“After all, what is a lie? ‘Tis but the truth in masquerade.”
--Lord Byron, cited in John Hargrave, Words Win Wars (1940), p. 37. Above image from; online quotation at
PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
Overseas Private Investment Corporation - wtc-kc.com: "The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is the primary U.S. government agency focused on supporting private sector investment in the developing world.
OPIC helps U.S. businesses meet the challenges of investing overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment,and supports U.S. foreign policy. ... OPIC’s Partners Program is a public diplomacy initiative dedicated to expanding knowledge of OPIC and its mission. The goal of the program is to work with key organizations throughout the U.S. to create a greater understanding of OPIC’s programs and activities." Image from entry
The Spirit of Aloha - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "Finally a hot minute to blog. It feels like it has been ages. Been busy. Where to start? Let's see: First the ghost of Chavez cancels my Bolivarian adventure. The general in his labyrinth. Truly the specter of Chavez reigns down chaos on Venezuela, ending months of planning and excitement. Truly a shame, as the US Embassy in Caracas had done a tremendous amount of work putting together the tour for Hawaiian slack key guitar greats Keola Beamer and Jeff Peterson, and hula master Moanalani Beamer. Wonderful, meaningful collaborations with local indigenous musicians and really well-thought programming. It would have been great public diplomacy. And it may still be (Bolivarshalla). But no the now. ... And NPR called. Asked to speak to 'the Paul Rockower of Gastrodiplomacy.' Should have saved that voice mail, I am wishing now. Not bad when NPR comes calling about a field I made up. ... I depart today with the Ambassadors of Aloha to a Brazilian cultural diplomacy adventure. I have come to learn the meaning and spirit of aloha. So much more than hi. The spirit of Aloha is the spirit of love. The spirit of kindness and compassion combined with love. Peace be with you; peace be upon you."
Chairman Jared Speaks ... - John Brown, Notes and Essays: "Remember the New York Times article by Jesse Lichtenstein (2010), featuring ... social media ... gurus Jared Cohen and Alec Ross who had a considerable impact on how the USG carries out public/digital diplomacy? ... Quite recently Googled-employed Jared ... after his evidently eye-opening trip to North Korea, seems to have discovered 'The Dark Side of the Digital Revolution' (Wall Street Journal, April 20)."
Top IBB officials are preventing hiring of an interim executive officer for BBG, undermine national security - BBGWatcher, usgbroadcasts.com: "BBG Watch has learned from several reliable sources that top officials of the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB) are doing everything possible to delay efforts by members of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to hire their own interim executive officer.
The person’s job would be to make sure that important board’s directives regarding broadcasts to dangerous parts of the world are carried out by the IBB bureaucracy until a permanent CEO takes over this function. Despite risks to U.S. national security, IBB officials don’t want it to happen and are resisting it with every possible means, government sources told us." Image from entry, with caption: BBG Board, Apr. 2013. Image shows four vacancies.
VOA Persian and Radio Farda; Time to Pull the Plug? - voapnnwatchdog.com: "Whether it's the pro-mullah and anti-American stance of the editorial management at PNN and Radio Farda or the corruption and nepotism that have plagued them or the highly publicized internal turmoil that has turned the Iranian audience away from these stations, the fact is that the U.S. government is spending $36 million on over 250 federal employees and independent contractors that are doing more harm than good. Years of appeals by Iranian dissidents to the highest offices in the country and the well intended efforts of members of the U.S. Congress have been to no avail. PNN and Radio Farda have gone from bad to worse. Their viewership has dwindled at the same rate as their budget has grown. It is time to shut them down and let other reliable media like Manoto TV use this budget and follow the real mission of VOA Persian and Radio Farda."
Battle on a New Front: Chinese Media in Africa - Rujuta Gandhi, the-generation.net: "[T]he survival and effectiveness of Chinese media are still questionable. In terms of journalism itself, the government is reportedly exporting its domestic censorship laws, which will likely result in declined legitimacy. On the other hand, China is making strides on the front of public diplomacy and institution-building assistance. Since 2006, Xinhua has trained a growing number of African journalists. Additionally, CNC World and CCTV’s bureaus both employ African journalists (though the executives and editors are Chinese).
