April 17 Public Diplomacy Review

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BOOK REVIEW

American Statecraft [American Statecraft: The Story of the U.S. Foreign Service by J. Robert Moskin, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2013] - John Brown, American Diplomacy: "Moskin, a Look magazine editor for 19 years, aptly titles his book a 'story.'

His work doesn’t pretend to be a specialized academic history. It’s a readable (but at times overpacked) narrative organized, for the most part, in the old-fashioned way — chronologically." Image from entry

CONFERENCE

Conference | The Future of Diplomacy with Diplomatic Courier and UN Foundation - Cory Leonard, globaldiplomacy.wordpress.com: "This half-day summit will explore the nexus between technology and social media and how they are changing modern diplomacy. These agents of change are acting as constructive disrupters by modernizing systems and by bringing new voices into old ones. The summit will bring together public diplomacy experts, leaders in policy and influencers in global partnerships to discuss best practices and offer engaging insight into the future of diplomacy and global issues. Follow @diplocourier and @DigiDiplomats, and #DiplomacySM and #DigitalDiplomacy on Twitter. 22 April, 8:00am to 12:00pm Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center Rotunda."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Russia’s Ukraine Invasion: An Opportunity for America? If America takes a more global, strategic view, it can make lemonade out of the sour Ukrainian lemon - John Allen Gay, thediplomat.com: "[T]he real challenge in managing Russia will be the grip that the old Cold War mentality still has in Washington. Washington too often acts as though Russia (a fading power with serious internal difficulties) is the Soviet Union (a powerful empire with global influence and ideological appeal).

This leads to a slight hysteria in dealing with Russia’s recent expansion. For example, the State Department has released two strange top-ten lists of false or misleading Russian claims about Ukraine. As Russia-watching blog The Interpreter noted, 'It’s not clear how harsh rhetoric alone, or even a careful debunking of Kremlin lies, will impact Russia’s decisions.' And given that few around the world support Russia’s actions, it’s also not clear what the lists could have accomplished from a public-diplomacy perspective — or why ferreting out Russian propaganda could not be left to the media. It seems to have been nothing more than a high-handed gesture of frustration, one that will do little beyond pushing the two states further apart. This is not the right direction to be heading if the U.S. ultimately wants Russia to shift its focus toward China." Image from

Remarks to the 2014 SAIS Pride Conference - Remarks, Richard E. Hoagland, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, DC, April 16, 2014 - state.gov: "[W]e utilize our Public Diplomacy programs to spread awareness of LGBT issues through messaging and programming. Through our International Visitor Leadership Program, we invite foreign human-rights and LGBT leaders to participate in three-week exchanges to learn first-hand about human-rights policy and advocacy in the U.S.

We sponsor LGBT rights awareness programs such as film festivals, pride week festivals, photo exhibits, radio shows, journalism competitions, and visiting U.S. speaker events. We employ the power of social media, using Facebook and Twitter to amplify our LGBT message to receptive online audiences, as well as on-the-record traditional interviews and statements by high-level State Department officials. ... There are countries in the world, whether religiously or culturally deeply conservative, that will react to our values and goals with backlash against their own LGBT citizens. We should maintain enough humility to remember that we are terribly new at promoting LGBT human rights as U.S. foreign policy. Of course we want to do good – but we should do it, with patience, in a way that results in the maximum benefit for those we want to help." Image from, with caption: LGBT Rally @ Washington, D.C.I

Department of State Public Schedule, April 16, 2014 - rockycoastnews.blogspot.com: "UNDER SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS RICHARD STENGEL 1:15 p.m. Under Secretary Stengel meets with former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering, at the Department of State. 2:00 p.m. Under Secretary Stengel attends a meeting at the White House." See also.

If it’s not PD and its not aid what is it? - Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence:  "A couple of weeks ago the Public Diplomacy Council posted a piece by Joe Johnson on the ‘Cuban Twitter’ Fiasco where the US Agency for International Development set up an SMS based social network with the intention of circulating anti-Castro messages. What really attracted my attention was the title ‘Cuban Twitter Wasn’t Aid and it Wasn’t Public Diplomacy Either’. Johnson sternly denounces the fact that Over the past twenty years, the lines between aid projects and public diplomacy have blurred.  I have sometimes heard PD staffers cast their work as 'aid lite' social development. And aid officials undertake public communication and educational exchange projects that look just like PD programs. This leaves the question: if it’s not aid and it’s not public diplomacy what was it?"

Time To Hit The Reset Button On Public Diplomacy? - Brian Carlson, Public Diplomacy Council: "With a new Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy now in the chair at the Department of State, the leadership is in place to lay out policy recommendations for a 'reset' of public diplomacy."

OSCE chairperson-in-office to visit Azerbaijan in early June - Sabina Ahmadova, Trend: OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan on June 3, a diplomatic source told Trend on April 17. During the visit, Burkhalter will meet with Azerbaijani officials.

