President Obama is not weakening presidential power and is not looking for an out to avoid a war he doesn’t want. He is doing what is absolutely necessary in a democratic republic. He is rallying consent for a grave step and for what was always going to be a controversial decision.

A vote of no confidence is in order - Ed Rogers, Washington Post: The president is a spent force, both domestically and internationally. Congress should help by voting to cut our losses; it should resist opening the door to the uncertain consequences of a military campaign conducted, without conviction or clear purpose, by this commander in chief. I

Are American taxpayers financially responsible to defend Syrians? - Thomas Mullen, Washington Times: One day after President Obama indicated he would seek a vote from Congress on whether to launch missile strikes against Syria, media outlets have already begun reporting on the debate from a number of perspectives. As usual, one perspective is completely ignored: that of the American taxpayer. The Constitution grants Congress the power to tax U.S. citizens to provide for the common defense of U.S. citizens, not every soul on the planet. The only exception is for citizens in countries with whom the United States has signed a mutual defense treaty. In those situations, it is assumed that American taxpayers get a reasonably equal benefit back in defense provided to them.

NATO Must Help Obama on Syria - James G. Stavridis, New York Times: NATO should be part of an international effort to sharply punish the Assad regime, which poses a clear and present danger to the alliance — and the United States should lead NATO in doing so.

Propaganda vs. self-censorship: Syria’s virtual civil war - Nicole Bogart, Global News: After over two years of unrest, Syria’s civil war has seemingly reached its climax. On the heels of a reported chemical weapons attack that left 100 civilians dead, both the U.S. and British governments are considering an attack on the embattled nation whose government has vowed to defend itself from any aggression. Similar to Egypt’s revolution and the Arab Spring before it, social media has played an important role in Syria’s civil war. Both pro- and anti-government propaganda are rife on websites like YouTube. On one side are the activists. Unlike the average Syrian citizen currently censoring themselves, anti-regime activists are willing to risk posting critical messages online using aliases that hide their identity. At the other end of the conflict: aggressive rival groups that assert their presence on social media to spread a pro-government message.


Image from article:  a Facebook parody page that when translated to English reads, “The Chinese Revolution against the Tyrant of China,” which actually has nothing to do with China. The page, which has over 30,000 likes, often posts humorous photos Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Syrians use social media to tell world: See atrocities for yourself - Stephen Dinan, Washington Times: Even as the U.S. grapples with a response to social media evidence, both sides in Syria are engaged in a ferocious struggle to win the online propaganda war through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit and other social media outlets. Indeed, analysts said the Internet has become a battlefield in itself — a virtual civil war.

U.S.-Russian Ties Still Fall Short of ‘Reset’ Goal - Peter Baker, New York Times: The story of the administration’s “reset” policy toward Russia is a case study in how the heady idealism of Mr. Obama’s first term has given way to the disillusionment of his second. Critics say he was naïve to think he could really make common cause with Moscow. Aides say it was better to try than not, and it did yield tangible successes in arms control, trade and military cooperation before souring. The theory, advanced by aides like Mr. Donilon and Michael McFaul, then the president’s Russia adviser, was that after the rupture over Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia, there were opportunities for cooperation in areas of shared interest. That did not mean there would no longer be disagreements, but they would try to delink them so that the entire relationship did not suffer. “It was an opportunity to make things better,” said a senior official.

State Dept on Embassy Workers Unionization: Yo! Could Put U.S. National Security at Risk - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: The current number of local employees working at U.S. Embassies worldwide as of March 2013 is 45,576. A 2007 State/OIG report noted that since 1998, far more local embassy employes have been killed in the performance of their duties than have American Foreign Service employees. The report points out the need for the Department “to codify in one place and strengthen its commitment to LE staff.” That report recommended not only the development of “a bill of rights for locally employed staff” but also the establishment of a “a locally employed staff ombudsman position.” Neither of those recommendations, as far as we know, has been implemented by the State Department.

Egyptian Propaganda Bizarrely Copies Curb Your Enthusiasm Ad - vanityfair.com: Speaking of international endorsements that weirdly involve popular HBO series: an Egyptian newspaper


has published an illustration that borrows heavily from a familiar Curb Your Enthusiasm ad in the U.S. Hat tip to New York Times writer David D. Kirkpatrick for first calling attention to the similarity, by posting the two ads side by side on Twitter on Sunday (above). Image from entry

Mugabe buses in African wildlife for UN summit ‘propaganda’: Scores of giraffes, zebras, wildebeest and impala have been bussed in to stock Zimbabwe’s Zambezi National Park for the benefit of visitors to the United Nations’ World Tourism summit which the country is currently hosting - Aislinn Laing, and Peta Thornycroft, telegraph.co.uk: A total of 300 animals are understood to have been transported over 400 miles from a privately-run conservancy in southeastern Zimbabwe to the Victoria Falls reserve to give the appearance of a bountiful wildlife population which might prove attractive to safari-loving holidaymakers.


But wildlife experts say that in reality, the country’s safari animal numbers have declined sharply amid a lack of funding for conservation from central government and rampant poaching. The costly operation took place despite “Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority” struggling to pay its own staff wages for the past three months, or for diesel to power water pumps for animals in its parks, critics claim. The choice of Zimbabwe to act as joint host of the annual meeting of the UN’s tourism body along with Zambia — on the other side of Victoria Falls — has already proved controversial. Image from article

Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev Advises West to Pass Laws Banning Gay Propaganda amongst Minors - Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, the head of the MP Department for External Church Relations, said that Western countries should follow the example of Russia in imposing a ban on the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations among minors. He said in an interview in Rome with AsiaNews, “I think that the same laws should be enacted in other countries instead of those rules that exist in a number of EU countries, where same-sex couples


have the right to adopt children." According to Vladyki Hilarion, the current Western policy is “self-destructive, because in terms of the demographic crisis, it’s harmful to the family to give such privileges to same-sex unions. In fact, it’s a signature on the death warrant of whole states, on whole nations." Metropolitan Hilarion said that the activities of Russian legislators could serve as a model for their Western counterparts when one looks at it from this point of view, noting, “The laws that [Russia] has today focus on preserving the gene pool of the nation, on sustaining what we can call our human potential." Image from entry

Sri Lankan defense official says Tamil rebel propaganda influenced visit of UN rights chief - AP, foxnews.com: Powerful Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says the reason the United Nations human rights chief visited Sri Lanka was because of propaganda from remnants of the Tamil Tiger rebels who lost the civil war four years ago. His remarks Tuesday came after U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said during the weekend that democracy was being undermined and the rule of law eroded in Sri Lanka, with the country increasingly becoming an authoritarian state despite the end of the war.

Propaganda: Creating the free press illusion - Natalie Russell, pittnews.com: Instead of exposing the murky underbelly of merciless war crimes and unjust foreign policy, we’re given a clean, less-complicated phrase to print on a ribbon-shaped bumper sticker affixed next to the Ford logo: “Support our troops.” Really, the phrase couldn’t be more fitting for a society itching to apply the “un-American” label to anyone who unapologetically criticizes government actions. The conversation no longer revolves around the policy itself, but drifts off into some vacuous side note about criticizing the soldiers who are just as caught up in the whirlwind of power as the rest of us. Slogans like Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s “Eat the Rich” and Occupy Wall Street’s “We are the 99 percent” are quite effective at starting a real conversation about class struggle. The difference between these slogans and “Support our troops” is that the latter doesn’t represent any substantive issue at all. It’s not a question of whether or not the public supports the troops, but rather, whether or not they support the policies that guide the troops. It’s a primary example of propaganda, and it prevents those in power from receiving any opposition from a better-informed public. When you control the conversation, you control public opinion.

The power of persuasion: a look into the world of propaganda - Chris Boffey, thedrum.com: It might be insidious, it could be downright wrong, but propaganda works and has done since states began to understand that power and control did not just have to rely on brute force. From imperial Rome to Nazi Germany, Stalin’s Russia to Mao’s China and the USA, the most powerful in society have always used, and continue to use, the power of persuasion as an essential part of their armouries. This is well documented in the current British Library exhibition, ‘Propaganda: Power and Persuasion’, but the curators take a controversial view, not shared by all, that all government messages,whether they be on the benefits of drinking milk or the dangers of HIV, come under the same propaganda umbrella as war, genocide and hatred.



The doyen of political reporters, John Sergeant, who reported Westminster and Whitehall for the BBC and ITN, condones the exhibition’s approach, saying: “It is all very well to say the exhibition is ethically neutral but propaganda is evil, completely cynical. If you are Doctor Goebbels, you are not worrying about the truth of the Jews, you think ‘how can we hit them, and how can we repeat the lie?’ “The essence of propaganda, as George Orwell points out, is that if you repeat the lie enough people will believe it. That is propaganda. Government information of how bad AIDs is going to be is of a wholly different sort.” He says the exhibition completely fails to show that reporters like him, who have spent their whole lives in the area of government information, have not set out to lie to the British public. Image from entry, with caption: Freedom American Style’, B. Prorokov, 1971. See also John Brown, "Two Ways of Looking at Propaganda,"PD News–CPD Blog, US Center of Public Diplomacy (2006).

RUSSICA


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VIDEO

US Government - World Class Liars: Syria: Deja Vu all over again

HUMOR

Obama Assures Americans This Will Not Be Another 1456 Ottoman Siege Of Belgrade - theonion.com. Via CDM on Fcebook

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Syria: The World's Red Line and the President's Challenge - Lori E. Murray, Huffington Post: "As Secretary of State John Kerry emphatically stated yesterday, the red line on Syria is the world's red line -- but where is the world? This is not the first time the U.S. has had to lead against brutal dictators. But this may be the first time that U.S. diplomacy has so dramatically failed in rallying a public coalition of support. ... As the president's National Security team floods the hill with a lobbying blitz over the next few days and week, there is an equally important challenge to bring the world along, publicly. Public diplomacy and public coalition support is as important a component of deterrence as is the threat and use of unilateral force. There is an important difference between leading and acting unilaterally, which seems to have been lost in the Administration's response to the Syrian crisis."