Meanwhile, the Chinese government provides media equipment as to support institutional development throughout Africa. If Chinese media advances, Sino-African relations will strengthen. And if western media cannot wage its own soft power to fight back, a continuing shift in global power will be progressively more inevitable as the U.S. may lose ground on the resources and benefits that Africa can offer." Image from article
Top advisor calls for increased cross-Strait cultural communication - "China's top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng called for increased cross-Strait communication in the cultural sector on Saturday. Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks while meeting with Buddhist master Hsing Yun, founder of Taiwan's influential Fo Guang Shan Monastery. Yu hailed Hsing Yun's contribution in promoting cross-Strait communication, especially those in the cultural sector. Chinese culture is a precious possession shared by compatriots across the Taiwan Strait, said Yu, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. Yu added that he hoped cross-Strait compatriots would join hands to expand cultural communication and dedicate themselves in promoting peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. Hsing Yun said compatriots across the Strait are all Chinese and belong to one family.
The great achievements that the Chinese mainland has made over the past years have attracted worldwide attention, which has offered the opportunity for compatriots across the Strait to expand cooperation, said Hsing Yun. He added that he is willing to make unremitting efforts to boost cross-Strait cultural communication." Image from article, with caption: Yu Zhengsheng (R), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, meets with Buddhist master Hsing Yun, founder of Taiwan's influential Fo Guang Shan Monastery, in Beijing, capital of China, April 20, 2013.
Azerbaijan's whims and fancies - Vilen Khlgatyan, times.am: "While clamping down on domestic opposition both of the secular as well as the religious sort, Aliyev’s regime [in Azerbaijan] has also targeted Western pro-democracy outlets. Late last week the operations of the Azad Fikir University (AFU) were suspended with no official explanation given. The University had been supported by the American and British embassies in Baku, USAID, and other international organizations. This should come as no surprise given that Aliyev has another election to steal this year, therefore he must stifle all sources of discontent. More importantly, Baku is rapidly coming to the conclusion that the West considers Azerbaijan primarily in terms of its broader strategic interests in the region, which are shifting due to the up-coming pull out from Afghanistan, as well as Azerbaijan’s ever declining oil reserves. Therefore, Azerbaijan is a dispensable ‘ally’ whose importance is likely to decrease. Baku’s irredentist and anti-democracy schemes coincided with the first radio broadcast of the Voice of Talyshstan from Shushi. The show is designed for ethnic Talyshes residing in Azerbaijan as well as in other former Soviet republics. While the program was not initiated by the Armenian government, it nonetheless should be incorporated into a wider public diplomacy campaign that ought to be driven by the Armenian MFA, and include not only Azerbaijan’s ethnic minorities, but all Azerbaijani citizens. So long as Azerbaijan lacks a free and fair press that can present accurate descriptions of Armenia and Armenians, public diplomacy and strategic communication will serve as useful instruments to present Armenia’s position to the Azerbaijani public in an accurate manner."
Knesset to Reconvence after Month Break - monsey.com: "Monday will be devoted to ceremonies at Knesset committees in which new chairpersons take over from their predecessors. The Knesset will be asked to approve the appointment of Ronen Plot as its new director-general.
Plot, who replaces Dan Landau, was the director-general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and the Immigrant Absorption Ministry when they were headed by new Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein." Uncaptioned image from article
International Citizen Diplomacy - "On Friday, April 19th, Carolina Pediatric Therapy was honored to host a group of international professionals from the Open World Delegation on Autism Spectrum Disorders.
The group was visiting the United States from Russia, through a program collaboration between Open World Delegation and Friendship Force of Western North Carolina. Their trip was coordinated by Judy and Bob Wilkes who have been involved with Friendship Force for many years." Image from entry
RELATED ITEMS
Soft Power, Smart Power: These trendy concepts are dangerous illusions - Jim Lacey, National Review: Soft power and smart power were fascinating intellectual exercises that led nowhere. Iran is still building nuclear weapons, North Korea is threatening to nuke U.S. cities, and China is becoming militarily more aggressive. It turns out that power is what it has always been — the ability to influence and control others — and deploying it requires, as it always has, hard instruments.
For a long time, American hard power has cast a protective shield around the liberal world order. It will not be pretty when that is gone. Jim Lacey is professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps War College. Image from
Theory Talk #7: Joseph Nye (2008) - theory-talks.org: Theory Talks proudly presents a Talk with Joseph S. Nye Jr., the scholar behind the popular concept of ‘soft power’, by which he adds a dimension to the classic realist notion of ‘hard’, or military, power. Being one of the top-ten most influential IR-scholars in the world, Nye continues to criticize American unilateralism as simply not the right way to survive: in an increasingly interdependent world, even ‘success in the War on Terrorism depends on Washington’s capacity to persuade others without force’, and, as Nye constantly argues, that capacity is in dangerous decline. In this Talk, Joseph Nye subsequently argues why the future of international politics lies in cooperation, and why the US can learn from 19th century Britain.
