A sample of the Current Affairs Readings, related to public diplomacy, for Georgetown University class, "Propaganda and American Foreign Policy: A Historical Overview"

Propaganda and American Foreign Policy:

A Historical Overview

LSHS 453-40 (Georgetown University MALS program)
Instructor: Dr. John H. Brown

CURRENT AFFAIRS READINGS NO. 13 (FOR CLASS 13 ON APRIL 18)

COVERING THE PERIOD APRIL 8-APRIL 14

[For "Notes and Essays Readers: the below is culled from John Brown' Public Diplomacy Press and Blog review; students are asked to make oral presentations of 2-3 articles of special interest to them per class, time permitting; part of the course's final exam is an essay on selected themes covered in the readings; 2012 syllabus of above-cited course at]

"The adversary is no longer homogeneous, one’s own people may be puzzled

 and divided."

--Michael Howard, "Narratives of war," The Times Literary Supplement

VIDEO: AMERICANA

Taxpayer money funds duck genital studies, robotic squirrels - Washington Post

Table of Contents

(compiled, for each heading, in rough reverse chronological order)

Death of Public Diplomacy Officers in Afghanistan (2-4)

U.S. Embassy Cairo Twitter Controversy (4-6)                           

Blogging U.S. Ambassador to South Korea (6)          

U.S./North Korea (6)                                                                 

U.S./China  (6-7)                                                                        

U.S./Arab World  (7-8)                                                                    
U.S./Iran (8)                                                                                 

Drones (8)                                                                                 

U.S./Cuba (8-9)                                                                              

High-skilled Worker Visas (9)                                                    

U.S./Russia (9-10)                                                                            

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public

Affairs Tara Sonenshine in Moscow, Kyiv: Fulbright,

Program, Visa Issues, Female Entrepreneurship (10-11)                 

Public Diplomacy Budget (11)                                                      

U.S. Digital Outreach Team (11-12)                                             

U.S. International Broadcasting (12-13)                                            

Presidents and the Foreign Service (13-14)                   

Wikileaker Bradley Manning (14)                                              

China/India (14-15)                                                                         

China (15-17)                                                                                 

North Korea (17-18)                                                                       

Catalonia (18)                                                                              

U.S. Universities’ Overseas Campuses (18)                               

Academic Study of Public Diplomacy: Trends (18-19)                     

#nowthatcherisdead (19)                                                             

Death of Public Diplomacy Officers in Afghanistan

Afghanistan like Benghazi: New reports of U.S. deaths clash with official story - Patricia Campion, examiner.com: On Sunday, April 7, The Associated Press reported that Taliban militants in Afghanistan killed six Americans on Saturday -- including a 25-year-old female diplomat from the Chicago area named Anne Smedinghoff – after being hit by a suicide car bomb explosion while traveling in a convoy of vehicles to donate books to a new school in Qalat. But a local ABC affiliate in Chicago reported Thursday that Smedinghoff 'was on foot when she was killed.' This account clashes with the official story issued at the time of the attack. ... McClatchy's report on Wednesday -- cited by the local ABC affiliate in Chicago on Thursday – said interviews of witnesses and U.S. officials revealed that Smedinghoff and her group 'were on foot and not in an armored vehicle when they were killed last weekend.' ... McClatchy also identified the critically wounded State Department officer as 33-year-old Kelly Hunt, a former Tennessee’s Knoxville News Sentinel staff member who was serving as a public diplomacy officer in Kandahar. An aunt told McClatchy that Hunt had been taken to the U.S. military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany for surgery during which doctors induced a medical coma and removed part of her skull to help fight swelling in her brain. ... While six days have passed – and new reports conflict with the official version issued by U.S. and Afghan officials -- the president has yet to issue a statement about the American deaths or to even acknowledge that the attack took place." See also. 

A Traveler In The Foreign Service: Tribute To Slain Diplomat Anne Smedinghoff - Dave Seminara, gadling.com: "The Foreign Service lost one of its own on Saturday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives that killed 25-year-old Foreign Service Officer Anne Smedinghoff and four other Americans, three soldiers and one civilian Department of Defense employee in Afghanistan. ... A devastating loss like this one reverberates throughout the Foreign Service community. I never met Anne but a former colleague who served with her at the embassy in Kabul and also taught a course she took in Washington said she was "heartbreakingly young, and a nice, lovely person. 'Just last week they took part in a quiz night at the embassy with questions revolving around events that happened on or near Anne's birthday. I lived in River Forest, the beautiful town just west of Chicago where Anne grew up for three years, and after reading about her life and career, I feel certain that we lost someone who epitomized all that is good about the Foreign Service. She joined the Service right out of college and volunteered to serve in Kabul after a tour in Venezuela. According to press reports, she wasn't the type of person who wanted to remain in the safety of the compound. She looked forward to opportunities like the one that presented itself on Saturday and hoped to make a real impact during her year in the country, which was nearly over. Reporters praised her as someone who was responsive and easy to work with. ... Most Americans have at least some awareness of the tremendous sacrifices that our soldiers and their families make for their country but comparatively few are familiar with the Foreign Service and the sacrifices that FSOs and their families make. People might imagine that diplomats spend the bulk of their careers mingling at cocktail parties in Tokyo or Paris but that isn't the reality of today's Foreign Service. Most officers spend the bulk of their careers in places most Americans wouldn't dream of visiting, even on a brief trip, and these days, many are also being sent unarmed into war zones, where they are separated from friends and family members for a year." 