Intervention Lessons From Kosovo for Syria - David L. Phillips, Huffingtonpost.com: "Secretary of State John Kerry has been a passionate point man in the recent flurry of public diplomacy. However, the administration has not done enough to explain why it is in America's national interest to attack Syria."

The Left's Myths About Syria - Michael Sean Winters, ncronline.org: "Responsibility to Protect, or R2P ... [:] This line of moral analysis regarding international relations became prominent during the conflict in Darfur. It was a centerpiece of Hillary Rodham Clinton's public diplomacy. It is the most interesting development within the tradition of just war thinking in centuries. Surely, if we have the power to alleviate the suffering of the long-suffering Syrian people, we have an obligation to try and help."

Syrian conflict: US intervention may turn into a new cold war, says Mushahid - tribune.com.pk: "Senate Defence Committee Chairman Mushahid Hussain Sayed has warned that the US invasion of Syria will further de-stabilise the Middle East and can spark a new cold war in South-West Asia.
'I urge the US and all countries to uphold the UN Charter and international law and defer the matter to the United Nations as the Middle East region cannot afford a new war,' Mushahid said.


He was speaking at China’s Tsinghua University which had invited him to Beijing to receive an award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Public Diplomacy'. 'Parliamentarians can play a positive role in promoting peace and shaping public opinion,' he said referring to the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee’s unanimous resolution passed on Tuesday to oppose attack on Syria. Image from article, with caption: Senate Defence Committee Chairman Mushahid Hussain Sayed.

When the U.S. Learned to be Mr. Nice Guy: Containing Anti-Gringo Sentiment in Revolutionary Mexico Gave Birth to Public Diplomacy - Julie Prieto, zocalopublicsquare.org: "Why do they hate America? What can we do to make them like us? There has been much talk about the promise and limits of U.S. public diplomacy in the Islamic world ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and an assumption that our efforts need to be adapted from the Cold War. But many of these discussions ignore that the robust, global system of public diplomacy funded by the State Department from the 1920s until the 1990s pre-dates the Cold War.


The U.S. formulated its system of public diplomacy in response to an earlier radical upheaval of the 20th century, the Mexican Revolution, which raged from 1910 to 1920. ... The programs launched to sway post-revolutionary Mexico wound up serving as the testing ground for many better-known Cold War cultural programs, such as the Fulbright Program, the Peace Corps, and Voice of America. Although America’s cultural diplomacy infrastructure was largely defunded in the 1990s, when the United States Information Agency was absorbed by the Department of State, the remaining programs continue to have an impact on world affairs and offer models of how to proceed in places like Egypt. ... At its core, public diplomacy takes the question 'Why do they hate us?' and answers, 'Because they don’t know us well enough.' In the case of Mexico, U.S. public diplomacy played a crucial peacemaking role that improved relations and endures on both sides of the border. Today, with international tensions as high as ever, it is time we relearned how to harness American culture to serve its politics." Uncaptioned image from article. See also: via PR.

ECA “The Lifeblood of Public Diplomacy” - Francisca Acevedo, greenheartcci.wordpress.com: "On the morning of July 8, 2013, President Obama announced his intent to nominate six individuals to key Administration posts; of these six nominees, Evan Ryan was nominated as the Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs at the Department of State. On July 30th, Assistant Secretary-designate Ryan’s confirmation hearing took place before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During Ryan’s testimony, she highlighted how influential 'people-to-people exchanges' are in advancing U.S. public diplomacy and foreign policy goals. Ryan told the committee that ECA engages 350,000 exchange participants who 'get to see America first-hand,' and stressed the role Americans play in teaching the participants’ understanding of the United States. 'By linking Americans together with people from around the world, we can develop lasting relationships and partnerships that overcome political and cultural differences,' she said. Evan Ryan’s message echoes CCI Greenheart’s mission: to promote cultural understanding, academic development, environmental consciousness and world peace. CCI Greenheart’s Summer Work Travel program is designed to provide international university students with the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in American work life and culture.


As a result of the exchange, employers benefit from working with employees of various backgrounds. This helps to bridge the gap between the United States and various countries that collaborate with CCI Greenheart. If confirmed, Ryan hopes to expand ECA programs such as Youth Ambassadors and also hopes to continue expanding the Bureau’s English language programs. As she states, her focus will be on creating 'lasting people-to-people relationships that are the foundation of U.S. global engagement.' In her opening statement, Ryan outlined four strategic directions for ECA: 1. Ensuring ECA programs are aligned with foreign policy and are mutually reinforcing; 2. Leveraging technology and new media to connect more people with America, such as virtual exchange opportunities; 3. Investing in long-term relationships with exchange alumni to increase the overall impact of ECA’s programs; and  4. Increasing opportunities for Americans and impact on domestic communities. As Ryan states ‘public diplomacy relies on our country’s greatest asset, the American people.’” Image from entry

State Dept. tabs OSU’s ADA expertise for Indonesian project- oncampus.osu.edu: "Indonesia is on the cusp of broadening the rights of its disabled citizenry, and Ohio State’s L. Scott Lissner was both surprised and honored when he was asked to be part of that transformation. Lissner, the university’s Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator since 2000, will be a featured speaker about disability policy and practice from Sept. 15-Oct. 2 at sites throughout the country, including Jakarta, Surabaya, Central Java, Medan and other areas. The U.S. Department of State’s Public Diplomacy Program is sponsoring the trip in conjunction with Indonesia’s Ministry of National Education and Helen Keller International Indonesia. As soon as he got


the call, Lissner, who is well versed in U.S. policy, admits he had no idea what the Indonesian disability model entailed. What he found was a system moving from a paternalistic approach toward inclusion. Currently Indonesia delivers services through charitable organizations and a medical model approach rather than an integrative societal civil rights model similar to what the U.S. has." Lissner image from entry

Time and Christian Science Monitor report on U.S. Ambassador’s letter to Egyptian newspaper, VOA ignores the story- BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "Time magazine and now Christian Science Monitor have both reported on the letter sent on August 28 by the then U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson to Al Ahram newspaper, in which she denounced as 'absolutely absurd and dangerous' the state-run paper’s claims that she was personally involved in a conspiracy to divide and destabilize Egypt. The Voice of America English news website continues to ignore this story even though it deals with anti-Americanism, media freedom issues, journalism, and U.S. foreign policy."

CUSIB Applauds Appointment of Kevin Klose As RFE/RL President and CEO- BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "The Committee for U.S. International Broadcasting (CUSIB – cusib.org) welcomed the appointment of Kevin Klose to continue as the head of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)."

North Face Outlet UK Sale Online – Computer Clean UK - starwarsactors.com: "Using historical film footage of Radio Free Europe broadcasters, rappers between several The world make statements exactly like dissident voices heard around the station ahead of the fall belonging to the Iron Curtain. Within the Cold War, Radio Free Europe broadcast both news commentary and music, which communists in Poland coupled with other Sovietdominated nations tried unsuccessfully to silence through jamming of radio signals. funding and growing indifference in the country to showing solidarity with dissidents who fight to their rights in countries like China, Iran and Russia. The song recorded by Slums Attack and also other European rappers serves especially remember where the struggle against political oppression and against banality of popular culture which ignores this struggle, is both timeless and universal. ... Fortunately, RFE/RL now is being returned for that former high journalistic standards by new acting president, former NPR executive Kevin Klose. Unfortunately, the station happens to be facing a large funding crisis. government sponsor, need to shake up their bureaucratic staff and give their journalists more resources. international broadcasting. Huge amounts of dollars are allocated to weapons, but almost nothing is spent on the facility and odds of freedom of expression in other nations. Additional problems could have been the appointment as persons in the BBG board of executives whose private companies trade in countries like Russia and China. Some might avoid as active or as serious about supporting hardhitting journalism for their colleagues who had knowledge in public areas service or human rights advocacy. international broadcasting may once again serve its freedom and public diplomacy role. public diplomacy which also has a conscience having a human rights focus, in contrast to public diplomacy that serves only immediate foreign policy and economic goals. But sufficient funding, good management and journalistic independence are needed to your success of America’s longterm soft power. America could study on rappers’ tribute to Radio Free Europe. ... Americans have forgotten how effective dissident voices from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and Voice of the usa (VOA) were in peacefully transforming unfree societies with only a minimal cost. But as powerful since it’s, what it’s all about of dissent, human rights and freedom cannot delivered completely at no cost and without upsetting foreign powers like Russia and China, or perhaps the White House and therefore the State Department. Europe’s rappers’ tribute to RFE operates as a reminder even though Central and Eastern Europe now are largely democratic, many less fortunate nations still need a platform for uncensored, dissident voices or a show of solidarity from America."

Buying arms vs. ‘selling’ the strike: Do Gulf states need more PR on Syria? - Eman El-Shenawi, Al Arabiya: "Saudi Arabia and Qatar have reportedly plugged billions of dollars in arms over the course of the Syrian conflict, emerging as the main foreign powers bankrolling the revolt. But amid the West’s hesitation this week over launching a military strike to punish Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, indicators suggest the Gulf states have been shooting blanks. Analysts now believe a portion of Gulf finances


could have been better spent on a global anti-Assad/ pro-intervention public relations (PR) campaign. ... ‘A lot of Gulf countries don’t invest in public relations, but invest in soft power,’ says Haroon Moghul, a fellow at the center on national security at the New York-based Fordham LawSchool. In fact, PR campaigns employed by Gulf states in the past have largely failed, says Moghul. In the past decade, a prominent example of Gulf PR maneuvers in the West has been the Saudi-sponsored ‘Allies’ campaigns, a post September 11, 2001 drive to improve the ‘Saudi image’ in the United States. A variety of public diplomacy and public relations efforts were employed immediately after the CIA revealed that the mastermind behind 9/11, Osama bin Laden, and that 15 of the hijackers were of Saudi Arabian origin. The kingdom feared the backlash that could threaten its relationship with, and economic interests in, and so the government immediately hired Burson-Marsteller, a PR agency. Burson-Marsteller has a reputation of representing companies and individuals in crisis, noted a report on Saudi Arabia’s PR strategy by Exchange Diplomacy." Image from article, with caption: Could Gulf finances have been better spent on a global anti-Assad/ pro-intervention PR campaign?

