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Iraq veteran, paralyzed by sniper, prepares to take his own life - Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times; image from article, with caption: Tomas Young, shown with his brother Nathan in 2007, has decided he will stop taking food, water and medicine until finally death takes him, and he is giving a politically charged farewell before he goes.
PRIMARY SOURCES
President Obama's Remarks to the People of Israel, March 2013 - cfr.org
VIDEOS
DanceMotion USA 2013 Cultural Diplomacy tour - YouTube
David Firestein—Hearts, Minds and Electrons: Public Diplomacy in the Age of Social Media - YouTube
What Ails Diplomacy? Follow the Money - guerrilladiplomacy.com
New North Korean War Propaganda Is A Step Up From Previous Endeavors: North Korea (DPRK) has released a new propaganda video which shows their army bombarding and then invading
Christmas present for everyone: "This is the story of how culture saved a nation" -bookhaven.stanford.edu: On Estonia; via MC on Facebook
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Hussein Ibish and others explain why Obama's speech in Jerusalem was a Big Deal - jeffweintraub.blogspot.com: "The more I think about this speech, the more impressive and potentially important it looks. Here's the crucial point, in my opinion. It has long seemed clear to me that the only approach that can help promote a peaceful solution to the interconnected Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts (assuming that a peaceful solution remains a possibility, which I deeply hope is the case), the only approach that is both morally acceptable and practically realistic, has to be one that is simultaneously, and strongly, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian. Obama's speech managed to deliver precisely that sort of message, and to do it convincingly. ... And then there is the assessment offered by the Arab-American political analyst Hussein Ibish. ... I recommend reading the whole thing ... but here are some highlights: ['] U.S. President Barack Obama's speech in
It was plainly designed to speak directly to the Israeli and Palestinian peoples [JW: and to the larger Arab world, as Ibish mentions a little later] over the heads of their political leaderships. It was an exercise in public diplomacy par excellence, intended to change the tone and atmosphere, and public perceptions of Obama himself, presumably as an adjunct to actual diplomatic efforts to lay the groundwork for eventually resuming negotiations. The psychological, communication and political skill that was marshaled to give the speech its maximum impact with public opinion was quite extraordinary, and stands in contrast to some miscalculations Obama made about Israeli and Palestinian perceptions during his first term. By systematically downplaying expectations for his trip, Obama made the power of his speech and the boldness of some of the language and positions he staked out -- particularly regarding the realities Palestinians face under Israeli occupation -- surprising and therefore all the more striking. Obama made the first day of his trip an extended exercise in telling the Israeli public everything it could possibly want to hear from an American president, ranging from 'undying bonds of friendship' to robust reiterations of security commitment and a much yearned-for acknowledgment of the long Jewish history in the land. In retrospect, it's clear that what looked like public outreach bordering on pandering was, in fact, designed to transform Israeli perceptions of Obama himself in order to prepare them for some of the hard truths he was preparing to deliver the next day. What Obama has done is to reassure and challenge Israelis and Palestinians alike. To Israelis, he reiterated
Savir's Corner: Welcome, Mr. President! [March 20] - Uri Savir, Jerusalem Post: "President Obama can, in an innovative approach to public diplomacy, create new bridges as America is open to modern communication with the world. He can help the young break the walls of the conflict ghetto, internally and externally. He will find the young of the region willing, not least the young women who courageously seek freedom and equality."
WATCH: U.S. and Israeli diplomats give Obama's visit a whimsical twist: In an attempt to cast contention aside, the Israeli embassy in Washington and the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv release amusing videos ahead of U.S. president's trip to the Holy Land [March 19] - Barak Ravid, haaretz.com: "U.S. President Obama's visit to Israel brings with it many amusing public diplomacy videos, which are being disseminated by the Israeli embassy in
Both Israeli and American diplomats are trying to cast aside the differences and disagreements and are hoping that their message of an unshakeable U.S.-Israeli alliance will go viral on the Internet. The Israeli embassy in
John Bolton Calls Israeli Support For Obama ‘Propaganda’ - Ben Armbruster, thinkprogress.org: "John Bolton — a self-appointed supposed strong supporter of
My Rage - docstalk.blogspot.com: "The headlines are bright, Netanyahu apologises to Turkey for Mavi Marmara raid. ...