It's Always the Best Ones - allaboardthecrazybus.blogspot.com: "Rest In Peace Anne Smedinghoff - "A young woman joins the Foreign Service in her mid-20's. Having just entered the service myself last year, let me tell you, that is YOUNG. Most FSO's have an advanced degree (or more), time in the Peace Corps, etc. For someone to pass through the filters and join the Foreign Service, she must have shown the examiners something special. After A-100, her first tour is in Venezuela. Interesting times to be in that country, to be sure. After her first tour, she volunteers (you HAVE to volunteer) for a tour in Afghanistan as a public diplomacy (PD) officer. Tours in the A-I-P (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan) are not like regular tours. Security concerns are high, and restrictions on travel are tight. For a PD officer, whose job is to make contacts with the host country media and people and help explain America, it is a particularly challenging environment. You want to be safe, so you can't travel around and meet with people a lot. If you are going to present America in the best light and be a good PD officer, you have to travel around and meet with people a lot. Many people have a really hard time with this, and for a young officer on her second tour, it could be even harder. How well did she meet the challenge? Well enough that when newly-appointed Secretary of State John Kerry came to Afghanistan, she was the Control Officer. What does that mean? It meant she was entrusted with figuring out all the details and needs of a visit at that level and working with all the different sections and divisions that have responsibilities and making sure everything is covered. This is a big deal, and she did it well.  So yesterday she and some other State and Defense Department personnel are going to deliver books to some schoolchildren. This is a quintessential PD activity. We buy books and deliver them to needy schoolchildren, and take pictures of the event. And on the way to do her job, her convoy is attacked by the Taliban and she is killed along with a Defense contractor and many others are wounded. Just like that, she is gone. It gets me thinking about Ambassador Stevens and the others killed last year. You know, the ones that volunteer and go outside the walls because they know they have to. And we send them because we know they have to go. And then they get killed and I think that the people they were trying to serve didn't deserve them. Why should we lose the best and brightest like this? But then I remember my A-100 class, and how many people rated the dangerous places on our bid list the highest. I hear from them, and how they were able to report directly about when the fighting stopped because they no longer heard the shooting outside their window, etc. And I worry because even though they don't have ships or planes or guns, they are going to leave the embassy and go out and do their jobs. Not because it is safe, but because it has to be done. I can guarantee you someone soon will post to Afghanistan and fill Anne Smedinghoff's job, even if they can't fill her shoes. It is not safe. It needs to be done. We will do it, because that is what we do. We are Foreign Service Officers.

Zabul Attack: Were They Walking in a Red Zone? - Domani Spero, DiploPundit: "In the early morning this past Sunday, a day after Anne Smedinghoff [committed to public diplomacy – JB] and four others were killed in Zabul, Afghanistan, I received an untraceable anonymous note that she was walking, and was not in a vehicle when she was killed. The four-sentence tip alleged that she was with Ambassador Jonathan Addleton, the American Senior Civilian Representative (RC-South) in Kandahar and asked a rhetorical question, 'Will anyone be held accountable?  doubtful.' Ambassador Addelton was formerly the U.S. ambassador to Mongolia.  The Senior Civilian Representative, in the embassy’s view is ‘the co-equal of the military commander of that region rather than a member of his staff' (for more of that, see this). So, what do you do with something like that? Do you ignore it or chase it down the rabbit hole? Does it really matter whether they were walking in a red zone or were inside a vehicle?  They’re still dead. But it’s been bugging me quite a bit."

U.S. Embassy Cairo Twitter Controversy

U.S. embassy learns a hard lesson about Twitter - Cynthia Schneider, CNN: "Old and new diplomacy clashed in the flare-up between Egypt and the United States over the arrest and interrogation of Bassem Youssef -- considered the 'Jon Stewart of Egypt' -- who skewers politicians of all stripes on his popular TV show, El Bernameg. In the world of traditional diplomacy, governments had more control over what was said about them and by whom. As the Egyptian and U.S. governments discovered the hard way, that control is long gone in the world of 21st century diplomacy with its 24/7 social media and powerful nongovernmental voices. When Youssef, accused of insulting President Mohamed Morsy and Islam, was summoned for questioning by the Morsy-appointed prosecutor general, this latest repressive action by the Muslim Brotherhood government sparked an international outcry. The response from the United States came in two forms. First, the State Department expressed "concern" about Youssef's detention, citing it as "evidence of a disturbing trend of growing restrictions on the freedom of expression" in Egypt. Then, Jon Stewart mounted an eloquent -- and humorous -- defense of Bassem Youssef and freedom of expression through that well-known diplomatic channel, 'The Daily Show.' Failing to see the humor in the situation, the Egyptian government and the Muslim Brotherhood struck back. The presidential office tweeted a stern reprimand to the U.S. Embassy: 'It's inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda.' Faced with the choice of appeasing the Egyptian government or defending freedom of speech and dissent -- as practiced by Bassem Youssef and Jon Stewart -- the U.S. Embassy in Cairo chose the former, and shut down its Twitter feed. This decision, reportedly made by Ambassador Anne Patterson, not only violated what the United States allegedly stands for -- the rights of citizens to criticize and hold their governments accountable -- but also displayed a stunning ignorance of how Twitter and, well, the Internet work. Once something is out on Twitter, it's out. Shutting it down will not expunge it, and will only blow up into a negative story. ... The United States cannot present itself as the defender of free speech when it suppresses free speech. In removing the tweets about Bassem Youssef and Jon Stewart, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo undercut its own soft power. Who in Egypt will listen the next time an embassy official talks about the importance of free speech or free media?"

Digital Diplomacy’s Reach and Risk [includes video segment about Youssef’s arrest by Jon Stewart] - P.J. Crowley, takefiveblog.org: "The recent Twitter row between the United States and Egypt triggered a number of issues – freedom of expression; the role of media in modern societies; the balance between diplomacy and public diplomacy; between interests and values, both ours and theirs; and the ability to communicate not just governments but populations using traditional channels and social media. It represents a great teachable moment, for students (and professors) of public diplomacy and practitioners as well. ... In the past, such conversations would occur in quiet settings involving mostly government officials and policy elites. Now exchanges are out in the open, with newly empowered citizens offering their views and hoping for a genuine dialogue. If this is the future of public diplomacy, Embassy Cairo is a trendsetter. Its recent experience demonstrates both the potential and the risk regarding how it is employed. Social media have greatly expanded public diplomacy’s reach, where actions and reactions can quickly take on broader political and social significance. Embassy Cairo knows this better than anyone. ... That said, it was probably inappropriate for the Embassy to link to the segment on its Twitter feed.  Stewart calls Morsi a 'crazy guy.' It’s inevitable that many would view it as official agreement. While edgy works, this went too far, an 'in your face' action at a sensitive time when the new Egyptian government was likely to overreact to any perceived slight. But once the tweet was out there, connecting to publicly available content, the Embassy compounded its first mistake by removing the link. The Ambassador’s private apology with a pledge to avoid a repeat in the future was all that was needed. ... The retreat also sends the wrong message to the State Department’s global communicators. Ambassadors and public diplomats should be fully engaged in the vigorous debate about the critical issues of the day, not on the sidelines where it’s safe. They should be pushing the envelope, even if it means going over the line once in a while. While integrating transformational technology into U.S. public diplomacy programs, mistakes inevitably will be made. How organizations react says a lot about what lessons will be learned