JET alumni advocates for Japan: Program lauded for continuing to bear cultural fruit, friendships - Ayako Mie, japantimes.co: “'The JET program is a gold mine for public diplomacy and an opportunity for the government to reach out to the foreign public,' said Emily Metzgar, an assistant professor in the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at Indiana University and a JET teacher from 1993 to 1995 in Shimane Prefecture. The JET program started in 1987 as a concerted effort by local-level authorities, the internal affairs ministry and the education ministry to enhance mutual understanding between Japanese and foreign nationals. Its primary role is to internationalize regional communities by helping improve English education and promote international exchanges. Teachers are often assigned to rural areas where there are few English speakers in the community, which allows them to become immersed in the Japanese language and culture. As of 2012, more than 55,000 people from 62 countries had participated in the program, with about half of them coming from the United States. ... According to Metzgar of Indiana University, who surveyed about 500 American former JETs, alumni serve as cultural ambassadors in their communities. She found that 68 percent of the respondents follow news about Japan, but 45 percent are displeased with the coverage of Japan by the U.S. media. In addition, 65 percent of alumni felt it is important to respond to misrepresentations of Japan in the media. 'Alumni think they represent Japan. They also try to make sure the discussion is fair and accurate, but not promoting propaganda for Japan,' said Metzgar. 'There is a nuanced understanding of Japan that average Americans do not have.' Even though there is no official number on how many former JET teachers engage in Japan-related work, Metzgar found some 30 percent of the 500 respondents to her survey have some connection to Japan in areas where language skills and familiarity with the culture are required."

Peer-to-Peer Science: The Century-Long Challenge to Respond to Fukushima [scroll down link for entry] - Emanuel Pastreich, Layne Hartsell, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted at asia-institute.org: "More than two years after an earthquake and tsunami wreaked havoc on a Japanese power plant, the Fukushima nuclear disaster is one of the most serious threats to public health in the Asia-Pacific, and the worst case of nuclear contamination the world has ever seen. ... [T]here is an opportunity to entirely reinvent the field of public diplomacy in response to this crisis. Public diplomacy can move from a somewhat ambiguous effort by national governments to repackage their messaging to a serious forum for debate and action on international issues. As public diplomacy matures through the experience of Fukushima, we can devise new strategies for bringing together hundreds of thousands of people around the world to respond to mutual threats. Taking a clue from networked science, public diplomacy could serve as a platform for serious, long-term international collaboration on critical topics such as poverty, renewable energy, and pollution control."

A Swedish Alternative to Military Action in Syria - James Pamment, PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy: "The Swedish Migration Board earlier announced that all Syrian refugees will be granted permanent residence. This means that the 8,000 Syrians who have currently been granted asylum on a temporary basis, together with any of the millions of currently displaced Syrians who can make it to Sweden, will be able to settle there and bring their families.


While other countries are bickering over whether to intervene with force, Sweden is the only country in the European Union to simply do the right thing, quietly and decisively. ... Sweden’s bold stance on Syria – besides being the right thing – is a reputational masterstroke. It tells the world that the choice isn’t just between military action and inaction, but that there are alternatives based around compassion. ... Sweden likes to assume the role of honest broker, but this often comes at the cost of its ability to advocate specific points of policy directly to foreign publics. Its stance on Syria demonstrates that there is a role for it to play in public debates around the world. Shifts in its PD policy suggest that this could all come together in progressive, caring, authentic, open, and innovative ways (as the brand values assure us). The case of Syria, perhaps more than any other in recent years, demonstrates that Sweden must complement its quiet diplomacy and clever branding with public diplomacy." Pamment image from entry


Ethiopia: Turkey to Set Up an Industrial Zone in Addis Ababa - allafrica.com: Turkey is preparing to create a Turkish industrial zone in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, as part of its African policy which started in 2005 and has been showing marked development of its business assets. Speaking at the opening of the African Strategies Sectoral Evaluation Meeting in Ankara on Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the Ethiopian prime minister had proposed the assignment of some land to establish a Turkish industrial zone in Addis Ababa, and that Turkey hopes to implement this plan. ... Commenting on the new diplomatic steps, Davutoglu stated that Turkey has come a long way in the last ten years. Davutoglu explained that a Turkish firm invested $50 million in Ethiopia in 2005 while there are now 341 Turkish companies with a total investment of $3 billion in the country. The Turkish foreign minister also mentioned the results of the Turkish government's public diplomacy in Africa. 'The amount of Turkish aid to the African continent, particularly to Somalia, has reached $750 million. If we hadn't spent billions of dollars in public diplomacy and activity, we wouldn't have the positive image and perception that we got from our humanitarian aid in Somalia,' Davutoglu said, reiterating that Turkey is reaping the rewards of its humanitarian foreign policy."

UAE Government ‘embraces social media’ - Awad Mustafa, thenational.ae: "The Foreign Affairs Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, has more than 800,000 followers on Twitter and is second among leading officials only to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, the GCC Government Social Media Summit heard yesterday. ...  The statistics are an indication of how leading government figures have embraced social media to engage and communicate with the public, said Dr Saeed Al Dhaheri, who advises the Foreign Minister on information systems. ... The ministry has also developed a social media policy and has trained diplomats on how to engage effectively with the public. 'This is part of our public diplomacy efforts that the ministry has focused on recently and it is to win the hearts and minds of the public through the use of social media and to clarify the intrinsic values of the UAE,' Dr Al Dhaheri said. 'I would like to see more ambassadors using it.'”

Lapid most ‘disappointing’ politician of the year, poll finds: Survey of Israeli adults finds massive public faith in military, far outstripping trust in Knesset, police and justice system - Ilan Ben Zion, timesofisrael.com: "Little more than six months after taking office as Israel’s most popular new political face, a poll published Wednesday found Finance Minister Yair Lapid to be the most disappointing politician of the year. ... Israel’s public diplomacy, known as 'hasbara,' also received poor scores. Asked 'what grade would you give the Israeli government’s public relations policy worldwide on the issues relating to the jihadist threat in countries bordering Israel?' 20% said very bad and 18% bad. Only 24% gave the government a positive assessment (15% good, 9% very good), 32% responded moderate, and 6% gave other answers."

Land Swap Deal - prepforias.wordpress.com: "Bill — the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement is again pending to be introduced in parliament legislation.Such roadblocks hamper gaining trust of neighbors. India often suffers a 'perception problem' in the eyes of its neighbors, which often view India with suspicion because of its size, economy and military might.


That in turn encourages them to turn to China. ... The bill in question called for India to exchange 111 of its enclaves in Bangladesh in return for 51 Bangladesh enclaves in India. ... There is a need to engage the people of Assam on a more direct level to talk about the benefits of the swap and any possible ramifications. Assam has a vibrant civil society, which should be engaged on this issue. In short, it is time for some public diplomacy." Image from entry, with caption: English: Map of the British Indian Empire from Imperial Gazetteer of India. On Assam, see.

Visible and available: Magic Lantern Foundation is back to selling documentaries on the Internet - Nandini Ramnath, livemint.com: "Magic Lantern Movies sells MLF productions and documentaries by Indian and foreign film-makers. ... The earlier emphasis on showcasing independent Indian documentary has given way to a broader embrace of all manifestations of the film-making form.


That’s why series on the Indian diaspora and Central Asia that were commissioned by the public diplomacy division of the ministry of external affairs are part of the same shopping basket that yields Children of the Pyre, Rajesh S. Jala’s disturbing exposé of child workers on the ghats of Varanasi; I’m the Very Beautiful, Shyamal Karmakar’s provocative exploration of the life of a bar singer, or Nakul Singh Sawhney’s Izzatnagari ki Asabhya Betiyaan (or Immoral Daughters), about honour killings in Haryana." Image from entry, with caption: Rajesh S. Jala’s ‘Children of the Pyre’


Dennis Rodman North Korea Visit: How a Baller is Rebounding Kim Jong-un's Image - Bryant Harris, policymic.com: "On September 1, North Korea revoked an invitation to Robert King, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights, on account of joint U.S.-South Korean war games in which the U.S. allegedly used B-52H aircrafts designed to drop nuclear missiles. North Korea has detained six Americans since 2009 but pardoned five of them before their sentences were served, in part because of high profile diplomatic visits from former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. King intended to secure the release of Kenneth Bae, the sixth imprisoned American sentenced to 15 years in a North Korean gulag. But one American whose travel to North Korea won't be interrupted, however, is NBA star Dennis Rodman. Rodman, who has previously traveled


to North Korea in February 2013, insists that he is not acting in any diplomatic capacity but instead intends to merely spend time with his friend Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and to 'show people around the world that we as Americans can actually get along with North Korea.' While Rodman's endeavors qualify as quintessential, vital public diplomacy, there is always a fine line between promoting bilateral relationships and implicitly condoning severe human rights abuses. The latter is what Rodman is really doing, to the detriment of Kenneth Bae and the North Korean people as he tries to cast Kim Jong-un in an overly positive light. ... Although the concept of basketball diplomacy is a productive, innovative way to thaw frosty relationships with Kim Jong-un's regime, Rodman seems unable to grasp the implications of North Korea's gross human rights abuses as he unabashedly lavishes praise on the supreme leader and his predecessors, which the government no doubt uses as propaganda reaffirming their rule. ... Public diplomacy, whether it be from governments or private citizens, is a vital part of international peace keeping, coalition building, and understanding. However, true public diplomacy takes place between the people of a country, not between a privileged, high-profile basketball star and a repressive government. Rodman seems to fundamentally misunderstand his point and the ample opportunities he provides to fuel the North Korean propaganda machine undermine any net positives gained from his 'basketball diplomacy.'" Image from entry, with caption: Dennis Rodman North Korea Visit: How a Baller is Rebounding Kim Jong-un's Image

Isolationism, Sanctions, Coercion, Hostages and Dictatorship in North Korea - english.hani.co.kr: "Roland B. Wilson is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University focusing on East Asia conflicts, diplomacy, peace and humanitarian issues.