So let us think for a moment, what good Israel's behavior has brought her? What do we have today? Israel is surrounded by thousands of rockets ready to destroy her in a short while. The world is acting obnoxiously against her and anti-Semitism is on the rise, as bad as in 1938. That is a direct result of weakness, and schizophrenically ambiguous policy lacking public diplomacy. I said and say again, Benjamin Netanyahu is a good orator, just like Obama; he is a bad executer. ... We, Jews, get what we deserve, because we do not really know who we are and what we stand for. My blood is boiling and I hope yours too. I do not apologize to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara tragic incident. I apologize to the IDF Commando brave soldiers who landed into the terrorists' den and had nothing to defend themselves with but of paint-gun." Image from
Do Israelis think Obama is just ‘neutral’ or ‘pro-Palestinian’? [March 17] - Shmuel Rosner, jewishjournal.com : "[O]ur assumption is that Israelis, by and large, would like the American President to be 'pro Israel' – hence, those saying that Obama is 'pro-Palestinian' or 'neutral' don't mean it as a compliment and don't view him as positively as previous presidents. In the latest Panels Politics poll Obama's 'pro-Israel' ranking declined from 14% to 12%. This means that in the last year Obama's numbers were much lower than his 2012 numbers and much more similar to his 2009-10 numbers. 40% of Israelis view Obama as neutral and 35% say he is 'pro Palestinian' (13% don't know). ... What do we learn from this? ... 3) Obama is coming here for a 'public diplomacy' visit and the good news for him is that there's not much for him to ruin, not much to lose (surely, from 12%, he can still decline to the 6% or 4% he had in very early polls, but there's a lot more for him to gain). 4) In the PP poll the public was also asked about Obama's decision not to speak at the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. 53% said that this was not just a matter of 'technical considerations' (23%), but rather is something that 'demonstrates his general approach to Israel'. So – from a public diplomacy angle- this was a mistake."
Obama' visit: Embrace the victory of politics over substance [March 17] - Daniel Levy, haaretz.com: "The relationship with Israel’s new kingmaker and self-anointed future king, Yair Lapid [see - JB], should also be seen through a political lens. Can Lapid be educated on the Palestinian issue (he sure needs it)? Is he worth investing in? And what should he be expected to do on the Palestinian issue from within the government (most likely preventive in nature) in exchange? Through public diplomacy Lapid’s voters should be convinced that something is at stake if Yesh Atid support the settlement policies and peace rejectionism of Netanyahu-Bennett."
IDF decreases Gazan fishing zone after rockets [March 21] - Yaakov Lappin, Jerusalem Post: "According to MK Orit Struck, 'the rockets that Palestinians from Gaza launched are the best display of public diplomacy
possible during the US president’s visit, which clearly shows why Israel cannot withdraw from Judea and Samaria.'” Image from article, with caption: Rocket fired from Gaza that landed in a home in Sderot, March 21, 2013.
A Modest Proposal! UN and Israel - deadlinepundit.blogspot.com: "I was in an Irish bar with Mo Sacirbey, the former Foreign Minister of Bosnia, when a local woman who had overheard us talking about the UN launched into an intemperate tirade against the organisation. Oddly enough, it inspired a modest proposal for the UN and Israel Lobby to work together for a swift response to the US budget crisis. ... And so to my proposal. An odious, albeit ironic comparison of aid to Israel and dues to the UN as a packaged, essential public-diplomacy exception to the sequestration. While most countries regard United Nations dues and peacekeeping contributions as treaty-bound obligations, the US Congress treats them as discretionary items, ever since they began, half a century ago to penalise the organisation for its votes on, of course, Israel. Under Bush’s second term and under Obama, the US has essentially been paying up without too much demur, which is just as well since peacekeeping operations in places like Mali depend on a flow of contributions from richer countries, above all the US which is desperately interested in Saharo-Salafist affairs. Listening to the rabid pro-Israeli supporters among local New York politicians, this might appear to be a stretch, since antipathy to the UN is in their ideological chromosomes. But in contrast to their local supporters, Israeli politicians assiduously court the organisation. Secretary General Ban Kimoon welcomes them when they visit New York - even though his public statements forcefully repeat the official UN lines on, for example settlements and Gaza, that the American lobbyists would punish any American politician for. But Ban has a rare talent for understated diplomacy that allows him to speak truths and to keep the Israeli pols coming - albeit probably helped because they can do some fundraising of their own in New York while visiting the UN on official business but also because they have a talent for not listening to advice from outsiders anyway. Such a tie in would neutralise the bloc that does most harm to UN financing in DC and do no harm at all, since just as it has always done, in the end, AIPAC will get its money even if kids go hungry in the USA."
#ObamaInIsrael Has Its Own Pinterest Page [March 21] - Anne Cohen, blogs.forward.com: "Social media loves a good diplomatic visit. Pictures abound, attempts at speaking other languages often fail, and the agonizing possibility that something will go horribly wrong — like a car breaking down, perhaps? — makes for great third party commentary.