Diplomacy on Twitter: Tweet the American Embassy in Cairo and Washington displeases [Google translation from the German] – Andrea Jonjic: “Tweet [:] This is not an easy task for diplomats. On the one hand they are to act as the official voice and disseminate information. But with social media, the direct link to citizens of the world comes, and use services such as Twitter purely as a presentation platform, runs counter to the idea of social media. The Tweet therefore runs along a thin line – will cross this, spread the ‘breakdown’ rapidly and leads, as in the Tweet to Daily Show, to serious consequences. But that diplomats will have to arrange, because the digital diplomacy is loud Arturo Sarukhan [says], a Mexican diplomat, and more important, and a complementary part of traditional diplomacy. There may actually even be a war for social events.”

Blogging U.S. Ambassador to South Korea

Our Man in Seoul: Ever So Inconvenienced by North Korea - Peter Van Buren: "Add another to the State Department’s social media fail pile: America’s ambassador in Seoul blogs about how his vacation was disrupted by those naughty nats in North Korea. U.S. ambassador to Korea Sung Kim has wowed us via social media before, with his just-behind-the-meme video of his embassy interns dancing Gangnam Style. His latest stumble into social media details on his official Embassy blog his spring break trip with his daughters, all of which was just bothered by the constant threat of World War III.

U.S./North Korea

How we lost North Korea - Ben Barber, edmondsun.com: "Foreign investors in South Korea apparently also are worried about Northern threats by Kim the younger — they have trimmed workforce plans until they see how far things will go. I propose that we consider all these twists and turns and learn from them how to proceed. Here are some ideas [among them]: • Bring together Albright, former Arizona governor Bill Richardson, Bob Gallucci and even Denis Rodman — any prominent American who has dealt with the North and may have friendships there. Create a non-official, Track II public diplomacy council to discuss with the North how to defuse tension in the region and improve living standards in the North."

Stay Cool. Call North Korea’s Bluff - Andrei Lankov, New York Times: North Korea is a tiny dictatorship with a bankrupt economy, but its leaders are remarkably adept at manipulating global public opinion. In recent weeks, we have been exposed to yet another brilliant example of their skill. Scores of foreign journalists have been dispatched to Seoul to report on the growing tensions between the two Koreas and the possibility of war. Upon arrival, though, it is difficult for them to find any South Koreans who are panic-stricken. In other words, it is business as usual on the Korean Peninsula. Perhaps, when the atmosphere cools down, an argument can be made for giving North Korea’s leaders some of the assistance they want, if they are willing to make concessions of their own. But it does not make sense to credulously take their fake belligerence at face value and give them the attention they want now. It would be better if people in Washington and New York took a lesson from the people of Seoul.

U.S./China

Powers on the Mend - Ian Bremmer, David Gordon - New York Times: Yes, China is rising; but, surprise, so is America — and given the deep economic interdependence that both governments acknowledge, that’s a recipe for a more constructive longer-term relationship. U.S.-China is no zero-sum game. There is no new Berlin Wall separating the two countries’ fortunes — and both sides know it. Given the volumes of trade and investment between them, Washington and Beijing will rise or fall together, and neither side has much to gain from the other’s weakness and insecurity.

GW opens doors to China with Confucius Institute - Joshua Eferighe, Washington Times: "China’s growing diplomatic soft power was on display just a few city blocks from the White House, as George Washington University opened the District’s first Confucius Institute promoting the rising Asian giant’s language and culture Wednesday. The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the renovated building that will be the home of the institute on the university campus' border=0 class="itxtrst itxtrstimg itxthookicon" u1:shapes="itxthook1icon" v:shapes="_x0000_i1027">  also drew a number of local officials. GW is now one of some 90 universities in the United States that have a Confucius Institute, an exercise in public diplomacy by Beijing designed to create a cultural footprint overseas to complement the country’s rising economic might. Just this week, China also opened a new institute at New York’s Columbia University, and Colorado State University and the University of Tennessee plan ribbon-cuttings later this week. While GW may be the first in the District to have one, other Confucius Institutes are located in the region, including programs at George Mason University and the University of Maryland. But Chinese officials said opening an institute inside the nation’s capital represented a milestone. 'We have almost 470 Confucius Institutes [worldwide], but the one here at George Washington is very key and important because of the potential,' said Xu Lin, director-general at the Office of Chinese Language Council International.GW President Steven Knapp said he’s had a long-standing partnership with some of the members of the Confucius Institute, so that formally establishing an institute was 'bound to happen.' The institute will be offering non-credit Chinese language and culture courses to students. ... One sign of China’s growing clout in U.S. academic circles is the sheer number of Chinese students now studying in American schools. University officials say that more than 1,200 Chinese undergraduate and graduate students attend the school some 40 percent of the total foreign student population. The Chinese student contingent has increased more than fourfold since Mr. Knapp came to the school just six years ago."

U.S./Arab World

America's Challenge in the Arab World - Ziad J. Asali, Huffington Post: "In a masterful display of public diplomacy, Mr. Obama strove to open the public space on Israeli-Palestinian peace. He suggested ordinary people must take the initiative to overcome their suspicions and connect with others, both within their own societies and by reaching beyond them. This imperative is not restricted to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is a broader need for a robust American outreach to the Arab world. The Arab public sphere is dominated by narratives that emphasize deep animosity toward the United States. Such suspicions often are rooted in real differences over policy. But they are also driven by self-serving machinations. The United States should help reclaim the Arab public sphere from the domination of this hostility. We should pursue a new conversation with the Arab world, and support a wide-ranging debate within it. As we develop policies that take into account the new regional political landscape, we must learn better how to communicate with, and listen to, the Arab peoples. ... American public diplomacy efforts over the past decade have been creditable and professional. But now is the time to take this effort closer to the top of the policy agenda. If we do not define our political values and attitudes for the Arab peoples, we can be assured that others will continue to do just that. In that case, our country and our friends in the region risk losing the great contest of ideas that is unfolding in the Middle East. Neither our interests nor our values, nor those of the Arab peoples, can afford that. Ziad J. Asali is President of the American Task Force on Palestine."