For about 27 years, he worked and extensively wrote on Asia Pacific and Northeast Asian military, foreign policy, public diplomacy and conflict issues as both a former Marine and U.S. Government worker." Wilson image from entry

RELATED ITEMS

Rising tide of US isolationism on display in House hearing on Syria (+video)- Rand Paul, a leading figure of the new isolationism who opposed a Senate committee resolution Wednesday authorizing the use of force, says the US has no vital security interests in Syria - Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor

Should We Fall Again for ‘Trust Me’? - Ray McGovern, consortiumnews.com: Forgetting lessons from the Tonkin Gulf to the Iraq War, the U.S. news media has mostly elbowed past doubts about whether the Syrian government launched the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack and now


is focused on the political drama of congressional approval for war, a big mistake says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern. Image from

Syrian War Propaganda Primer - Garland Favorito, opednews.com: If you have turned on either CNN or FNN lately you have probably noticed that commentators on every program are vehemently attempting to push America into waging a war against Syria. They repeatedly claim that the Syrian government used chemical weapons to attack their citizens on August 21 but cannot seem to provide even 5 seconds of evidence to support the claim. This should be a red flag to anyone who remembers what we went through with this same scenario of unproven claims against Iraq ten years ago.

CNN Caught Staging News Segments on Syria With Actors - friendsofsyria.co: The primary “witness” that the mainstream media is using as a source in Syria has been caught staging fake news segments.  Recent video evidence proves that “Syria Danny”, the supposed activist who has been begging for military intervention on CNN, is really just a paid actor and a liar. While Assad is definitely a tyrant like any head of state, a US invasion of the country is a worst case scenario for the people living there. By pointing out that the mainstream media is orchestrating their entire coverage of this incident, we are not denying that there is a tremendous amount of death and violence in Syria right now.  However, we are showing that the mainstream media version of events is scripted and staged propaganda.

Assad’s Inevitable Propaganda Victory - Hassan Mneimneh, blog.gmfus.org: With suggestions by his administration that a U.S. response will be inevitable and forceful, Obama has already raised expectations among Syrian rebels and their supporters — expectations that he is both unwilling and unable to meet. The letdown may result in more frustration, new accusations of broken promises, and the further erosion of the United States’ standing in the region. In trying to mitigate the rebels’ irrational exuberance, Obama may have swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction, giving advance notice to the Assad regime and its backers of the limited scope of likely U.S. operation.


The expectation of limited damage effectively voids the punitive potential of any military response. Damascus, on the other hand, is poised to declare victory irrespective of what happens. If limited U.S.-led military strikes do take place, the regime will claim victory in repelling foreign aggression and foiling the West’s plans. Assad’s propaganda machine is already setting the stage for this narrative by suggesting that a full scale invasion is in the works. Worse, if a strike does not happen, the regime will boast of its deterrence power and declare the end of U.S. hegemony. Rather than being punished for its lethal use of chemical weapons against its own civilians, the Assad regime is almost guaranteed to achieve a propaganda victory. Obama has fallen into a trap. Image from entry

Nazi-Style Propaganda from the Obama Administration - Keith Davies, shoebat.com: Watching the US media today – along with the Chief of propaganda John “Goebbels” Kerry, we are watching a classic case of Nazi-style aggression against another country without any concrete proof of


the use of weapons of mass destruction by the accused party. “Undeniable evidence” has not been shown to us just as the Nazis trumped up lies against Poland to justify its invasion to start World War 2. We have shown that there is strong evidence to suggest the Rebels fired these Chemical weapons and not Assad. No national or international agency or media source has been able to show who fired the weapons. Image from article, with caption: Did Goebbels write Obama’s propaganda playbook?

Making the case against Syria: President Obama was right to seek Congress' approval on taking military action. But he also must ensure that any such mission remains limited - Editorial, latimes: We agree with Obama that convincing proof of widespread use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government justifies a military response — designed not to overthrow Assad but to punish him for defying a century-old understanding about the particular abhorrence of chemical weapons. But we were critical of the president for his seeming indifference to the importance of obtaining assent from Congress for military actions that do not address an imminent threat to the United States. Obama has now rectified that flaw in his approach.

Arm and Shame - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: The best response to the use of poison gas by President Bashar al-Assad is not a cruise missile attack on Assad’s forces, but an increase in the training and arming of the Free Syrian Army — including the antitank and antiaircraft weapons it’s long sought. But our response must not stop there. We need to use every diplomatic tool we have to shame Assad, his wife, Asma, his murderous brother Maher and every member of his cabinet or military whom we can identify as being involved in this gas attack. We need to bring their names before the United Nations Security Council for condemnation. We need to haul them before the International Criminal Court.

Shadow of a Doubt - Maureen Dowd, New York Times: Our previous gigantic misreadings of the Middle East, and the treacherous job of fathoming which sides to support in the Arab uprisings — are the rebels in these countries the good guys or Al Qaeda sympathizers? — have left us literally gun shy.

Red Lines Matter - Roger Cohen, New York Times: American interests and values are aligned in requiring that Assad answer for his acts. Because Syrian diplomacy is now backed for the first time by the credible threat of force, it may even produce something over the next 10 days.

On Syria, a U.N. Vote Isn’t Optional - Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro, New York Times: If the United States begins an attack without Security Council authorization, it will flout the most fundamental international rule of all — the prohibition on the use of military force, for anything but self-defense, in the absence of Security Council approval.


This rule may be even more important to the world’s security — and America’s — than the ban on the use of chemical weapons. Image from entry

To bomb or not to bomb - Kathleen Parker, savannahnow.com: To the heart of the current Syria debate is whether a limited missile strike would make any difference. The near-unanimous opinion is not really. From the porches and stoops of America’s heartland to the marbled floors of the U.S. Capitol, the consensus is that a limited strike would aggravate matters and potentially lead to a catastrophic clash with global ramifications. How would that work for our credibility?

Obama seeks an accomplice for Syria action - George Will, Washington Post: Obama’s sanctimony about his moral superiority to a Congress he considers insignificant has matched his hypocrisy regarding his diametrically opposed senatorial and presidential understandings of the proper modalities regarding uses of military force. Now he asks from the Congress he disdains an authorization he considers superfluous. By asking, however reluctantly, he begins the urgent task of lancing the boil of executive presumption

Obama rolls the dice on Syria by asking Congress’s approval - Ruth Marcus, Washington Post: Barack Obama is betting his presidency on the hope of cooperation from an institution that he disdains and has proved incapable of taming. His roll-the-dice gamble for congressional go-ahead in Syria may well succeed. Still, the risk is enormous for Obama’s fraying credibility, and the implications are significant not only for the power of this president but for his successors.

Obama’s pathetic Syria strategy - Colbert I. King, Washington Post: Clearly, the president was not ready to do something in Syria before the chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21. Thus, he had nothing to tell or ask of Congress or the American people. Instead, he let things unfold in Syria, prepared apparently for nothing, including that August slaughter. Now, at the 11th hour, before the cruise missiles start flying, Obama is seeking a green light from Congress to use military force to prevent or deter Syria from using chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in the bloody two year conflict.

Obama complicates Syria response: Our view -- Request for congressional authorization of a limited, short-term response was unwarranted - Editorial, USA Today: Assuming Congress gives Obama the green light he seeks, he had better think through the endgame before he makes his next move.

The World Won't Leave the 'Garbo' President Alone: Mr. Obama may not want a part of the Syria war, but he can no longer view the conflict as containable - Michael Young, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Obama's Greta Garbo attitude toward Syria in the past two years—he longs to be left alone—has had the backing of a majority of Americans. However, this approval is built on a false premise that the conflict does not affect U.S. interests. The reality is that the myriad crises in the Middle East are linked, and they have affected or will affect America's allies in Turkey, Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Why Obama’s 'red line' is a poor excuse for war in Syria - Danny de Gracia, Washington Times: What proponents of war in Syria fail to recognize is that the red line won’t stop in Syria.


If a predictable assurance is set that the United States will, in fact, respond militarily to the use of chemical weapons, America is now on the hook to fight anywhere and everywhere. Image from article, with caption: America still has a chance to avert war with Syria.

Never Forget Vogue‘s Vile Propaganda for Syria’s Glamorous Monster: Last year, Claudia Rosett gave a memorable speech at the Walter Duranty Awards that's especially timely as the debate about war in Syria continues - David Swindle, pjmedia.com: The winner of last year’s Walter Duranty Award for Journalistic Mendacity, Vogue’s Joan Juliet Buck and Anna Wintour for their unconscionable article “Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert.”


Hinderaker excerpts from Claudia Rosett’s speech, juxtaposing with the photos of John Kerry dining with the mass murderer. Vogue showcased as a breathless scoop a portrait of Syria’s ruling couple as a pair of classy and benevolent aristocrats; the kind of couple any self-respecting member of the global elite could admire and endorse without violating standards of either morality or the latest trends in Parisian footwear. Image from entry

Sullivan Report on Embassy Security Flaws Leaks Out — Uh-oh, It’s Not/Not Diplomatic – Domani Spero, DiploPundit: The NYT just reported that an independent review panel headed by Mark Sullivan, a former Secret Service director has concluded that with American embassies and consulates facing an increasing threat of terrorist attacks, the State Department office overseeing diplomatic security is mired in the agency’s sprawling bureaucracy and must be elevated in importance.

Al Manar: Hezbollah’s Television Propaganda Tool - Michael Rass, theworld.org: Hezbollah, the Shi’ite militia controling much of southern Lebanon, is listed as a terrorist organization by the US. There are currently Hezbollah fighters in Syria supporting President Bashar al-Assad’s troops in their attempt to crush the uprising there. Now, Hezbollah has its own TV channel Al Manar, and it looks pretty professional. But you wouldn’t mistake it for CNN.