All of you avidly following President Obama’s trip to Israel this week will be happy to know that the visit now has its own Pinterest page, called 'The Unbreakable Bond: #ObamaInIsrael.' Run by Israeli volunteers of the Ministry of Public Diplomacy, the page features 18 boards and 198 pins showing everything from the Jerusalem preparations and the President’s arrival at Ben Gurion airport, to Obama and Bibi tasting matzo while checking out robots at the Israel Museum." Image from entry, with caption: President Obama, on the second day of his Israel trip.
Grapevine: Bnei Menashe Wedding in Israel [March 21] - Greer Fray Cashman, Jerusalem Post: "The Government Press Office catered to pluralistic palates at the media center which it set up at the Begin Heritage Center, within easy walking distance of the King David Hotel, where Obama and his staff are staying, and the Inbal Hotel, where the White House Press Corps has set up its own media center.
The sumptuous buffet at a reception held on the night before Obama’s arrival ran the gamut from felafel to sushi to cheese cake, with a huge variety of other delicacies and a non-stop refilling of platters. In welcoming the visiting journalists who came not only from America but from many other parts of the world to cover the visit, GPO director Nitzan Chen, an eighth-generation Jerusalemite, advised them not to miss out on tasting Middle Eastern food, which he said was the best in the world. The GPO set up a truly professional press center with every facility that electronic and print media journalists could want, including rows of work spaces equipped with laptops. It also organized tours of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Gaza border and the Castel Winery, to give journalists a feel for the varied panoply of Israeli life. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was on hand to welcome the foreign media and, almost immediately after he spoke, there was a walking tour through the Muslim, Jewish and Christian Quarters of the Old City, with focus on places of religious significance. The late Harry Hurwitz, who was the founder of the Begin Heritage Center and served as its executive director until his death in 2008, had been a newspaper editor in South Africa and had been very much involved in public diplomacy after settling in Israel. He would have been pleased and proud to see the BHC utilized as a media center." Image from
Israel’s Defense Forces take issue with Bar Refaeli’s new role - Olivia Bergin, telegraph.co.uk: "Top model Bar Refaeli's latest assignment sees her swap lingerie for a chic, date-appropriate outfit in a new TV ad launched by her native country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Promoting Israel's advanced technologies, the former girlfriend of Hollywood heart-throb Leonardo DiCaprio plays the love interest of a gentleman who's encountered every type of futuristic gadget available during the course of a jog around his neighbourhood.
However, her cameo has upset the Israeli Defense Forces because the 27-year-old has never served in the Israeli army, a duty required by all Israeli women over the age of 18 . ... The Foreign Ministry justified its decision to use her in the clip by releasing the following statement: 'Refaeli is considered one of the most beautiful women in the world and is widely recognised as an Israeli.
There is no reason to bring up the past when it comes to a campaign of public diplomacy of this kind.' Refaeli, who also has her own line on underwear called Under.Me,
took to Twitter, writing in her native tongue: 'Use the Foreign Ministry clip or not. My Instagram has more readers than the newspaper of the country. I will continue to focus.'" Includes video, Refaeli's cameo; Top image from entry, with caption: Bar Refaeli at the Vienna Awards in Vienna, Austria, Thursday, March 21; below images from. See also John Brown, "Public Diplomacy goes 'Pubic'," PD News–CPD Blog, USC Center on Public Diplomacy (2007), which notes Israel's original contribution to modern "pubic diplomacy."
Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli calls for Pollard’s release - hollywoodshots.co: "[S]upermodel Bar Refaeli and actors Zion Baruch, Eli Yatzpan and Shlomo Vishinsky join more than 155,000 Israelis who have signed a petition supporting the release of imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. ... Pollard, 58,
was arrested by U.S. authorities in 1985 and later sentenced to life in prison." Image from
Israel's partners in war crimes on sinking ship: Jim Dean - presstv.ir: "A political analyst tells Press TV that Israel stands accused of decades of war crimes against humanity, calling on the allies of the Israeli regime to abandon this 'sinking ship.' The Russell Tribunal on Palestine has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate crimes committed by the Israeli regime in the occupied Palestinian territories. The tribunal, which has conducted four years of investigation on Israeli crimes, said that it would 'support all initiatives from civil society and international organizations aimed at bringing Israel in front of the International Criminal Court.'
The tribunal demands a boycott of all imports of goods produced in the occupied Palestinian territories, especially those produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Press TV has conducted an interview with Jim W. Dean, managing editor and columnist with Veterans Today (Atlanta), to further discuss the issue of Israel crimes in Palestine. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview with Jim W. Dean." Image from
The Close-Knit Communities of Judea and Samaria: Community is one of the factors that has brought many people, including Olim, to come to live in the small towns of Judea and Samaria - David Ha'ivri, jewishpress.com: "[C]ommunity is important. It is one of the factors that has brought many people – Israelis and Olim – to come to live in the small towns of Judea and Samaria. In these places, the concept of community is very real. Everyone knows everyone, and although each family is responsible for our own homes and well being, we hold many common interests.