U.S./Iran

Bipartisan Report Recommends Some Iran Sanctions Relief - Barbara Slavin, Al-Monitor: "Current US actions risk alienating Iranians, who, according to former CIA director Mike Hayden, are the most pro-American Muslim population 'between Marrakesh and Bangladesh.'  Hayden is a member of the Iran Task Force of the Atlantic Council, which today is issuing a new report that urges the Barack Obama administration to alleviate the impact of sanctions on ordinary Iranians and to shore up people-to-people ties. It recommends that the US Treasury Department 'designate a small number of US and private Iranian financial institutions as channels for payment for humanitarian, educational and public diplomacy-related transactions carefully licensed by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.'

New Report Analyzing Iran’s Nuclear Program Costs and Risks - Katie Colten, blogs.fas.org: "The report analyzes the policy implications of Iran’s nuclear program for the United States and its allies, concluding that economic sanctions nor military force cannot end this prideful program; it is imperative that a diplomatic solution is reached to ensure that Iran’s nuclear program remains peaceful.  Finally, efforts need to be made to the Iranians from Washington which clearly state that America and its allies prefer a prosperous and peaceful Iran versus an isolated and weakened Iran. Public diplomacy and nuclear diplomacy must go hand in hand." 

Drones

The Trouble With Drones - Editorial Board, nytimes.com: The Obama administration has floated a plan to shift drone operations from the Central Intelligence Agency to the military. This is supposed to make targeted killings of suspected terrorists more transparent and accountable, but so far it looks as if it would be a marginal improvement. Most drone strikes have been carried out by the C.I.A. in Pakistan — 365 versus 45 in Yemen and a handful in Somalia — and officials say those will continue. Hence, the proposed change would mean scant improvement in the rules that govern drone strikes. Mr. Obama has promised to break down the wall of secrecy and work with Congress to create a lasting legal framework for drone strikes. It is essential that the administration not drag its feet so it can maintain maximum authority with minimum oversight. Among the proposals it should consider is some form of judicial review, like the special court that approves wiretaps for intelligence gathering, before it kills American citizens.

U.S./Cuba

Beyonce, Jay-Z trip stirs debate on 'people-to-people' visa - Alan Gomez, USA Today: "George W. Bush severely restricted travel to Cuba during his presidency, but President Obama re-opened the doors. Now, professors and students can go frequently on educational visas. Visas are also available for people going on religious trips and to visit relatives on the island. But the visa category that has drawn the most criticism is the "people-to-people" visa that was shut down by Bush and reopened by Obama. At the time the administration explained that it was designed to increase personal relationships with people in Cuba to give Cubans a better understanding of the outside world and help them fight for independence from an oppressive Cuban regime. But Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Cuban-American Republican from Miami, said this week that the program 'skirts the law' by providing propaganda and hard currency for the Communist regime, while giving Americans a nearly clear avenue for tourism. ... The number of U.S. visitors to Cuba has shot up in the last two years, topping 500,000 in 2011, the Cuban Tourism Ministry says. Most were Cuban Americans visiting relatives, but about 90,000 were other Americans mostly traveling on licensed visits, Cuban officials say. Jesse Horst, a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh, took his third trip to Cuba in January to continue working on his thesis about the history of slums in Cuba and other Latin American countries. He went on an educational visa, not the 'people to people' visa. 'They want to know about the U.S., about popular culture,' said Horst, 28. 'They're also concerned about the types of difficulties there are living in the U.S.' Another visa category is the cultural exchange trips, available to artists and athletes. The Westfield State University baseball team, a small, Division III squad from Massachusetts, went in March to play against Cuban teams. They faced off against the Havana Industriales - the Cuban equivalent of the New York Yankees - and lost both games." 

High-skilled Worker Visas

America needs more high-skilled worker visas: Column - Nirupama Rao, USA Today: As U.S. policymakers move forward with the much needed efforts to reform the immigration system, we respectfully urge that they consider the impact of their decisions on the ability of both U.S. and foreign-based companies to expand now and in the future. The inspirational history of economic synergy between our two nations should serve as our guide to the future. A generous visa policy for highly skilled workers would help everyone; both nations would come out winners. Nirupama Rao is the Indian ambassador to the U.S.

U.S./Russia

Russia bans 18 Americans after similar US move - Jim Heintz, AP, wsmv.com: Russia on Saturday named 18 Americans banned from entering the country in response to Washington imposing sanctions on 18 Russians for alleged human rights violations. The list released by the Foreign Ministry includes John Yoo, a former U.S. Justice Department official who wrote legal memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques; David Addington, the chief of staff for former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney; and two former commanders of the Guantanamo Bay detention center: retired Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller and Adm. Jeffrey Harbeson. The move came a day after the United States announced its sanctions under the Magnitsky Law, named for Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested in 2008 for tax evasion after accusing Russian police officials of stealing $230 million in tax rebates. He died in prison the next year, allegedly after being beaten and denied medical treatment. Neither Washington nor Moscow put high-ranking or politically prominent figures on their lists, perhaps aiming to limit the effect on U.S.-Russian relations that have deteriorated, despite President Barack Obama's initiative to "reset" relations with Moscow.

Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs

Tara Sonenshine in Moscow, Kyiv: Fulbright Program, Visa Issues, Female Entrepreneurship

Fulbright Program 40th Anniversary Commemoration - Remarks, Tara Sonenshine, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Hotel Marriott Moscow, Moscow, Russia, April 10, 2013 - U.S Department of State: "I am delighted to join you at this special time – the 40th anniversary of the Fulbright program in Russia. The program is very important to all of us – Russians and Americans. As I’ll explain in a few moments, it’s also important to the work of public diplomacy. So what better way to pay tribute to 40 years of Fulbright than to acknowledge the contributions of the people who have made it – and continue to make it – so vibrant and effective? I am talking about all of you - Russians and Americans, scholars and students, men and women. You are the keys to fulfilling Senator William J. Fulbright’s founding vision: to bring a little more knowledge, a little more reason, and a little more compassion into world affairs. ... I’d like to take just a few moments to explain public diplomacy and how the Fulbright program and community colleges, for that matter, play such a key role. Public diplomacy is about sharing our American story and listening to the stories of people around the world. I don’t mean that in a literal way. Not so much by the words we say but in the actions we take. By that, I mean the programs and exchanges we sponsor, and the online and offline outreach we do, so that citizens around the world can together build better futures. By helping us all achieve our God-given potential, and by doing things like sending American students abroad or bringing international students to the United States to study or share information about their culture, we hope we develop a deeper understanding of one another’s values and principles. We call these activities public diplomacy – because it’s about people understanding and connecting with people." Re Fulbright, from Los Angeles Times (2005): "Fulbright's career contained a deep moral schism. His foreign policy idealism made him a hero to American liberals in the 1960s and 1970s. But his stubborn support for segregation in his native South and his participation in Southern filibusters against civil rights legislation left many of those followers deeply discomfited. Fulbright and his supporters argued that his position on segregation served a higher good."

'Quality Issues' Led to Work-and-Travel Visa Crunch - Jonathan Earle, Moscow Times: "Concerns about participants' safety, health and well-being are behind record visa refusal rates for Russian university students applying to work and travel in the United States this summer, a senior State Department official told an audience at the American Center in Moscow on Wednesday.  Tara Sonenshine, the State Department's head of public diplomacy and public affairs, said the program's rapid growth — participation peaked in 2008 at 153,000 students, including about 27,500 Russians, more than any other nationality — led to quality issues that are still being addressed. ... Media reports of participants, disproportionately Eastern European, working and living in substandard conditions and overstaying their visas, as well as mafia-linked human trafficking, led to tighter oversight rules beginning in 2011 and a cap on the program's size. Last year, Russia fell to fourth place among source countries, sending about 6,000 students, as visa refusal rates climbed to an estimated 35-40 percent of applicants. Refusal rates at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow have reached a record 80-90 percent this year, leaving hundreds of students feeling cheated, according to applicants and the local agencies that assist them. ... The program, created as a public diplomacy tool in the 1960s, allows foreign university students to work and travel for up to four months in the United States, where most work low-skilled jobs at resorts, theme parks and restaurants, and experience American culture."

U.S. Undersecretary Sonenshine speaks at a forum on female entrepreneurship in Kyiv - nrcu.gov.ua: "U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine, currently on a three-day visit to Ukraine, spoke at a forum in Kyiv on Friday titled 'Female Entrepreneurs: the Driving Force of Ukrainian Economy'. She called on Ukrainian women to take a more active part in the economic and political life of their country and stressed the importance of changing the general view of gender issues. In her opinion, the potential of women in the world is undervalued and only a fifth part of the governmental, business, and public activities belongs to women. According to her, she doesn't propose to take some powers from one gender and give them to the other, but only to share them on a fair basis. Besides, she said, the global economy can not develop without women's comprehensive involvement. 'Women should be aware of their rights, responsibility, and equal opportunities,' Sonenshine said. During her visit to Ukraine Sonenshine is also scheduled to meet with Ukrainian government officials."

Public Diplomacy Budget

Exchanges receive 6.6% cut in President’s FY14 budget request - Mark Overmann, alliance-exchange.org: "Released this morning after a 10-week delay, the President’s FY14 budget request cuts State Department international exchange programs by nearly $40 million.  The FY14 requested level for exchanges, $562.7 million, is a 6.6 per cent decrease from current FY13 funding of $602.5 million, and an 11 per cent decrease from the previous high water mark of $635 million in FY10." 

Highlights of the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development Budget - April D. Ryan, aprildryan.com: "Public Diplomacy and Education and Cultural Exchanges ($1.1 billion). Continues to counter violent extremism, expand and strengthen people-to-people relationships, inform policy making, and deploy resources in strategic alignment with foreign policy priorities; fosters support for academic programs, professional and cultural exchanges, and continued growth for strategic partnerships around the world."

U.S. Digital Outreach Team

U.S. government using Twitter, Facebook to counter propaganda - politico.com: "A group of U.S. government workers called the Digital Outreach Team is countering extremist propaganda on sites like Twitter and Facebook. The team posts tweets, updates on Facebook and video to YouTube in Arabic, Punjabi, Somali and Urdu. The 50-member team is comprised of Americans and foreign nationals who are native speakers of the four languages. The unit had more than 7,000 what they term 'engagements' — postings, updates or uploads.  The top official on the team, Alberto Fernandez, says the goal of the team is to contest space that had previously been ceded to extremists. Fernandez says that in years past groups like al-Qaida could monopolize online discussions, but that the U.S. Digital Outreach Team is now in the online space to rebut false claims." 