Tomgram: Engelhardt, Alone and Delusional on Planet Earth - Tom Engelhardt,TomDispatch: Washington has proven incapable of grasping the idea that there might be forms of power, and so of resistance to American desires, not embodied in competitive states. From Latin America to the Greater Middle East, the American system is visibly weakening, while at home, inequality and poverty are on the rise, infrastructure crumbles, and national politics is in a state of permanent “gridlock.”

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Someone who has 500 friends, has no friends."

--Günter Grass

FOUND ON THE WEB

Panelists addressed the history of public diplomacy in each country, how it is defined and the socie [sic] - thiqktankurbande20.blogspot.com: "On May 30, 2012, 10:00AM to noon, the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS) at Brookings hosted a discussion examining the use of public diplomacy in Northeast Asia. Leading experts discussed the objectives, practices, opportunities and challenges in public diplomacy for China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Panelists addressed the history of public diplomacy in each country, how it is defined and the societal and governmental structures under which public diplomacy is practiced. They also discussed the public diplomacy goals and practices of each nation, offering suggestions for the enhancement of public diplomacy."

MODERN ART


--From

AMERICANA

McDonald's exploring changes to Dollar Menu - Candice Choi, AP, philly.com: McDonald's Corp. says a revamped version of its Dollar Menu that includes items priced at $5 could be launched nationally this year. The world's biggest hamburger chain says it has been testing versions of its famous value menu that's called "Dollar Menu & More" in five markets across the country.


The company noted that no official changes have yet been made to its current Dollar Menu, which was introduced more than a decade ago. The change would come after McDonald's unsuccessful attempt last year to get customers to switch from the Dollar Menu to a pricier "Extra Value Menu," which features items costing closer to $2. But after sales flagged, the company went back to aggressively touting its Dollar Menu in TV ads. If the new "Dollar Menu & More" is rolled out, the Extra Value Menu would be retired, said Neil Golden, chief marketing officer for McDonald's, which is based in Oak Brook, Ill.

MORE AMERICANA


--Image from, under the headline,"Queens Councilman Take Aim At Pooping Pigeons Along Sidewalks Under 7 Train"

“To hell with them. If this guy wants this war, then let him have it."

--A U.S. military officer, evidently referring to President Obama's intervention plans in Syria; image from

VIDEO

See the Assads on Instagram - USA NOW video: "Syrian President Bashar Assad and his wife have been posting controversial photos on Instagram. Host Carly Mallenbaum talks about how the images seem to be a 21st-Century propaganda effort."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Syria's military intervention: A comedy in three acts - George Friedman, euractiv.com: "US President Barack Obama was forced to walk a tightrope over Syria after he was drawn into calling for a military intervention after France, Britain and Turkey called for action. Now he has to deal with being a reluctant coalition leader . ... Over the week, Washington turned into the main advocate for intervention. This is because the United States is the major global power. Its mere presence in the coalition focuses the coalition on the United States. In part, this is military: The United States has capabilities others don't. In part, it is political: The United States might be able to organize a global coalition while no one else can. Obama was prepared, given his red line and given pressure from key advisers, to participate in a coalition. He was, I think, surprised when the United States stopped being part of the coalition, but its leader and instigator, and then further, when others became disillusioned with its leadership.


Then the British Parliament voted against going to war, and Prime Minister David Cameron had to bow out, with many members of parliament saying the United Kingdom was no longer the Americans' lapdog. In addition to thispublic diplomacy, behind-the scenes-diplomacy also went on. The focus was Russia. Russia had supported the al Assad clan since Hafez al Assad's coup in 1970. The Russians are completely committed to the survival of the regime. Despite Obama's desire to do a minimum to satisfy his human rights impulse, Washington also didn't want to see the regime fall given what might follow al Assad." Image from

Northern Nigeria and the U.S. Response to Syria - John Campbell, blogs.cfr.org: "[Comment] Posted by Chike September 4, 2013 at 2:29 pm [:] As an aside, US is doing very little in the way of public diplomacy and public diplomacy starts from foreign policy. There are costs to a blind defence of Israel and a perception of bias towards Israel. This is a mill stone around America’s neck. But other aspects of public diplomacy are totally neglected. There’s very little person to person contact between the US Govt and the global public. The US should learn from the British with their British Councils or the Germans with their Goethe Institutes or even the Chinese with their Confucius Institutes. For example, most of the travellers from Nigeria to China come from the South East (Igbo). So the Chinese already have a Confucius Institute at Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka (which can help teach traders the basics of the Chinese language). In contrast, the US basically has no strategic outreach or serious plans to do so. Public diplomacy doesn’t have to be expensive, but there has to be commitment – and neither the US government nor the US people have that commitment."

Foreign audiences looking for original Voice of America reports get news analysis from Reuters on VOA’s ‘unattractive’ website - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "[Q]uite a few top U.S. and international news stories on the VOA website are not from Voice of America but from Reuters.


They at best get between one and ten Facebook 'Likes,' while similar stories on BBC, Al Jazeera, and Russia Today websites get hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of Facebook 'Likes' and hundreds of comments from readers. Indeed. Why would Internet users abroad go to the VOA website to read short news items from Reuters? Web audiences abroad are also ignoring many of the video reports being produced on orders from Ensor and Redisch, both former CNN staffers. Some recently produced videos have gotten 0 (zero) Facebook 'Likes' and very few views on YouTube, while VOA’s online news reporting plunged further into disarray. The VOA management has now gone one step further. In addition to using Reuters news reports, the VOA English news website is now posting long-format news analyses from Reuters." Image from

Anna’s Story – ‘Anna Karapetian: a woman against the System’ by Veronica Sulla - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com/bbgwatch: "A documentary essay, Anna Karapetian: a woman against the System, was posted recently in Russian (Аннa Карапетян : женщина против Системы) and English at the personal blog of a young Russian writer Veronica Sulla. The essay was also highlighted on the writer’s Facebook page. ... In her essay, Veronica Sulla tells the story of a former RFE/RL journalist Anna Karapetian. Anna is one of many former and current RFE/RL foreign journalists who are denied the protection of the Czech labor law and can be fired by the American management at any time for any reason or no reason at all. Anna is one of two former RFE/RL employees who are suing the American public media institution for engaging in discrimination.


Anna’s lawsuit is now before the Czech Constitutional Court. A lawsuit by another former RFE/RL employee, Snjezana Pelivan, is before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty has a new chief executive Kevin Klose who was president of National Public Radio (NPR) from 1998 to 2008. ... In her essay, Veronica Sulla mentions by name former Radio Liberty’s Russian Service director Mario Corti and former Broadcasting Board of Governors member Ambassador Victor Ashe, both of whom she praises for their courage to stand up to the bureaucracy. ... Kevin Klose is not mentioned. But it is our hope that this powerful essay will move him to act now, in his upgraded capacity, to resolve this longstanding issue–an international disaster for U.S. public diplomacy–and to put a stop to injustice and discrimination at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty." Sulla image from entry

Why American students still go to Russia - Pavel Koshkin, Russia Beyond the Headlines: "Despite another decline in U.S.-Russian relations, interest in Russia among American students is steadily growing. This indicates that exchange programs remain a powerful tool for rooting out the Cold War mentality. ... According to data from American Councils for International Education, around 900 American university students come to Russia annually, while the total number of high school students is approximately 250 (not counting tourism and short-term, teacher-led visits of less than one month). Out of the 30,000 students who study Russian in college, about 9,000 continue to study the language beyond four semesters. Remarkably, nearly 10 percent of these students go on to continue their study of Russian language and culture at Russian universities for a summer, semester, or academic year. ... While there has been a slight decrease in the number of Russian students coming to the U.S. (related to cost issues and competition with Europe), this is not the case with American students going to Russia. 'The U.S.-bound Russian student numbers are down in comparison to 10 years ago. The American numbers to Russia have benefitted slightly from increases in scholarship funding available to them over the past 5-8 years, through programs like NSLI-Y [National Security Language Initiative for Youth], CLS [Critical Language Scholarship] and Flagship — programs for which American Councils is the primary overseas administrator,' Dan Davidson, president of the American Councils for International Education, told RBTH.  that, despite some differences at high government levels, U.S. interest in Russia remains stable. 'American students, teachers and researches will remain interested in Russia, in Russian culture, and in dialog with Russian people, regardless of the tenor of official, government-to-government relations at any particular moment,' Davidson said in an interview with RIA and RBTH. 'This has been the case for many decades and it will not change.' Likewise, Carter Johnson, director of the American Councils for International Education in Russia, argues that political differences between the countries have not affected bilateral


ties on educational and cultural levels. This indicates that people-to-people communication has remained a very crucial tool for bolstering bilateral relations and mutual interest. ... Exchange programs for American and Russian students [:] 1. The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) program sends 80 American high school students to Russia for a summer or for a year. It is directed by American Councils and funded by the U.S. Department of State. 2. The Critical Languages Scholarship (CLS) program sends 50 American undergraduate students to Russia each summer, on full scholarships funded by the U.S. Department of State and administrated by American Councils. 3. The Flagship program annually sends 20 graduating seniors in various disciplines to St. Petersburg University to train in Russian (advanced–professional level). The program is administered by American Councils. 4. The Russian Language Advanced Studies program places 200 American students, graduate students, and teachers of Russian language in leading universities and centers in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Vladimir. Participants study with assistance from the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of State. The Open World program brings more than 800 Russian business and municipal representatives to the U.S. each year for short-term meetings with their American counterparts. The program is funded by the U.S. Library of Congress.  6. The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX), now in its 20th year, brings over 300 Russia high school students to the U.S. for a year to live with American families and study in American schools. The program is funded by the U.S. Department of State."Image from article, with caption: Ambassador Michael McFaul with the 2013-2014 exchange students at his Moscow residence.