People take an active part in local committees and events.About the Author: As a child David Ha'ivri made Aliya with his family from the US in 1978. Married, with 8 children, he lives in a small town in Samaria. He is the director of public diplomacy and communications for the Shomron Liaison Office. He works with GatherIsrael.com to promote Aliyah. He is social media master and strategic consultant." Image from article, with caption: A settler tending to his vineyard in the settlement of Bat Ayin. European anti-settlement activists are pushing to curtail the sale of products from Judea and Samaria.
Obama and the Iranian Nowruz: A 2009 Redux? - Richard Javad Heydarian, Huffington Post: "Watching President Obama's latest Nowruz speech, I couldn't but tread a minefield of conflicting emotions, flirting between paroxysm of hope and anxious memories of recent diplomatic debacles vis-à-vis the Iranian nuclear impasse. ... Well, public diplomacy is about circumventing formal diplomatic channels to reach out to the greater populace (in this case the Iranian street), but Obama seems to be in effect saying that the Iranian people should accept the price of not rising up to the regime and changing its nuclear policy. The problem with this rhetoric is that the Iranian regime has actually acknowledged the impact of the sanctions on the civilian economy -- which has precipitated a food and health crisis in a country known for its relatively high living standards and welfare programs -- by repeatedly expressing its willingness to negotiate enrichment levels, and even consider a more intrusive inspections regime under a so-called Additional Protocol, which would cover both nuclear and military facilities, notably in Parchin."
Africa Legal Update - March 21, 2013 - natlawreview.com: "On March 20th, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine hosted a group of women leaders from
North Africa at the State Department. The group of women is in the U.S. participating in State Department International Visitor Programs." Image from
U.S. Consulate Chennai Public Diplomacy Small Grants Program - topgovernmentgrants.com: "The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U. S. Consulate Chennai is soliciting proposals for public diplomacy grants from individuals, non-governmental organizations, and other legally-recognized non-profit institutions that meet Indian and U. S. technical and legal requirements to develop and implement public diplomacy programs . ... The U. S. Consulate Chennai Public Affairs Section only accepts applications from non-governmental organizations and other legally-recognized non-profit institutions that meet U. S. and/or Indian technical and legal requirements."
US Mission Iraq: Shrinking to 5,500 Personnel by End of Year, Never Mind the Missing Details - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: "We’ve asked the Press Office of the US Embassy in Baghdad how many career Foreign Service personnel will be expected in Baghdad and constituent posts by end of year and what they are planning to do with all that space that will soon be vacated. We forgot to ask but we also are curious on what they’ll do with the Air Embassy planes (and pilots) and district embassy hospitals and equipment (embassy auction?).
Or how many ambassadorial rank senior officers they will have by end of the year. Unfortunately, we haven’t got any response to our inquiry. Obviously the folks at the embassy’s Public Affairs shop are professionals who always respond to inquiries from the public even from the pajama-wearing sector who wants to know what’s going on. Unless, of course, they are overwhelmed with drafting their performance evaluations (we understand it’s EER time). It is also entirely possible they were not read in on what they actually are doing by end of this year. That is, besides the simple math announced on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the invasion. Poor sods." Image from
Fraud Anniversary - Global Security: "[H]ere it is from many years ago, a sampling of one aspect of the national propagandizing: ... 'At a press briefing Dec. 18, State Dept. public diplomacy topper Charlotte Beers announced that her division has asked author Ken Pollack to interrupt a book tour and travel overseas to talk about his book The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq. 'Turns out the State Dept. also has been courting foreign journalists over the past year. ' 'We set up many more responsive facilities than we've had in the past for the foreign press at the president's ranch in Texas, at the White House and in our own State foreign press centers, which are Washington, New York and Los Angeles, Beers said.' Storytelling stressed [:] 'A former Madison Avenue exec, Beers extolled the importance of 'storytelling' in convincing overseas ads that the U.S. is only trying to do good.' -- Daily Variety, December 2002"
How to Destroy America and How, Perhaps, to Save It - the-american-catholic.com: "Art Deco says: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 A.D. at 2:25pm ... The picture among our experienced executives is mixed. I think it will take a generation to sort out the good, bad and ugly about George W. Bush
and his administration; Clinton assaulted the dignity of the office with his mendacity, overactive genitalia, and tackiness, but did not make systematically bad policy decisions on certain matters of import; Carter followed bad monetary policies (though not out of the academic mainstream of that time) and severely mismanaged public diplomacy vis a vis Iran, did not have the people skills to work Congress, but otherwise was one of our better chief executives. The performance of the other executives was much closer to satisfactory. If the performance of the experienced executives was mixed, those without was worse." Image from
CYSCA to Host NGO Leaders from Armenia - armenianweekly.com: "Five delegates from various regions of Armenia will be arriving in Boston on March 27 to participate in the Open World program of the U.S. Library of Congress, hosted by the Cambridge-Yerevan Sister City Association (CYSCA). This program is managed by the Open World Leadership Center, a support agency of the Library of Congress, to enhance understanding and cooperation between the United States and the countries of Eurasia. The program aims to give the delegates significant, first-hand exposure to America’s democratic government and free-market system, and to link members of Congress to Eurasian leaders as an instrument for Americans engaged in citizen diplomacy. ... Since its founding by Congress in 1999, the Open World program has enabled some 18,000 current and future Eurasian leaders to experience American democracy, civil society, and community life; work with their American counterparts; stay in American homes; and gain new ideas and inspiration for implementing change back home. More than 7,100 American host families and their communities in all 50 states have partnered with Congress and the Open World Leadership Center to make this ambitious public diplomacy effort possible. The Open World program currently operates exchanges for political and civic leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. CYSCA was organized in 1987 to foster exchanges between citizens of Cambridge and Yerevan on cultural, civic, professional, educational, environmental, and business themes."