Keeping Taliban fighters in Guantanamo hurts U.S. interests - David Ignatius, Washington Post: For an example of how the U.S. government can work at cross-purposes in dealing with terrorism, take a look at the failed effort to release Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. It shows how an incorrect analysis — that the Taliban and al-Qaeda pose the same threat — can lead to a cascade of bad policy that has undermined U.S. interests
A New, Flexible Kerry - Carol Giacomo, New York Times: His long foreign policy experience has made Mr. Kerry a believer in personal contacts and the dogged spadework needed to tackle challenges like Israeli-Palestinian peace, which President Obama fumbled in his first term but Mr. Kerry is trying to revive.
A new challenge for Palestinians: Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's resignation has the potential to inject clarity and honesty into the region's problems - Aaron David Miller, latimes.com: the real issues are not institutional development, or reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, or even the process of peacemaking that Secretary of State John F. Kerry hopes to empower.
The peace process will certainly go on. But true peace in the not-so-holy land is possible only when Israelis and Palestinians are prepared to pay the price on the issues that drive their conflict — borders, Jerusalem, refugees and security. And right now, they are most assuredly not ready to do so. Image from
Castro propaganda film chief dies in Cuba at age 87 - By Alberto de la Cruz, babalublog.com: Alfredo Guevara, a Marxist who ran Cuba's infamous ICAIC (Cuban Institute for the Arts and Industry of Cinematography), the propaganda film ministry of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, died in Cuba at the age of 87.
ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY
"Art can masquerade as propaganda. But propaganda cannot masquerade as art."
--A valued PDPBR subscriber who has read too much Nietzche; image from
AMERICANA
New signs of life arise in Las Vegas: Unemployment is down, construction projects are resuming, and tourism is back up after years of recession. Experts stop short of proclaiming a comeback, but there's guarded hope in the air - John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times: For nearly five years, the steel-and-concrete skeleton of the abandoned resort project has taunted this city, a glaring reminder that casino operators here can't win every economic wager they place. The stalled Echelon project sits on hallowed gambling ground: It's where the old Stardust casino was imploded.
Construction on the new $4-billion resort began in 2007 and froze a year later — a failure so embarrassing that city officials later ordered owner Boyd Gaming Corp. to build barriers to hide the remains. The Malaysia-based Genting Group bought the 87-acre ghost town last month, announcing plans to build a $2-billion, China-themed resort with a replica of the Great Wall, faux terra cotta warriors and displays for live pandas. "The fact that a major foreign company wants to take a risk on the Strip is a pretty fair argument that things are turning around," said Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst for the Las Vegas-based research firm Applied Analysis. "You can almost hear the sigh of relief in this community." The metropolitan area's 9.8% unemployment rate, while still above the national average of 7.6%, plummeted from 12.1% just a year ago — the fastest improvement among major cities nationwide. Image from article, with caption: The abandoned Echelon project site in Las Vegas, shown in 2009, has been purchased by a Malaysian group in a new sign of life for the troubled city.
MORE AMERICANA
The Definitive “People Who Thought Chechnya was the Czech Republic” Collection - publicshaming.tumblr.com: Among the Tweets:
Via YO on Facebook
AND MORE AMERICANA
Sam Cooke - Wonderful World:
IMAGE
"Created Equal" image by Mark Laita; via AM on Facebook
The person’s job would be to make sure that important board’s directives regarding broadcasts to dangerous parts of the world are carried out by the IBB bureaucracy until a permanent CEO takes over this function. Despite risks to U.S. national security, IBB officials don’t want it to happen and are resisting it with every possible means, government sources told us." Image from entry, with caption: BBG Board, Apr. 2013. Image shows four vacancies.
VOA Persian and Radio Farda; Time to Pull the Plug? - voapnnwatchdog.com: "Whether it's the pro-mullah and anti-American stance of the editorial management at PNN and Radio Farda or the corruption and nepotism that have plagued them or the highly publicized internal turmoil that has turned the Iranian audience away from these stations, the fact is that the U.S. government is spending $36 million on over 250 federal employees and independent contractors that are doing more harm than good. Years of appeals by Iranian dissidents to the highest offices in the country and the well intended efforts of members of the U.S. Congress have been to no avail. PNN and Radio Farda have gone from bad to worse. Their viewership has dwindled at the same rate as their budget has grown. It is time to shut them down and let other reliable media like Manoto TV use this budget and follow the real mission of VOA Persian and Radio Farda."