Rising Experts Task Force: Seeing Beyond the Bear – Selective Processing and Russian Public Diplomacy in the West - globalinterests.org: “Read Yelena Osipova’s working paper here: Russian Public Diplomacy in the West [.] During the Cold War, a deficit of objective information between the West and the Soviet Union led both sides to view each other in a distorted and negative light. But today, more than


20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, many of the West’s old perceptions about Russia still remain. Why have negative attitudes persisted despite the free flow of information, and how has Russia tried to change this trend? Comparative public diplomacy scholar Yelena Osipova addressed this topic in her August 15 presentation, ‘Seeing Beyond the Bear: Selective Processing and Russian Public Diplomacy in the West.’ Osipova, a Ph.D. candidate in International Relations at American University, noted that Russia’s use of public diplomacy has become an increasingly prominent topic in Russian foreign policy as the importance of soft power has gained traction there. Having realized that negative public opinion hampers its pursuit of foreign policy objectives, the Kremlin has invested billions of dollars into a large-scale public diplomacy campaign that uses educational outreach and media—including the television network RT and Voice of Russia radio—to project a more positive image abroad. However, these efforts have thus far failed to produce significant results.” Image from entry

Iran’s Rosh Hashana Twitter diplomacy stirs amazement, disbelief - Laura Rozen, backchannel.al-monitor.com: "Iran’s new Foreign Minister Javad Zarif joined President Hassan Rouhani in tweeting 'Happy Rosh Hashanah' greetings Thursday, on the occasion of the Jewish new year’s holiday, setting


off a new wave of amazement, and some disbelief, in both the social media and policy universes. ... The outreach from Rouhani and Zarif, particularly to the Jewish people, signals the 'most significant public diplomacy outreach since the revolution,' journalist Robin Wright said Thursday on Twitter. 'It signals intent for a serious [diplomatic] effort, even if issues [are] no easier.'" Uncaptioned image from entry

China Is Increasingly Seen As The #1 Power, And That's A Problem For China - Andrew Hammond, Forbes: "China’s image would ... benefit from enhanced public diplomacy to win more foreign ‘hearts and minds.’ At a symbolic level, example measures might include utilizing the country’s growing capabilities in space travel for high-profile international cooperation projects.  Surveys underline that many around the world admire China’s strength in science and technology. A broader reform needed is reducing the role of the central government, whose communications often lack legitimacy and credibility with those not Chinese. Here, the country would benefit instead by expanding the role of non-state groups – including from civil society networks, Chinese diaspora communities, sporting groups, student, academic groups and business networks."

Pakistan, Chinese spokesperson to coordinate on public diplomacy - Tahir Khan, newspakistan.pk: "Foreign Ministry spokespersons of Pakistan and China have agreed to maintain close contact and encourage regular exchange of media delegations between the two countries, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. They further agreed that the two Spokespersons would coordinate public diplomacy messaging on key foreign policy issues of mutual interest and would also liaise on the sidelines of important international events, a Foreign Ministry statement said. ... The objective of the Dialogue was to discuss ways of harmonizing public diplomacy messages of the two Foreign Ministries at a time when the leadership and governments of Pakistan and China have embarked on tangible economic cooperation for the common benefit of the peoples of Pakistan and China and the region."

Australian author Damien Brown at the Open Book Festival: The Australian High Commission is proud to be supporting a visit to South Africa by acclaimed Australian author, and medical doctor, Damien Brown - openbookfestival.pressdoc.com: "The Australian High Commission is delighted to be supporting Australian author, and doctor, Mr Damien Brown through our public diplomacy program."

The dangers of "voting for a better yesterday" - Tony Leon, politicsweb.co.za: "Of course being an [South African] ambassador abroad [in Argentina] was not


simply a three year course in comparative history, trade promotion and public diplomacy. I had to promote our foreign policy." Leon image from article

The morning read - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "-The brief golden age of US pd to Mexico via US Ambassador Dwight Morrow. When I was traveling through Mexico a few years ago, I stopped in Cuernavaca to see a mural that Morrow had commissioned on Mexican history as a gesture of PD. -Consular corruption leaking out.   Poor pd, to say the least."

PEM appoints new curator of Chinese and East Asian art - Juan Cajigas Jimenez, boston.com: "The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces the appointment of Daisy Yiyou Wang, Ph.D., to be its new curator of Chinese and East Asian art. ... Dr. Wang’s scholarship and leadership in U.S.-China museum collaboration have earned her a Smithsonian Valuing World Cultures Award, a Smithsonian Post-Doctoral Fellowship and a Getty Museum Leadership Fellowship. She has served as a grant reviewer for the Getty and an advisor to the Terra Foundation for American Art, the Getty Conservation Institute and the Public Diplomacy Programs of the U.S. Department of State."

In Abuja: Vacancy at the Australian High Commission - insidetrack-abuja.blogspot.com: "The Australian High Commission (AHC) in Abuja seeks to appoint a RESEARCH AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER.


The successful candidate will become a key member of the political team and will be responsible for monitoring, researching and preparing high quality reports on political, economic and social issues of interest to Australia in Nigeria and West and Central Africa. The person will also support Australia’s public diplomacy, aid and commercial activities." Image from entry

RELATED ITEMS

A war the Pentagon doesn’t want - Robert H. Scales, Washington Post: None of the White House staff has any experience in war or understands it. So far, at least, this path to war in Syria violates every principle of war, including the element of surprise, achieving mass and having a clearly defined and obtainable objective. Today’s soldiers know war and resent civilian policymakers who want the military to fight a war that neither they nor their loved ones will experience firsthand.

The Right Questions on Syria - Nicolas D. Kristof, New York Times: The central question isn’t, “What are the risks of cruise missile strikes on Syria?” It’s this: “Are the risks greater if we launch missiles, or if we continue to sit on our hands?”

Syria Is Not Kosovo - James P. Rubin, New York Times: Mr. Obama should stick to the issue of weapons of mass destruction, despite the inevitable echo of Iraq. By using chemical weapons against innocent men, women and children, Mr. Assad has breached one of the oldest international laws — the 1925 protocol banning the use of poison gas — to which Syria is a party. Although there are no enforcement mechanisms authorizing force in that treaty, much of the world would likely accept that a limited use of military force aimed at Syria’s chemical weapons capability is a legitimate and proportionate response to such a blatant violation. And although it is not certain, airstrikes should be sufficient to deter the Assad regime from using chemical weapons again. Image from


Analysts warn of risk from extremists in Syria -  Louise Osborne and Jacob Wirtschafter - USA Today: The Obama administration insists that the vast majority of rebels in Syria are Sunni Muslims seeking to end a tyranny, not impose Islamic law. But it admits that al-Qaeda loyalists who would do such things are operating in Syria. Extremist groups have released videos over the past few months in which they kill locals in towns they say have violated Islamic law. Extremist groups are better funded, equipped and trained than local fighters, says the Free Syrian Army, which itself is made up of hundreds of independent units. The extremist fighters have made headway in some areas of Syria such as Idlib province.

Don't use U.S. credibility as a reason to attack Syria: It's an unsound — and dangerous — argument - Rajan Menon, latimes.com: Obama made a bad decision by publicly, and needlessly, warning a brutal strongman that the United States would resort to military force were he to use chemical weapons. With the White House having announced that Assad had done just that, Obama appears tangled in his own red lines. But he should not make another mistake now just because he made one earlier. Yet that's what those who invoke credibility in effect recommend because they don't explain convincingly why it's important for him to prove his resolve in this instance. They present credibility as an end in itself, not as a means to achieve a desired outcome, which is what it is. Adding to the instability of Syria and its neighborhood would scarcely add to America's credibility.

Blurred Red Lines: Harry Truman, please call Obama - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Obama still hasn't figured out after five years in office that America is the only enforcer of world order, and thus that there is no substitute for the President of the United States. Mr. Obama can't default to "the international community," whatever that is, much less to Congress. He has to lead. If he loses on Syria, it will be because he hasn't.

The Hawk's Case Against Obama on Syria: Changing the murderous regime in Damascus should be the goal. A 'limited,' 'tailored' attack doesn't merit support - Stephen F. Hayes, Wall Street Journal: It isn't at all unreasonable to wonder whether Mr. Obama's decision to go to Congress is little more than an attempt to share responsibility with Republicans for authorizing an intervention that goes badly, or to blame them for constraining him if they don't. If President Obama exercises the authority he claims and launches a serious campaign to end the slaughter in Syria and change the regime in Damascus, Republicans should support him. Until he does, they should oppose him.

How Not to Persuade Congress on Syria: Presidential ambivalence isn't a winning strategy - Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal: The bottom line is that Americans are not eager for military action in Syria. Presidential ambivalence won't convince the public they should care what happens there. But it isn't too late. Mr. Obama can bend opinion and the will of Congress his way.

The Benching of Uncle Sam A GOP Syria vote shouldn't ratify U.S. decline at home and abroad: Obama is trying to drive the Republicans into a "no" vote on the Syria resolution - Daniel Henninger, Wall Street Journal: Obama is shirking presidential responsibility for the U.S.'s role in the world. He doesn't want that responsibility. Barack Obama's view of the U.S. role in the world is that the time has come to bench Uncle Sam.

Obama Needs Serious Plan For Syria - Charles Krauthammer, courant.com: Deterrence depends entirely on perception and the perception in the Middle East is universal: Obama wants no part of Syria. Unless Obama can show the country that his don't-mock-me airstrike is, in fact, part of a serious strategy for altering the trajectory of the Syrian war, Congress should vote no.

The Syria question Congress must answer - Eugene Robinson, Washington Post: If Assad and his government are ever to be held accountable for the use of forbidden weapons to murder hundreds of civilians, the only realistic way for that to happen is a punitive, U.S.-led military strike.

A stand for Syria — and Obama - Michael Gerson, Washington Post: A limited military strike may be symbolic. But for Congress to block that strike would be more than symbolic. It would undermine a tangible element of American influence: the perception that the commander in chief is fully in command.

Quagmire at Home Did Obama even have a war plan for Capitol Hill? - Wall Street Journal: James Taranto, Wall Street Journal: Obama's strategic languidness has put lawmakers in a position such that many of them will be unable to vote either "yes" or "no" in good conscience. And with his failure to develop even a political strategy for approaching Congress on this matter, he has managed the dubious achievement of leading the U.S. into a foreign-policy quagmire without firing a shot.