BBG’s Censorship Circumvention On Display At Two Events - bbg.gov: "Recently, André Mendes, CIO/CTO for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, spoke at two high-profile events which focused on the BBG’s use of cutting-edge technology to circumvent Internet censorship. On Monday, March 1, Mendes briefed the University of Southern California-Public Diplomacy Council’s lunchtime forum on the rapid evolution of the technology used by U.S. international broadcasting.
On Friday, March 8 at the U.S. State Department’s Tech@State panel on 'Enabling the Publishers,' Mendes described the latest innovations successfully deployed by the BBG’s Internet Anti-Censorship (IAC) program." Image from entry, with caption: André Mendes demonstrates new innovations in censorship circumvention at the Public Diplomacy Council.
Teaching old shortwave transmitters new tricks: text and images this weekend via VOA, KBC, WRMI - Kim Andrew Elliott reporting on International Broadcasting
Knowledge of Russian or Arabic is especially welcome. Evelyn [no last name given - [JB] began her internship in the Engagements Section of NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. Prior to her internship, she had completed a Masters degree in Public Policy from the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt, Germany, and had worked as a language teacher. ... After three months with the Engagements Section, Evelyn spent the final three months of her internship with the Press and Media Section of NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. Her duties included researching and collecting NATO-relevant media to inform and support decisions by divisional management and the NATO Spokesperson and Deputy Spokesperson. 'My time in the Public Diplomacy Division opened my eyes to the challenges of NATO’s public posture and the importance of maintaining public awareness for NATO’s future. Overall, the internship was a rewarding experience that has greatly contributed to my professional development,' explains Evelyn." Image from entry
Taiwan Adrift: The Limits of Ma’s ‘Three Nos’ - Wen-Ti Sung, blogs.nottingham.ac.uk: "Taipei is effectively telling Washington that it intends to secure an American security commitment to come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of Chinese aggression, but Taipei is not willing to reciprocate by committing itself to the U.S. side in the emerging Sino-American geostrategic rivalry. In other words, Taiwan will pay ‘protection money’ to the U.S. (in the form of arms purchases) as a kind of bribe for a U.S. security commitment, but that will not incur a moral obligation for reciprocal Taiwanese commitment in return.
It may be true that some form of under-the-table, opportunistic bandwagoning approach is only strategically sound for a small state caught between two superpowers. But elevating it to an almost declaratory policy status and describing the U.S.-Taiwan relationship in mostly transactional terms would likely hurt Taiwan’s public diplomacy in appealing to the the American people. What these developments suggest is a degree of strategic confusion and torpor in Taipei. In short, there are noticeable shifts in the strategic superstructure of U.S.-PRC-Taiwan relations, while the economic infrastructure of cross-strait relations is tilting decidedly in Beijing’s favour. The U.S. is set to look away and has been developing a political rationale for accommodating Chinese ambition over Taiwan, and Beijing is leveraging its asymmetric economic interdependency with Taipei to entice it into institutionalizing greater political linkages." Uncaptioned image from entry
Exclusive release: CPPCC Work Report [Full Text] - china.org.cn: "We conducted investigations on theatre troupes and on how to successfully host the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing and the World Expo in Shanghai . ... We encouraged the launching of major cultural projects to protect West Lake in Hangzhou, the Grand Canal and the Shudao Cultural Route; worked for their inclusion on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List and for protection of the Great Wall . ... We made the CPPCC’s cultural exchanges with Taiwan broader, deeper and more institutionalized on the basis of Heluo culture, the Whampoa spirit, religion, traditional Chinese customs, and Chinese martial arts, calligraphy, painting, and opera. ... We took spurring diplomacy as an important goal in increasing the CPPCC’s foreign exchanges. We conducted high-level dialogue with other countries in exchanges of visits, and engaged in in-depth communication with foreign participants at international conferences we held or attended. We made full use of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, the World Expo in Shanghai and international conferences on public diplomacy to deepen our friendly exchanges with relevant organizations, major think tanks, mainstream mass media, influential figures and ordinary people in foreign countries. We launched the Public Diplomacy Quarterly; supported local CPPCC committees in establishing public diplomacy associations; and intensified the CPPCC’s theoretical research on public diplomacy, put it into practice innovatively, and increased public awareness of it. We supported relevant organizations in participating in international activities. ... We should create new channels for our foreign exchanges, expand their scope, and improve their mechanisms on the basis of China’s overall arrangements for diplomatic work so as to actively create an external environment favorable to national development. We should exchange high-level visits with foreign countries and strengthen bilateral and multilateral exchanges with their peer institutions and international organizations. We should enrich the CPPCC’s public diplomacy and intensify our work related to congresses and parliaments, media, think tanks and the general public of other countries."