U.S. International Broadcasting

Sequestration Prompts Attempt to Silence U.S. Radio Broadcasting - Helle Dale, blog.heritage.org: "The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) recently informed its workforce about sequestration cuts to Voice of America’s (VOA) shortwave and medium-wave broadcasting. Ironically, the Board is cutting the most cost-effective part of its organization: radio. It would be more rational to cut the bloated management and administration of the International Broadcasting Bureau, which accounts for over 36 percent of the 2013 BBG budget request. Television broadcasting would also be a good place to look for savings, being far more expensive to produce and highly variable in terms of ratings. Last year, however, the BBG declared in its 'Strategic Plan' that radio is a 'legacy medium,' a hold over from the past compared to television and the Internet. Now a golden opportunity has presented itself for the BBG staff. Thus, under the guise of complying with sequestration, the board has moved ahead with plans to cut radio, plans that have been fought by Members of Congress and heavily criticized by supporters of U.S. public diplomacy for several years. One vocal critic was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, no less. During her Benghazi testimony in January, Clinton had harsh words for the BBG. Clinton bemoaned the fact that the U.S. government has 'abandoned broadcasting to the Middle East,' and stated that the BBG, which is responsible, is 'a defunct agency.' While this is hardly true in terms of budget, it is in terms of leadership. Under sequestration, the BBG must cut $37.2 million out of its total budget of $720 million. The announced cuts in shortwave and medium-wave broadcasting are a drop in the bucket, a mere $5.3 million. While efficiencies should certainly be part of the budget picture, decimating the agency’s core mission—broadcasting—should not. Moreover, management has made it clear that these cuts are permanent and not reversible. In a letter (obtained by the Heritage Foundation) dated March 26 and addressed to 'all employees,' Richard Lobo, director of the International Broadcasting Board under the BBG explained that 'we’ve done everything we can to avoid furloughs under sequestration, but to do so, costs other than salaries have to be reduced.' So, employees will be protected, but their work products will not. A few days later, employees were handed a document summarizing the cuts in broadcasting. It means deep cuts in broadcasting in Cantonese to China, Dari and Pashto to Afghanistan, English to Africa and Asia, Khmer to Cambodia, and English-learning programs around the world. It further means elimination of medium-wave and shortwave broadcasting in Albanian, Georgian, Persian, and Spanish, as well as in English to Afghanistan and in English to the Middle East. The document notes that national FM and television affiliates will continue to carry VOA broadcasting. The catch is that local affiliates are subject to the whims of the host countries, with all the vulnerabilities and complications that entails. Again, the BBG has demonstrated why it is a broken institution, unfit to handle the U.S. government’s most important public diplomacy tool: its broadcasting complex. Congress needs to act, soon, to give U.S. international broadcasting a leadership with the proper priorities."

Op-Ed: America could learn from rappers' tribute to Radio Free Europe - Ted Lipien, digitaljournal.com: "Led by Peja of the Polish rap group Slums Attack, Europe's rappers recorded a multilingual tribute to political and cultural freedom message of the American-funded station Radio Free Europe. Using historical film footage of Radio Free Europe broadcasters, rappers from several European countries make statements similar to dissident voices heard on the station before the fall of the Iron Curtain. During the Cold War, Radio Free Europe broadcast both news commentary and music, which communists in Poland and other Soviet-dominated nations tried unsuccessfully to silence through jamming of radio signals. But in today's unusable and not much freer world, the station's important message of freedom to nations which continue to suffer under authoritarian regimes is becoming unfortunately much weaker due to decreased U.S. funding and growing indifference in America to showing solidarity with dissidents who fight for their rights in countries like China, Iran and Russia. The song recorded by Slums Attack and other European rappers serves above all as a reminder that the struggle against political oppression and against banality of popular culture which ignores this struggle, is both timeless and universal. ...Hopefully, thanks to the hard work of dedicated BBG members like Ambassador Victor Ashe, Susan McCue and Michael Meehan, U.S. international broadcasting may once again serve its freedom and public diplomacy role. That's U.S. public diplomacy with a conscience and a human rights focus, as opposed to public diplomacy, e.g., good management and journalistic independence are essential for the success of America's long-term soft power."

Presidents and the Foreign Service 

Presidents are breaking the U.S. Foreign Service - Susan R. Johnson, Ronald E. Neumann and Thomas R. Pickering, Washington Post: What is wrong at State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, our embassies and other agencies that together are the vehicles for American diplomacy? What accounts for the Foreign Service being marginalized? The most visible factor is the overwhelming — and growing — presence of political appointees in mid-level and top leadership positions at the State Department. For all their merit, political appointees are short-term officials, subject to partisan, ­personality-specific pressures. They do not notably contribute to the institution’s longer-term vitality, and their ascension creates a system inherently incapable of providing expert, nonpartisan foreign policy advice. Needed are a fresh approach and a strategic vision to build a strong, professional diplomatic service and State Department as the central institution for U.S. diplomacy. The basic requirements include a rigorous, exam-based entry; worldwide availability and mobility; programs to strengthen capacity through professional education and training, integrated with competitive, merit-based advancement; and efforts to foster the knowledge, cross-functional thinking and broad perspectives a premier diplomatic service brings, especially at the senior levels.

Wikileaker Bradley Manning

PJ Crowley on Manning and "exploitation by global competitors" - Yelena Osipova, Global Chaos: “Last night I was listening to PRI's The World on my way back home and 'stumbled upon' this piece. Interesting and quite amusing, but not at all surprising. ... (The interview was preceded by Crowley's piece in The Guardian earlier this month on the same subject.) So, P.J. Crowley opened the conversation with warning that Bradley Manning and his popularity abroad might be used by America's 'competitors' against US interests and ‘erode its leadership’. Read: damage US public diplomacy. My first thought was : RT! [Russia Today television]  And surely enough, he soon mentioned Russia, RT and a recent interview he gave there. ... Of course, anyone who has ever watched a little bit of RT in the past two-three years, since the Wikileaks saga began, knows that the network has been pushing the story pretty hard, not just making Manning into a ‘martyr’, but also trying very hard to 'expose American hypocrisy'. This story fits in perfectly with RT's overall narrative intent to demonstrate America's lack of ‘morality’, and promoting strongly left-leaning perspectives (which, in turn, can be said to be an extension of USSR's attempts to capitalize on issues such as the Civil Rights Movement). Regardless of where you stand on the Manning and Wikileaks issue, Crowley is making a good point (although, I'll be honest, I wouldn't really agree with the antagonistic, anti-Russian way he formulates is... but then, if that's how he has to play to get the point across to the powers that be, then so be it).Transparency, openness, and justice make up a big part of the US public diplomacy message, and in fact, a lot of the related international programs fully or partially financed by the State Department (and USAID) - including those in Russia - focus on these very points. But then, when it comes to issues like Wikileaks and Manning, the US has been unable to provide a coherent and strong justification that would make sense overall. I'm not suggesting Manning's actions were right, but the general response to his case and that of Assange, seem[s] to be more like official hysteria than a well-supported and articulated argument. In many ways it comes down to public diplomacy of deed, or at least, the perceived lack thereof. What RT does is just exploit this point, just as the Soviets did back in the '50s and '60s. This very important aspect seems to be often ignored, even by those who are not necessarily involved in the public diplomacy practice, per se. Apparently, it takes P.J. Crowley to bring this issue to the fore. Yet, didn't really help much two years ago, when he resigned over it. Let's see if it does this time.”