Battle on a New Front: Chinese Media in Africa - Rujuta Gandhi, the-generation.net: "[T]he survival and effectiveness of Chinese media are still questionable. In terms of journalism itself, the government is reportedly exporting its domestic censorship laws, which will likely result in declined legitimacy. On the other hand, China is making strides on the front of public diplomacy and institution-building assistance. Since 2006, Xinhua has trained a growing number of African journalists. Additionally, CNC World and CCTV’s bureaus both employ African journalists (though the executives and editors are Chinese).
Meanwhile, the Chinese government provides media equipment as to support institutional development throughout Africa. If Chinese media advances, Sino-African relations will strengthen. And if western media cannot wage its own soft power to fight back, a continuing shift in global power will be progressively more inevitable as the U.S. may lose ground on the resources and benefits that Africa can offer." Image from article
Top advisor calls for increased cross-Strait cultural communication - "China's top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng called for increased cross-Strait communication in the cultural sector on Saturday. Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks while meeting with Buddhist master Hsing Yun, founder of Taiwan's influential Fo Guang Shan Monastery. Yu hailed Hsing Yun's contribution in promoting cross-Strait communication, especially those in the cultural sector. Chinese culture is a precious possession shared by compatriots across the Taiwan Strait, said Yu, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. Yu added that he hoped cross-Strait compatriots would join hands to expand cultural communication and dedicate themselves in promoting peaceful development of cross-Strait relations. Hsing Yun said compatriots across the Strait are all Chinese and belong to one family.
The great achievements that the Chinese mainland has made over the past years have attracted worldwide attention, which has offered the opportunity for compatriots across the Strait to expand cooperation, said Hsing Yun. He added that he is willing to make unremitting efforts to boost cross-Strait cultural communication." Image from article, with caption: Yu Zhengsheng (R), chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, meets with Buddhist master Hsing Yun, founder of Taiwan's influential Fo Guang Shan Monastery, in Beijing, capital of China, April 20, 2013.
Azerbaijan's whims and fancies - Vilen Khlgatyan, times.am: "While clamping down on domestic opposition both of the secular as well as the religious sort, Aliyev’s regime [in Azerbaijan] has also targeted Western pro-democracy outlets. Late last week the operations of the Azad Fikir University (AFU) were suspended with no official explanation given. The University had been supported by the American and British embassies in Baku, USAID, and other international organizations. This should come as no surprise given that Aliyev has another election to steal this year, therefore he must stifle all sources of discontent. More importantly, Baku is rapidly coming to the conclusion that the West considers Azerbaijan primarily in terms of its broader strategic interests in the region, which are shifting due to the up-coming pull out from Afghanistan, as well as Azerbaijan’s ever declining oil reserves. Therefore, Azerbaijan is a dispensable ‘ally’ whose importance is likely to decrease. Baku’s irredentist and anti-democracy schemes coincided with the first radio broadcast of the Voice of Talyshstan from Shushi. The show is designed for ethnic Talyshes residing in Azerbaijan as well as in other former Soviet republics. While the program was not initiated by the Armenian government, it nonetheless should be incorporated into a wider public diplomacy campaign that ought to be driven by the Armenian MFA, and include not only Azerbaijan’s ethnic minorities, but all Azerbaijani citizens. So long as Azerbaijan lacks a free and fair press that can present accurate descriptions of Armenia and Armenians, public diplomacy and strategic communication will serve as useful instruments to present Armenia’s position to the Azerbaijani public in an accurate manner."
Knesset to Reconvence after Month Break - monsey.com: "Monday will be devoted to ceremonies at Knesset committees in which new chairpersons take over from their predecessors. The Knesset will be asked to approve the appointment of Ronen Plot as its new director-general.
Plot, who replaces Dan Landau, was the director-general of the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry and the Immigrant Absorption Ministry when they were headed by new Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein." Uncaptioned image from article
International Citizen Diplomacy - "On Friday, April 19th, Carolina Pediatric Therapy was honored to host a group of international professionals from the Open World Delegation on Autism Spectrum Disorders.
The group was visiting the United States from Russia, through a program collaboration between Open World Delegation and Friendship Force of Western North Carolina. Their trip was coordinated by Judy and Bob Wilkes who have been involved with Friendship Force for many years." Image from entry
RELATED ITEMS
Soft Power, Smart Power: These trendy concepts are dangerous illusions - Jim Lacey, National Review: Soft power and smart power were fascinating intellectual exercises that led nowhere. Iran is still building nuclear weapons, North Korea is threatening to nuke U.S. cities, and China is becoming militarily more aggressive. It turns out that power is what it has always been — the ability to influence and control others — and deploying it requires, as it always has, hard instruments.