China's fresh diplomatic gambit - Christine Susanna Tjhin, Jakarta Post: "It is ... crucial for Indonesia, as one of the regional powers, to dig our heels in and counter any efforts to drag us and the region into major power rivalries. Aside from the usual main diplomatic agendas (major power, neighboring countries, developing countries and multilateral diplomacies), what was unique in this year’s agenda was the strong emphasis on two aspects of Chinese diplomacy.
The first is public diplomacy and people-to-people connectivity (aka soft power). The second is constructive engagement in global governance (by providing more public goods). Obviously, in these grand aspects, we share common interests with China." Image from
Social media a powerful diplomatic tool, Canadian diplomatic papers reveal: The Canadian ambassador’s post on Chinese social media about his modest Toyota Camry triggered local debate about Chinese bureaucrats’ privileges and government spending - Rick Westhead, thestar.com: "When the Chinese government announced civil servants would be required to use modest, domestic cars instead of flashier, expensive imports, a Canadian diplomat claimed credit. Months earlier, Canadian Ambassador David Mulroney had posted on Chinese social media a photo of his silver Toyota Camry, a hybrid car that was much less expensive than the models driven by his peers in Beijing. Mulroney’s posting on Weibo, the Twitter style micro-blogging site that’s hugely popular in
Diplomat from Azerbaijani embassy to U. S. failed to interrupt report of Armenian political scientist - armenpress.am: "The Azerbaijani strategy of using its energy resources as a foreign policy tool started under Haydar Aliyev, when he realized that inviting Western energy firms would serve the duel goals of keeping Russia at bay, and birthing an incentive for the West, chiefly the US, and UK to take an interest in Azerbaijan. His son, the current dictator of Azerbaijan, followed suit and added another layer to the policy of 'caviar diplomacy' by pouring money into the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), and using those funds to carrying out an aggressive public diplomacy and information war campaign, mainly targeted at Armenia and the Armenian Diaspora. Examples mentioned by Mr. Khlgatyan included the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest, the Haydar Aliyev statue in Mexico City, and the alleged bribe paid to the Hungarian government to extradite axe-murderer, Ramil Safarov."
Turkish education minister receives Palestinian pupils: Within the scope of Turkey's Office of Public Diplomacy's program, 35 Palestinian students travelled to Turkey to visit several institutions and visited Minister Avci in Turkish capital Ankara - worldbulletin.net. Image from article
Qatar Broaches Sensitive Demography Through Soccer - James Dorsey, Huffington Post: "Qatar's soccer league, in a break with a reluctance among Gulf states to give their largely expatriate majorities a sense of belonging, is next month organizing the region's first cup for foreign workers' teams. The cup, involving up to 24 teams formed by foreign workers primarily from Asia who account for the bulk of Qatar's 1.5 million expatriates, is part of an effort to improve working and living conditions as well as a bid to fend off international trade union demands to meet global labor standards. ... The cup further fits into Qatar's sports strategy that aims to make sports part of the country's national identity and constitutes a key pillar of its cultural and public diplomacy as well as its global projection of soft power as part of its foreign, defence and security policy. International trade unions have threatened Qatar with a boycott of its hosting of the 2022 World Cup if it failed to adopt international labor standards. Human rights groups are meanwhile documenting individual cases of workers that they consider to be violations and in some case are intervening to improve their conditions. The government's tacit cooperation like the soccer cup and moves to improve worker safety and security as well as living conditions constitute small but not insignificant steps forward."