War — what is it good for? - Andrew P. Napolitano, Washington Times: The president wants us to think that the Assad regime intentionally gassed 1,000 Syrian innocents who were of no military value to the rebels or threat to the regime — and among whom were, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, “hundreds of children.” Even if all this took place as Mr. Obama claims, can he lawfully bomb Syria to punish its government for violating international norms or to deter it from doing so again? In a word: No. Image from


What Sir William Would Do in Syria - Alex de Waal and Bridget Conley-Zilkic, New York Times: An American assault on Syria would be an act of desperation with incalculable consequences.

Can Iran Help the U.S. in Syria? - Room for Debate, New York Times: While some have said attacking Syria for allegedly using chemical weapons would warn Iran not to build nuclear weapons, others still want to pursue talks with Tehran. But by engaging more directly with Iran, could the United States defuse the situation in Syria and help bring about peace? Could an attack on Syria damage prospects for negotiations with Iran?

U.S. loses focus on Egypt - Editorial, Washington Post: The Obama administration has been pressing the government to reconcile with the Islamists, release Mr. Morsi and other political prisoners and carry out a transition to a genuine democracy. That these appeals are ignored while the government indulges in grotesque anti-American propaganda reflects the generals’ conviction that the administration will ultimately tolerate a new dictatorship while maintaining U.S. aid. It follows that the only means to exert U.S. leverage is to suspend the aid programs, while linking their resumption to the restoration of democracy.

Assad's Bizarre Instagram Account: Propaganda With a Comments Section: Is propaganda really propaganda when any old web user can challenge its message? - Megan Garber, theatlantic.com: The syrianpresidency feed is, to state the obvious, propaganda. It is also, to state the even more obvious, propaganda of the worst kind -- propaganda that insinuates and misleads and lies. It's not this that's going on in Syria right now, the feed insists; it's this. It's not neurotoxins and explosions and the violent deaths of civilians and children; it's science competitions and basketball games and, as my National Journal colleague Marin Cogan points out, Tiffany-blue fitness-tracking bracelets. An Instagram, as a bundled little unit of information, does not consist merely of pictures and post dates and captions; it consists, also, of follower feedback. Instagram's images come, by default, with comments. Which is perfectly natural -- most Internet Things come with comments fields these days -- but which is also, when a picture you've posted is propaganda, remarkable. Because, in the case of syrianpresidency, below the grotesque episodes of The Real Housewives of Damascus that play out on the feed, there are comments. Lots of them. Some of them insightful, some of them hateful, some of them both at the same time.

Assange decries WikiLeaks film as “massive propaganda attack”: The Toronto International Film Festival première’s Bill Condon’s dramatization of Assange and WikiLeaks, “The Fifth Estate” - mybroadband.co.za: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may be holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, but he’s very present at the Toronto International Film Festival.


Opening this year’s festival on Thursday is the premiere of Bill Condon’s dramatization of Assange and WikiLeaks, “The Fifth Estate” – a film with which Assange refused to cooperate. It’s the only movie at Toronto that has the distinction of being called “a massive propaganda attack” by its primary subject. That was the opinion Assange dished out on the film in a video link in January in which he waved a supposed copy of the film’s script. But the film, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the Austrian activist, isn’t the character assassination Assange feared, but rather a layered, complicated portrait as laudatory as it is critical. Uncaptioned image from article

AMERICANA

Who Stole Miley's Tongue? - whostolemileystongue.tumblr. com. One of the images from entry:


MORE AMERICANA


The Map That Lincoln Used to See the Reach of Slavery - Rebecca Onion, Slate: "Map showing the distribution of the slave population of the Southern states of the United States. Compiled from the census of 1860. Drawn by E. Hergesheimer. Engr. by Th. Leonhardt." Library of Congress, American Memory Map Collections. Via DRH on Facebook

AND MORE AMERICANA (video)

Assault rifles in schools part of proposal - usatoday.com

“I miss George W. Bush. ... That man knew how to sell a war."

--Political satirist Stephen Colbert; cited in Bulletin News, LLC (September 5); image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Shilling for a Living: Public Diplomacy in Russia - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well:  "Wow, Russia. ‘Lot going on there, Obama attending the G-20, what with Russia taking in NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, Russian support for the other side in Syria, the famous Obama-Putin sourpuss photos, why, golly, you’d figure America’s public diplomacy warriors at Embassy Moscow would be busy, busy, busy seeking out Russian hearts and minds to influence. Instead, those diplomatic warriors are seeking Russian stomachs to fulfill with America’s last domestically-made product, junk food. Shilling for a living, one of our best, Joseph Kruzich, is pictured

Pope Francis on Syria – Voice of America website ignores papal statement - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "The Huffington Post reported that 'Pope Francis urged the Group of 20 leaders on Thursday to abandon the ‘futile pursuit’ of a military solution in Syria as the Vatican laid out its case for a negotiated settlement that guarantees rights for all Syrians, including minority Christians.' The Huffington Post used a story written by Nicole Winfield, Associated Press correspondent based in Rome, covering Vatican. As with many important international news stories in recent years, the papal statement was ignored Thursday by the Voice of America English website. VOA failed to post even a short news item on this story from Reuters, a practice that has become common for the Voice of America English website as badly managed VOA news operation seems less and less able to offer original reporting. As of Thursday evening, the Huffington Post report on Pope Francis’s statement had 2,233 Facebook 'Likes' and 2,605 comments. The most popular top VOA Syria-related story Thursday had only 25 Facebook 'Likes' and 1 (one) comment from the entire worldwide audience. ... The VOA Russian Service


is doing a better job of reporting. They are providing constant updates on the meeting in St. Petersburg. The Russian Service covered the Pope’s statement while VOA English did not." Image from entry

Accelerating cultural collaboration - Paul Madden, High Commissioner, Canberrablogs.fco.gov.uk: "I announced this year’s participants in the British Council’s Accelerator programme in Melbourne yesterday. The initiative takes up-and-coming indigenous cultural leaders from Australia to the UK, to work with mentors and peers. ... The British Council do a great job in promoting cultural relations around the world.


I’ve worked very closely with them during my career, particularly when I was head of Public Diplomacy at the FCO. In a country like Australia with such strong cultural ties to the UK, there seems to be some artistic event with a British link going on in most cities on most nights." Madden image from blog

RELATED ITEMS

Zapping Syria: Don't Do It, Mr. President - Patricia Lee Sharpe, Whirled View: Better than assassination, Assad and his co-conspirators in chemical warfare


should be subjected to the strictures of the International Criminal Court, which is equipped to deal with war crimes. Image from

Why America Is Saying 'No' Syria and Obama: Wrong time, wrong place, wrong plan, wrong man - Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal: The world must think—and speak—with stature and seriousness, of the moment we're in and the darkness on the other side of the door. It must rebuke those who used the weapons, condemn their use, and shun the users. It must do more, in concert—surely we can agree on this—to help Syria's refugees. It must stand up for civilization. But a military strike is not the way, and not the way for America. We don't have to bow to the claim that if we don't attack Syria we are over as a great power.

Just Whose War Is This? - Pat Buchanan, townhall.com: If the rebels lose, we lose.


And if the rebels win, who wins? Uncaptioned image from article

Inaction on Syria Threatens U.S. Security: If America's 'red lines' are viewed as meaningless, larger and more costly conflicts are certain - Joe Lieberman and Kyl, Wall Street Journal [subscription]

Would Bombing Syria Be a 'Just War'? Jean Bethke Elshtain believed it is America's duty to 'respond to the cries of the aggrieved' - Robert P. George, Wall Street Journal [subscription]

Does anyone really believe Assad used chemical weapons in Syria? - Thomas Mullen, Washington Times: Does anyone really believe the Assad government launched chemical weapons attacks against rebels and civilians? That virtually every politician and pundit talks about the attacks as if it were proven they occurred and that Assad’s government perpetrated them is beyond surreal. U.N. weapons inspectors say that they won’t even be able to confirm that chemical weapons were used for two more weeks. Yet, the Obama administration says it is not only certain the attack occurred, but that Assad’s government launched it.

Syria highlights the rise of the anti-war right - Ryan James Girdusky, Washington Times: In the wake of a war with Syria, many of the top conservative writers and pundits have turned from war hawks to suspicious pessimists, critical of another Middle Eastern war.

As Obama hesitates, Israel worries: The president's non-action on Syria indicates he can't be counted on to stand up to Iran's nuclear threat either - Benny Morris, latimes.com: Clearly, Obama and America are irresolute and hesitant about launching a short, limited strike against Assad's government, and they can be expected to be much more irresolute and hesitant when it comes to tackling the far greater threat posed by Iran's nuclear project.

Syrian propaganda in full swing - www.3news.co.nz: Syria's government claims half the rebel fighters the US is helping are actually foreigners - Islamic radicals and members of al Qaeda. The US says it's only 15 to 25 percent. But there was also propaganda in support of a US military strike. A CBS reporter was allowed to meet a rebel commander, who implored the US to do more. He was grateful for the US rations they'd been sent, but said they needed weapons.

Xi Jinping rallies party for propaganda war on internet: President's battle cry against 'rumour-mongers' in speech last month is revealed, with call for a 'strong army to seize ground of new media' - Cary Huang and Keith Zhai, scmp.com: President Xi Jinping has issued a call to arms against the country's unruly internet, ordering the Communist Party's propaganda machine to build "a strong army" to "seize the ground of new media."


Xi's remarks, made during a national meeting of propaganda chiefs in Beijing last month, came just as the central government was stepping up its campaign against internet "rumours" and reining in influential online celebrities who can command millions of followers. Xi Jinping image from article

Andrzej Poczobut: China won't give money for Lukashenka's propaganda - charter97.org: Attempts of the Belarusian ruler to get money from China for propaganda seem futile. Andrzej Poczobut, a Hrodna-based correspondent for Gazeta Wyborcza, spoke to charter97.org about the Belarusian ruler's proposal to China to set up a media holding. “Lukashenka's regime has faced problems with propaganda due to lack of money. The idea of uniting state-run newspapers doesn't work being crashed by ambitions of propaganda employees who got used to be editorial heads and occupy other high posts. The authorities want to bring them all into a collective farm, which means the number of positions and the volume of money will decrease,” the journalist noted. He stressed that the media holding required money. China is the only country Lukashenka can appeal to in this situation.