China/India

Soft Power: China and India - post.jagran.com: "Whether cultural diplomacy, economic engagement, public diplomacy or humanitarian assistance, China’s soft power tools are visible in almost every part of the world. What is interesting about China’s foreign policy pronouncement is that without compromising on its hard power—clearly visible in the on-going South China Sea dispute with its Southeast Asian neighbours— the Chinese state makes efforts to engage countries far and near. Cultural diplomacy reach in the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand (the first world countries), economic engagement of Africa, Pacific Island countries, South and Southeast Asia (essentially developing nations), public diplomacy efforts with almost every country in the world including high-level visits and humanitarian assistance to several neighbours including Japan, indicate China’s eagerness to project a ‘benign’ image to the international community that is often concerned with its spectacular ‘reemergence’. India’s soft power is also rooted in its history similar to China. The ancient Nalanda University which attracted students from all over the world including China is one of the oldest examples of India’s soft power. Subsequently, India’s unique recourse to ahimsa (non-violence) and the prolonged struggle for winning independence under Mahatma Gandhi continue to impress the world. Later independent India’s idealistic foreign policy shaped by its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on the foundations of non-alignment, multilateralism and peaceful co-existence underscored India’s aspirations to secure global stability in an era of sharp ideological and military polarization. In recent years, India has taken several initiatives for connecting with the international community, many of which have remained largely unnoticed and hardly discussed. While academic discourse debates India’s rise, New Delhi’s increased engagement, though characterised by ‘moderation’ and ‘restraint’, is becoming increasingly pragmatic by focusing on economic and strategic interests. India’s strategic horizon has expanded into the greater Asian neighbourhood showing New Delhi’s eagerness to play a bigger role globally and regionally. Such eagerness has inspired a soft engagement strategy, less pronounced than similar Chinese strategies in scale, but more nuanced in specific thrusts and greater involvement of non-state actors. However, many feel that India’s soft power remains weaker than China’s. The Indian state is perceived a ‘weaker’ state given its inability to reduce socio-economic differences and inequalities. Matters become worse with India’s recent inability to revive economic momentum, curb corruption and improve economic governance. In terms of perceptions, these negativities about India influence the world."

China

Can China Do Soft Power? Can the country's cultural impact someday match the size of the economy? The latest in an ongoing series of discussions with ChinaFile - theatlantic.com:  Jeremy Goldkorn: ... Until Chinese political leaders would rather their daughters went to Peking University over Harvard, until Chinese people would rather buy Mengniu infant milk formula over the equivalent brand from New Zealand, until Beijing and Shanghai become as pleasant to live in as New York and L.A., China will find its soft power ambitions thwarted. As the ancient American saying has it, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig --doesn't matter how much you spend on the lipstick.  Donald Clarke: The reason China is having such problems with soft power is that it's simply not something that can be ordered up on command by political leaders. ... Susan Jakes:  ... [C] ompanies headquartered in China were trusted by only 35 percent of informed publics (only 19 percent in developed countries) in comparison to countries headquartered in places like Canada and Germany, which garner trust ratings of 76 and 75 percent, respectively. Also revealing, Chinese companies' trust numbers have remained unchanged over the last five years. This despite the billions poured into new international news outfits, the piles of gold medals in Beijing and London, the kudzu-like spread of Confucius Institutes (a new one just opened at Columbia), sister cities, Zhang Yimou, Boao. ... . David Shambaugh: In a short time, China has managed significantly to increase its ‘cultural footprint’ overseas. But, the question remains: is all the investment producing dividends? Thus far, the answer must be ‘no.’ ...  Bill Bishop:  Can you really win hearts and minds of current and future generations when you are known as a country that blocks Facebook, Google, Youtube and Twitter? ... Jonathan Landreth: ... Ah, but there's the rub -- why do my daughter and her friends and I need Chinese social media at all when we've got a free press to tell us what's going on in the world?

Major step in image building - He Wenping, China Daily: "President Xi Jinping paid state visits to Russia, Tanzania, South Africa and the Republic of Congo between March 22 and 30 and he also attended the fifth BRICS summit held in Durban, South Africa. During the tour, Xi demonstrated the learned and refined presence of China's new leadership, and his plain but thought-provoking speeches have been very impressive. But this was not just Xi's first foreign trip as head of state and his debut on an important multilateral international stage, it was also the debut in the international diplomatic arena of first lady Peng Liyuan, who is one of China's best-known singers and who was quite popular among Chinese people even before her husband became president. Peng's graceful and glamorous international debut as first lady highlighted China's new soft power diplomacy. ... Over the past more than 30 years since China's reform and opening-up, China has integrated into the international community economically, but in terms of ideology, values and political aspirations there has always been discord. Xi's tour and the debut of Peng as first lady can be regarded as China successfully promoting its public diplomacy and soft power. ... In the face of the current international public opinion environment, which is not conducive to its development, China must vigorously strengthen its public diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen communication and mutual understanding between the Chinese people and the peoples of the world through multilevel and multichannel non-governmental exchanges and dialogue. Faced with the rapid development of globalization, regional integration and increasingly diversified international actors, relying solely on official government diplomacy is not enough. Public diplomacy has become an increasingly common diplomatic approach. If used properly, public diplomacy can effectively help promote official diplomacy and achieve results that official diplomacy cannot produce. ... The great and profound Chinese culture provides great potential for China to carry out public diplomacy. In the final analysis, we are not short of public diplomacy and soft power resources, but we have lacked the awareness and means to promote public diplomacy and soft power diplomacy. The first official tour by Xi and Peng has been a good start in changing this and it has opened a new chapter for China's diplomacy, enhancing the country's soft power and reshaping the country's international image." NOTE: So far as he can tell, as informed by local sources, your compiler's PDPR is "banned" in mainland China.