Good work, Minister Khar! - Ejaz Haider, salarzai.org: "When Hina Rabbani Khar became the foreign minister in July 2011, I was sceptical. She had already been the minister of state for foreign affairs for roughly five months and I didn’t think that period was enough to have groomed her for the top job. I didn’t doubt her smartness and her articulation — she is very sharp on picking nuances and complexities — but diplomacy is a veritable minefield and 2011 was a particularly difficult time for Pakistan. Having steered the MFA for a year and eight months before leaving office, let me say what I have known for a long time: she did a wonderful job despite several constraints. ... For once, it was the foreign policy guiding the security policy rather than the other way round. 'The military is a very important part of the government and state and, of course, any government would get their professional input, but they didn’t run the foreign policy and they have no business running it,' Khar told me. She liked to get external input and to reach out. To that end, she worked the concept of public diplomacy. She got Mosharraf Zaidi to help her and Mosharraf did a brilliant job of it. ... Published in The Express Tribune, March 20th, 2013."
The curse of corruption - caaglop.com: "[C]ivil society as a rising power should enhance all activities aimed at empowering people around the world. In this panorama, public diplomacy of thinking the unthinkable in the informational age would press institutional watchdogs to check consistently governmental activities. For that reason, developing unthinkable and bold campaigns aimed at stressing certain themes during sensible electoral cycles might convince individuals about their power to deliver change. Finally, it is important to note that no state is determined to suffer from corruption for ever and, unquestionably, solutions are easier to find if people is aware of their role as principals of elected governments."
Alumna in foreign service job - Angel Key, csbsjurecord.com: "CSB alumnus Stephanie Wegmann Peterson’s dream came true. She recently accepted a position as a Foreign Service Officer, and will start serving her first tour in Benin, a West African nation, this summer alongside her husband SJU Alumni Erik Peterson. Originally from Cannon Falls, Minn. Peterson graduated in 2010 with a major in peace studies and a minor in Communication. ... She discovered her dream during her sophomore year when she received the Thomas R. Pickering Undergraduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship. The fellowship was named after Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, a renowned diplomat who served in the Foreign Service for over four decades. The fellowship is a fast track into United States Foreign Policy. In 2008, she signed a 4.5 year agreement with the State Department to work as a Diplomat upon the completion of both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. ... In June of 2012, Peterson received her Master’s Degree from the University of Denver and started working the following month for the State Department. As she was receiving her Master’s Degree, she completed two tours and full internship programs in Hong Kong, China and Washington D.C. 'My specific job for my first tour in Benin will be to represent the United States by serving as the Public Diplomacy Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Cotonou,' Peterson said. She acknowledged that Benin is primarily a French-speaking nation.
She enrolled in a full-time French language training class at the Foreign Service Institute after learning this information. In Benin, she will be organizing cultural and educational exchanges such as the Full Bright [sic] Fellowship. The program provides funding for students, scholars, teachers and professionals to undertake a graduate study, advance research and teaching positions. The program will also allow the opportunity to introduce American culture such as music and art to maintain a cross-cultural understanding between nations. ... Her tour was picked through a bid list system in which individuals rank available positions around the world and they are notified weeks later during the Flag Day Ceremony. There, a Foreign Service Officer is given a post and flag of their country, which is one of the most exciting days. She will serve her tour for two years and be reassigned after to another country for placement." Peterson image from entry
Australia’s New High Commissioner Arrives in PNG - masalai.wordpress.com: "Australia’s new High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ms Deborah Stokes, arrived in Port Moresby on Monday 18 March. ... Media Enquiries: Misiel Jonah, Public Diplomacy Coordinator."
RELATED ITEMS
Overdue Reconciliation - Editorial Board, New York Times: President Obama concluded a successful visit to Israel on Friday by helping broker an end to the self-defeating standoff between two American allies, Israel and Turkey. The breakthrough is a credit to both prime ministers, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, but it is also a sign that Mr. Obama, criticized as “leading from behind” on foreign policy, is prepared to engage more directly in international affairs. Image from
Obama in Israel: The presidential tourist - Dana Milbank, New York Times: Obama didn’t accomplish much of substance: no obvious progress toward talks with the Palestinians, no new ground in deterring Iran’s nuclear program or Syria’s chemical weapons. But the Israelis, who had been suspicious of Obama’s commitment to the Jewish state, were delighted by the attention. The trip was so successful that it could provide Obama with a road map (to use the moribund term from peace talks) for success in his second term in areas beyond the region. Call it the triumph of low expectations: When your goals are less ambitious, they are easier to meet.
Palestinian politics do matter: For any peace process to proceed, the U.S. has to acknowledge Palestinian politics, divisions and all. It's only fair, given the consideration shown to Israel - Khaled Elgindy, latimes.com: American officials remain remarkably tone deaf to Palestinian political needs.
China spins away from propaganda - Jamil Anderlini, Financial Times: High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut and paste the article. See our T and Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. The comparison between China’s incoming and outgoing leaders shows how sophisticated the Communist party is getting at managing its image and how much its propagandists have learnt from their counterparts in the west.