For a long time, American hard power has cast a protective shield around the liberal world order. It will not be pretty when that is gone. Jim Lacey is professor of strategic studies at the Marine Corps War College. Image from
Theory Talk #7: Joseph Nye (2008) - theory-talks.org: Theory Talks proudly presents a Talk with Joseph S. Nye Jr., the scholar behind the popular concept of ‘soft power’, by which he adds a dimension to the classic realist notion of ‘hard’, or military, power. Being one of the top-ten most influential IR-scholars in the world, Nye continues to criticize American unilateralism as simply not the right way to survive: in an increasingly interdependent world, even ‘success in the War on Terrorism depends on Washington’s capacity to persuade others without force’, and, as Nye constantly argues, that capacity is in dangerous decline. In this Talk, Joseph Nye subsequently argues why the future of international politics lies in cooperation, and why the US can learn from 19th century Britain.
Keeping Taliban fighters in Guantanamo hurts U.S. interests - David Ignatius, Washington Post: For an example of how the U.S. government can work at cross-purposes in dealing with terrorism, take a look at the failed effort to release Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay. It shows how an incorrect analysis — that the Taliban and al-Qaeda pose the same threat — can lead to a cascade of bad policy that has undermined U.S. interests
A New, Flexible Kerry - Carol Giacomo, New York Times: His long foreign policy experience has made Mr. Kerry a believer in personal contacts and the dogged spadework needed to tackle challenges like Israeli-Palestinian peace, which President Obama fumbled in his first term but Mr. Kerry is trying to revive.
A new challenge for Palestinians: Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's resignation has the potential to inject clarity and honesty into the region's problems - Aaron David Miller, latimes.com: the real issues are not institutional development, or reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, or even the process of peacemaking that Secretary of State John F. Kerry hopes to empower.
The peace process will certainly go on. But true peace in the not-so-holy land is possible only when Israelis and Palestinians are prepared to pay the price on the issues that drive their conflict — borders, Jerusalem, refugees and security. And right now, they are most assuredly not ready to do so. Image from
Castro propaganda film chief dies in Cuba at age 87 - By Alberto de la Cruz, babalublog.com: Alfredo Guevara, a Marxist who ran Cuba's infamous ICAIC (Cuban Institute for the Arts and Industry of Cinematography), the propaganda film ministry of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, died in Cuba at the age of 87.
ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY
"Art can masquerade as propaganda. But propaganda cannot masquerade as art."
--A valued PDPBR subscriber who has read too much Nietzche; image from
AMERICANA
New signs of life arise in Las Vegas: Unemployment is down, construction projects are resuming, and tourism is back up after years of recession. Experts stop short of proclaiming a comeback, but there's guarded hope in the air - John M. Glionna, Los Angeles Times: For nearly five years, the steel-and-concrete skeleton of the abandoned resort project has taunted this city, a glaring reminder that casino operators here can't win every economic wager they place. The stalled Echelon project sits on hallowed gambling ground: It's where the old Stardust casino was imploded.
Construction on the new $4-billion resort began in 2007 and froze a year later — a failure so embarrassing that city officials later ordered owner Boyd Gaming Corp. to build barriers to hide the remains. The Malaysia-based Genting Group bought the 87-acre ghost town last month, announcing plans to build a $2-billion, China-themed resort with a replica of the Great Wall, faux terra cotta warriors and displays for live pandas. "The fact that a major foreign company wants to take a risk on the Strip is a pretty fair argument that things are turning around," said Jeremy Aguero, principal analyst for the Las Vegas-based research firm Applied Analysis. "You can almost hear the sigh of relief in this community." The metropolitan area's 9.8% unemployment rate, while still above the national average of 7.6%, plummeted from 12.1% just a year ago — the fastest improvement among major cities nationwide. Image from article, with caption: The abandoned Echelon project site in Las Vegas, shown in 2009, has been purchased by a Malaysian group in a new sign of life for the troubled city.
MORE AMERICANA
The Definitive “People Who Thought Chechnya was the Czech Republic” Collection - publicshaming.tumblr.com: Among the Tweets:
Via YO on Facebook
AND MORE AMERICANA
Sam Cooke - Wonderful World:
Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took
But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me, too
What a wonderful world this would be
Don't know much about geography
Don't know much trigonometry
Don't know much about algebra
Don't know what a slide rule is for
But I do know one and one is two
And if this one could be with you
What a wonderful world this would be
--Lyrics fromIMAGE
"Created Equal" image by Mark Laita; via AM on Facebook
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