China opens new media centre to train officials - zeenews.india.com: "In an attempt to step up public diplomacy both home and abroad, China on Thursday opened its first national media training centre to help government officials and entrepreneurs attain high-level skills for communicating with the media and the public. The centre was co-founded by the Communication University of China (CUC) and the China Public Relations Association (CPRA). It is the first of its kind in China. ... China also expanded its official media which continue to enjoy monopoly, though it is stressed by the emerging microblog social media like Weibo, the Chinese twitter."

What kind of public diplomacy does China need? - People's Daily Online: "Zhao Qizheng, former chairman of the foreign affairs committee of China's top political advisory body, said we tended to speak too much 'philosophy' and principles when foreign exchanges. Actually, telling Chinese stories can touch people and Chinese features lie in the stories. Zhao make the remarks during the sub-session of the Boao Forum for Asia, Boao dialogue: public diplomacy and intercultural communication, in Boao, south China's Hainan province on Sunday. He said both government and the public should make efforts to boost public diplomacy and increase intercultural knowledge. Kuhn, the chairman of the Kuhn Foundation, was presented at the session. He said people paid attention to reports about China when China had troubles, not good news. This is 95 percent of the cases. But maybe it is also the best chance to tell your stories, but they must be true. Kuhn is also the anchor of PBS (Public broadcasting television network in the United States). Acknowledging the differences is the premise of communication between China and the rest of the world, said Yu Dan, professor of Beijing Normal University, during the sub-session. Sun Ping, a performing artist of Beijing Opera, believed public diplomacy had become an internal part of China's diplomatic work. President of Renmin University Chen Yulu presided over the sub-session of the Boao Forum for Asia. He said colleges and universities should play more important role in China's public diplomacy."

‘Django Unchained’ Pulled From China’s Theaters - Gerry Mullany, New York Times: The U.S. film ‘'Django Unchained'’ was abruptly pulled from theaters in China on its opening day Thursday, a surprising move that came after some scenes were reported to have been edited to conform to the wishes of Chinese censors. No reason was given for the decision to suspend the film’s opening. Workers at Beijing theaters said the film had been pulled because of unspecified technical problems with the movie. The film was to have made its debut Thursday after weeks of heavy promotion in China.  News reports have said that some of the film’s graphic violence was edited to make it acceptable to state censors, including altering the color of fake blood in violent scenes and limiting how far the blood splattered.

North Korea

N. Korea's campy propaganda has gone viral - Chico Harlan, philly.com: The reclusive, impoverished state that denies Internet access to all but a handful of its citizens has, improbably, become an online sensation. With North Korea's chubby dictator, campy propaganda videos and near-daily threats of attack against its neighbors and the United States, the secretive police state has never been more searched for, tweeted or discussed. Some semi-chagrined analysts say the North, for the first time, has gone viral.  Although Pyongyang tries every few years to drive up regional tensions and win political concessions, this latest saber-rattling has more forcefully captured global attention, in part because the mysterious and potentially dangerous North so perfectly feeds the appetites of the Internet and social media. 

Catalonia

Seven ideas that explain the current situation in Catalonia - noticiesccescocia.wordpress.com: "The Catalan government, through the WorldPublic Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) has created a document with some of the main ideas that explain the current situation in Catalonia. The Scotland’s Catalan Centre has been asked by the Catalan Government to disseminate them." 

U.S. Universities’ Overseas Campuses

Academic freedom sold cheap - Daniel Brook, Washington Post: Rather than investing in poor democracies such as India, U.S. universities are erecting their sparkling new campuses in rich dictatorships. Through a cynical strategy, Western universities are getting the good PR of sharing their resources with the “developing world” — assuming most Americans are ignorant of the fact that the United Arab Emirates is as rich as the United States on a per-capita basis, and Singapore is even richer. Universities would better serve their missions, if not their endowments, by opening up campuses in poorer, freer cities like Mumbai, Istanbul or Bangkok.

Academic Study of Public Diplomacy: Trends

Post ISA Thoughts  - Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: “I’ve been having a few days off recovering from last week’s trip to the International Studies Association convention in San Francisco.  Three observations. -- Public diplomacy research is developing.  More of the papers that I heard/read this year had more data, more attention to issues of comparison,  greater engagement with questions of diplomacy and diplomatic studies and with debates in International Relations more broadly. For instance the idea of practice and practices has been attracting greater attention in the IR theory community over the past few years and several of the PD papers that I heard/read are explicitly engaging with the development.  However, there’s still a lot more room for development, comparative studies are still underdeveloped and I was pleased to hear that Eytan Gilboa has a major comparative project in the works. -- Realism vs idealism:  To what extent is public diplomacy an instrument of foreign policy and to what extent does it offer a way of generating transformation in international relationships?  This is a theme that has been bubbling under the surface for a while but really became explicit in some of the panels this year – particularly in a couple of roundtables on deriving from the volume on relational public diplomacy edited by Rhonda Zaharna, Amelia Arsenault and Ali Fisher.  Kathy Fitzpatrick explicitly  proclaimed herself an idealist so I couldn’t resist coining the term ‘networked realism’ to label my own position. -- The identity of public diplomacy. There was some discussion about the implications of the rapidly developing fusion between diplomacy and public diplomacy for the identity of public diplomacy as practice and as a research area. Somebody made the point that secret diplomacy is a tiny subset of an increasingly public diplomacy. One idea that was floated was that the State Department should merge its Political and Public Diplomacy career cones. This might be read as the ‘end of public diplomacy’ but how many other foreign ministries have separate PD career tracks? I wouldn’t be surprised if the answer is none and there still seems to be plenty of PD going on."

#nowthatcherisdead

Cher Fans Confused By Thatcher Twitter Hashtag - wrvo.org: Yesterday, a Twitter hashtag threw fans of Cher into a panic. It read: #nowthatcherisdead, all one word, referring to the late British leader. But many read it as: now that Cher is dead. One fan of the singer tweeted: I know that the hashtag #nowthatcherisdead is trending, I can't confirm anywhere that Cher is dead. Leading other users to tweet advice such as why hashtags need spaces.