But there is something more substantive behind the slick delivery and the tailored messaging. The two men who are expected to lead the country for the next decade exude a confidence and composure that their predecessors lacked and they talk about their country in a subtly different way. Image from
One-way propaganda makes Chinese more ugly - Giap Van Duong, Bridge: With a racist psychology, many Chinese people really have an ugliness. And this ugliness is being reinforced, directly or indirectly, through the one-way communication policy of the Chinese government. For Vietnam, the lessons of the side effects of the one-way communication policy of China needs to be seriously considered. One-way propagation can be temporarily effective for the state, but in the long run it will be harmful to people's knowledge and the growth of the nation. The people can only grow if they have access to the diverse flows of information and have the freedom to participate in the discussion, in an attempt to find out the truth in the forest of information. In other words, the nation can only grow if its people are entitled to free access to information, freedom of discussion; that means freedom of the press is guaranteed. With small things like the racism of a Chinese restaurant, speaking out to protect dignity is needed. But this will become meaningless if Vietnam keeps being poor and lagging behind them. If the country does not develop, leading to ethnic contempt on the international arena, first of all, this fault belongs to the leaders of the country, and then each citizen. Therefore, it is more important to develop a powerful. This requires the efforts of the leaders first, then each citizen.
Chi-Com Propaganda Outlet Falsely Attacks WFB - freebeacon.com: The Communist Party of China’s most xenophobic propaganda organ,
the Global Times newspaper, has accused the Washington Free Beacon of fabricating a news story.
Hugo Chavez's Legacy of Conflict and Propaganda: What the death of Chavez means for Venezuela and the U.S. - Thor Halvorssen, Reason: Completing a list of Chavez’s excesses, especially those that starkly contrast with the governments that preceded him, would be an exercise that could fill several encyclopedias. Unfortunately, there is no institution or public relations team providing a counter to the confrontational Chavez apparatus, whose talking point hinges on re-writing Venezuelan history and stressing that if the Chavez project fails then Venezuela would regress to an unimaginable past. Throughout the 20th century it was common practice among propagandists and apologists of both left-wing and right-wing dictators to use this Manichean approach—pointing to scapegoats of an unimaginable past that would pave the road to rewriting history. Fortunately, beyond the walls of a dictatorship and especially after they crumble, history tends to put propagandists in the place they belong. Ironically, the most articulate voices in exposing Chavez have come from those who, initially, appeared to give him the benefit of the doubt.
On Iraq, journalists didn’t fail. They just didn’t succeed - Paul Farhi, Washington Post: Many critics of the media’s prewar reporting seem to believe that a more confrontational press could have stopped the march into Iraq.
That’s wishful thinking. It not only assumes that journalists could agree on the facts, it also implies that the media could single-handedly override the president’s influence and that of other leaders. The prewar reporting wasn’t a disaster. But it wasn’t good enough. Image from
An Anniversary Many Would Like to Ignore - Theresa Riley, billmoyers.com: Ten years ago this week, the United States pre-emptively attacked Iraq igniting a war that would last for eight years, claiming an estimated 189,000 lives, costing over $2 trillion and causing untold economic and emotional devastation for the Iraqi people. Despite these horrific outcomes, the anniversary of the Iraqi invasion passed with little fanfare in the nation’s capital. As Peter Baker writes in today’s New York Times, Tuesday came and went “with barely passing notice in a town once consumed by it” in what amounts to a “conspiracy of silence.”
‘Olympus Has Fallen’ director Antoine Fuqua: U.S. flag ‘represents freedom … why not wave it?’ New thriller filled with patriotic imagery - Peter Suderman - Washington Times: There’s no missing the patriotic imagery in “Olympus Has Fallen,” a high-octane action thriller about a splinter group of North Korean terrorists who invade the White House and hold the president hostage. Key scenes in the film feature sun-dappled images of flying American flags, the Washington Monument toppled during a spectacular terrorist attack, and — because it’s an action movie — even a defensive use of a weaponized Abraham Lincoln bust in the oval office.
AMERICANA
"[C]onsider what would happen if all 138 million of the adults who want to move to the United States were suddenly able to follow through on that."
--Max Fisher, "A revealing map of who wants to move to the U.S.," Washington Post; via JK on Facebook
"A little more than three months after Newtown, there have been 2,243 [gun-related deaths]."
--Jason Cherkis, "One Nation Under The Gun: Thousands Of Gun Deaths Since Newtown," Huffington Post
RUSSICA
--A former "House of Culture" in Siberia. Note letters missing in the Cyrillic "House of Culture" sign and, extreme right, statue of Vladimir Il'ich Lenin. Via Facebook
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