The Criminal Voices of Media Propaganda. The Insiduous Role of the BBC - William Bowles,
globalresearch.ca: The BBC's mandate is to report, accurately and impartially, events. Instead, the BBC’s ‘news’ coverage amounts to nothing more than propaganda for the state, without the slightest attempt at presenting conflicting views or interpretation of events. Is this what we should expect from a publicly funded news organisation especially one that has cloaked itself in a veneer of objectivity?

Germany’s Conspicuous Silence - Roger Cohen, New York Times: The United States wants Germany to assume a global role commensurate with its power. Time then for a reality check: Germany will not lead. “The scars of history are really very, very serious, and so we made the decision to bid farewell to the concept of a state based on power and become a merchant state,” Joschka Fischer, the former foreign minister, said.

Prof.: Nazi propaganda portrayed ‘unmasked’ Jews - Ann Mary Mathew, thedartmouth.com: For the average German, anti-Semitic propaganda offered a way of making sense, or as historian Jeffrey Herf said yesterday in Filene Auditorium, "making nonsense" of World War II. Herf, who is still in the process of researching the topic, used the personal journals of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels as well as the information ministry's press directives to support his arguments. According to Herf, Goebbels' narrative presents Jews as furious with the Germans who "unmasked" them. Goebbels' propaganda eventually contributed to the belief that Jewish "marionette regimes" in the United States, England and the Soviet Union came together to wage war on Germany and the fear that after the war was over, the international Jewry would wipe out the German people. At first, nobody except Goebbels believed this, Herf said, but eventually this "Nazi war narrative" became widely accepted.

A chronicle of Apartheid's propaganda war on black America - Rebecca Davis, dailymaverick.co.za: New York Times correspondent Ron Nixon has written an account of how the Apartheid government repeatedly attempted to win the hearts and minds of African Americans.


Though it’s well known that the Apartheid regime spent millions on its propaganda war internationally, this chronicle of its focus on black America makes for startling reading. Image from article

IMAGE

--From Ryan Grim, "This Photo Tells All You Need To Know About The House Syria Vote," Huffington Post, which notes: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who supports strikes in Syria, will need more than a 100 of her caucus members to approve the resolution. The latest vote count has well more than 200 members of the House leaning no, but the administration still has time."

“Hermaphroditism. Cloning. External fertilization. Self fertilization. Courtship and copulation. Fission. Fusion. Cannibalism. You name it, jellyfish [are] ‘doing it.’”; image from

--Jellyfish expert Lisa-ann Gershwin, as cited in The New York Review of Books

"[B]irds do it, bees do it/Even educated fleas do it/Let's do it, let's fall in love."

--Cole Porter

ANNOUNCEMENT

Trio of EdCult Awards Completed [:] "The Roth Endowment, a memorial to FSO Lois Roth (1931-86), has added a third annual award in State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) to two others, this one for the best performance by an forign employee (FSN) in an embassy cultural office. It bears the name of the late Gill Jacot-Guillarmod, a much admired staffer in South Africa, whom Lois knew. The first award, selected by an ECA committee, was given in ECA last June to Cultural Specialist George Beukes, serving in Windhoek (Namibia). The award completes the Endowment's trio of prizes for the people of cultural diplomacy, joining the Roth Award for FSOs and the Ilchman-Richardson Award for domestic-support staff, with stipends of $1500 each. The goal: to lift morale and promote professionalism in the dedicated staff without whom cultural diplomacy cannot function. To endow this award permanently, the Endowment has set up an earmarked cuff-account to receive donations. To jump-start, we dipped into our holdings, encouraged by five early contributions and pledges totaling $6600. Endowing this annual award will require an additional $23,000 by 2019. At the outset, we need help in two ways: first, suggestions of potential donors; and second, early contribution to the fund. For donors, we want to compile a list of US foreign-service veterans of South Africa, or others like US educators or business-people who may have known Gill. For gifts, we will accept any amount. Those interested may soon visit our updated website; meanwhile we can send information quickly by mail on request. Donors will be kept informed over time by the site and annual reports on progress and laureates. The Roth Endowment is registered with IRS as a 501(c)3 charity (www.rothendowment.org). Mail address, Roth Endowment c/o Arndt, 1870 Wyoming Ave. NW, DC 20009." Via Doctor Richard Arndt by email.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

US-Brazil: Why can't we be friends? It's been a rocky road for the two biggest economies in the Americas. Now with allegations of US spying on Brazil's president, things are not looking up - globalpost.com: "The United States' relationship with Brazil is on the rocks after more National Security Agency revelations, this time that Washington spied on President Dilma Rousseff. ... Brazil ... has many shared interests with the US. But despite polite public diplomacy, there have been plenty of ups and downs. ... Unlike some Latin American nations, Brazil has a strong recent record on media freedom. Yet there was one notorious exception to that rule, which did cause friction with the US — in 2004, when New York Times correspondent Larry Rohter accused former President Lula of being a drunk.


Brazil revoked his visa, and then relented after receiving an 'apology' from the reporter. Whether Rohter’s reporting was accurate or not, threatening to boot him out of the country was hardly the behavior fitting of a democracy that advocates the kind of media freedom championed by the US." Image from article, with caption: US President Barack Obama kisses hello Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff as they arrive for a photo during the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg.

US Embassy Beirut and US Consulate Adana (Turkey) Now on Departure Orders for Non-Emergency Staff and Family Members– Domani Spero, DiploPundit: The State Department ... issued a new Travel Warning for Lebanon urging American citizens to avoid travel to the country and announcing the departure non-emergency personnel and family members from Embassy Beirut. ... ['] The Fulbright and the English Language Fellow programs that provided grants to U.S. scholars to live and work in Lebanon during the academic year remain suspended because of the security situation and the increased possibility of attacks against U.S. citizens in Lebanon.[']"

Casey, the dirt boys and the grey material - "In mid-June 1955, Australia’s external affairs minister, Richard Casey, wrote to Britain’s defence minister, Selwyn Lloyd, seeking background information about a certain colonel he had run across during the second world war. The man Casey was checking on was Dudley Wrangel Clarke, a theatrical, charismatic and unconventional officer, whom Malcolm Muggeridge would describe as 'a sharp little man with bright, quick eyes.' - Today, they [Clarke's] form the core of Australia’s public diplomacy effort, such as it exists. With a couple of notable exceptions, virtually every Southeast Asian political leader and many journalists have visited Australia courtesy of the government. Similar schemes exist for performing artists. Ironically, since Clarke thought that Hollywood was so dominant in the 'theatre wars'"

RELATED ITEMS

A Death in the Family: USAID's first known war-zone-related suicide raises troubling questions about whether America is doing enough to assist its relief workers - Gordon Lubold, Foreign Policy: On Aug. 15, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced that one of its employees had died suddenly. The agency didn't mention that Michael C. Dempsey, a senior field program officer assigned as the leader of a civilian assistance team in eastern Afghanistan, killed himself four days earlier while home on extended medical leave.
Via

Obama’s push for a Syria strike depends on many factors other than presidential eloquence - Dan Balz, Washington Post: If presidents have far less power to persuade that is popularly assumed, and if the default position of a war-weary nation is to oppose what is seen as a potentially risky intervention in Syria, and if many Republican lawmakers are steadfastly against almost anything Obama proposes, the larger question about presidential leadership in this case is why Obama chose the course he took. Certainly his argument that there are constitutional reasons to seek congressional approval for military action is valid. But If the key to leadership is less the power to persuade and more the capacity to understand the conditions that exist and to exploit them when they are favorable, then Obama’s sudden move to throw the decision to Congress appears all the more risky.

Can Mr. Obama Avoid Mission Creep? - Editorial, New York Times: President Obama is scheduled to address the nation Tuesday on his plans for using military force in Syria. He will have a hard time persuading a skeptical Congress and an equally skeptical American public. As the president contemplates striking Syria, the public deserves to understand more fully what “limited” military action actually means.

On Syria Vote, Trust, but Verify - Alan Grayson, New York Times: "My position is simple: if the administration wants me to vote for war, on this occasion or on any other, then I need to know all the facts. And I’m not the only one who feels that way. Alan Grayson, a Democratic representative from Florida, is a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs."

Just a little bit of war against Syria - Kathleen Parker, washingtonpost.com: Our ponderous slog toward non-war is scaring all the wrong people.

Islamic fundamentalists benefit from Obama's foreign policy - James Richard Edwards, Washington Post: President Obama’s foreign policy decisions in Egypt, Libya and his current desire to start a war in Syria, continue to further the interests of Islamic fundamentalists. Syria, Libya and Egypt were three of the very few remaining secular governments in the Mideast, prior to US interventions. Due to consequences flowing from Obama’s actions, all three will soon be governed by totalitarian Islamic fundamentalists.

On Syria, a weak strike is better than none - Frederick W. Kagan, Washington Post: The president created this sour choice between an inadequate strike and no strike. It is a choice between a bad option and a less bad option. The less bad option is to strike now and continue to push for more robust action as necessary in the future. That decision demands the support of those who are serious about the outcome in Syria and maintaining U.S. credibility.

Send Assad a message he will understand - Robert M. Danin, Washington Post: if the Obama administration wants to send a message to Assad that he accurately understands, the United States must provide not only a credible response to his recent use of chemical weapons but also make him believe that response is part of a larger strategy to compel him to stop slaughtering his own people — by any means. Such an approach would require a U.S. commitment to doing more than limited strikes against facilities related to chemical weapons. But it is the only message Assad will understand.

AMERICANA



Image from

ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"Canned information."

--A distinguished American diplomat (and the father of this blog's compiler), referring to some U.S. media in his epoch