The meeting will discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement and Azerbaijan's cooperation with the OSCE. After his visit to Azerbaijan, Burkhalter will depart for Yerevan. Earlier in an interview with Trend, Burkhalter stressed that the OSCE Swiss Chairmanship fully supports the Minsk Group's efforts and is ready to render any support to the Minsk Group. Switzerland pays particular attention to the initiatives and projects, which involve public diplomacy and aimed at restoring confidence between the parties. Uncaptioned image from entry

Australia Network strikes access deal for mainland China - abc.net.au: "TANYA NOLAN: The Australia Network has had an axe hanging over it in recent months as the Federal Government considers its future. But today the ABC-run network announced a deal which significantly strengthens its case to remain in operation - an agreement to make Australian content available throughout mainland China. The deal trumps the access of all other Western broadcasters in China, and analysts say it shows the value of the network to Australian diplomacy. Simon Frazer reports. (Theme song from Bananas in Pyjamas) SIMON FRAZER: It's a theme usually more associated with toddlers than international diplomacy, but a new deal promises to make such content available throughout mainland China. It's being hailed by some as a major breakthrough for Australia's efforts at so-called soft diplomacy. Susan Harris-Rimmer is the director of studies at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy at ANU. SUSAN HARRIS-RIMMER: It has to be number one really in the sense that peer-to-peer links, Australian to ordinary Chinese citizens, so citizen to citizen links, which is the subject of public diplomacy, is really very important. SIMON FRAZER: The deal has been struck with the Shanghai Media Group, a major player in China's broadcast landscape. It also has the backing of the Chinese government. SUSAN HARRIS-RIMMER: The evidence has shown over the years that in terms of an overall image of a country, it is that cultural diplomacy element which makes the difference. So we know that the most important part of British soft power is the BBC and the massive BBC world network, and so in this sense, it shows an image of Australia, it shows ordinary Australians doing things like cooking and dating and heaven knows what and we don't know what will capture the Chinese imagination. SIMON FRAZER: The deal, announced just a week after the Prime Minister's own visit to China, will surpass the media access of the BBC and CNN in China." See also.

Sina Weibo to be listed in Nasdaq - ecns.cn: "Cheng Manli, Vice-Dean of Peking University's School of Journalism and Communication, ... [says] Weibo is ... playing an important role in diplomatic relationship. 'There is a trend in which many overseas countries value Weibo's function in the diplomatic field. It's necessary for public diplomacy in the new media era. Many influential people in the U.S., Europe and Australia opened Weibo accounts before they visited China. They hope to present a closer and more vivid image of themselves to the Chinese people.'"

A Delegation of Journalists from Central and Eastern European Countries Starts Visit to China - Shi Jie, english.cri.cn: "A delegation of 46 journalists from Central and Eastern European countries or CEEC has arrived in Beijing for a week-long visit to China. The delegation had been invited

to China by the Secretariat for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries. ... The delegation visited the China Public Diplomacy Association, or CPDA, on Wednesday. Both CPDA vice president Lv Fengding and former Chinese ambassador to Poland, Sun Yuxi delivered welcoming speeches, where they emphasized the great importance China attaches to maintaining friendly relations and strong cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries. In the afternoon, the delegation observed a regular press conference at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, followed by a brief meeting with two members of the Public Diplomacy Advisory Panel with the ministry. The journalists interviewed the members of the advisory panel about Chinese investment in Central and Eastern European countries." Image from entry, with caption: Liu Haixing, director-general of the Department of European Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and secretary-general of the Secretariat delivered a speech at the welcoming reception in Beijing on Wednesday, April 16 2014.

Irvine’s Chinese Community Angry with Republican Council Majority - Dan Chmielewski, theliberaloc.com: "The City of Irvine was sent a letter from Irvine resident W. Jia, a professor at Chapman University,  criticizing the council majority for politicizing a friendship city opportunity with a city in China. ... First the letter: ‘By purposefully allowing about 1000 non-residents of Irvine to occupy Irvine City Hall and dominate the podium to achieve their political agenda, you, together with your two other colleagues at the Irvine City Council, have advanced your narrowly defined ultra-conservative political agenda and have severely undermined the spirit, vision, integrity, and inclusiveness of City of Irvine as a well-integrated global village and tarnished City of Irvine’s global reputation. It is common sense that international friendship city projects are part of public diplomacy and good-will at the grass-roots level which merely require the local government’s formal endorsement to pave the way for the international exchanges between people of the two cities on a voluntary basis. Yet the outdated Cold War mentality you and your two other colleagues hold have arrested the open dynamism City of Irvine has been enjoying. You three are working against the national and global trend of global engagements.’ "

RELATED ITEMS

Russian Diplomats Are Eating America's Lunch - James Bruno politico.com: With so many dilettantes in charge of U.S. foreign policy at home and abroad, how can Washington hope to compete with a highly trained Russian diplomatic cadre whose president’s tool kit of statecraft centers on the application of “blackmail, vodka, and the threat to kill” to achieve his ends? Obama’s foreign policy apparatus is bloated at the White House level, over-politicized at the State Department and dismissive of the expertise to be gained from career diplomats, with decision-making tending toward groupthink in an echo chamber. And if the White House believes it can achieve its goals toward Moscow by sending TV soap opera producers, hoteliers and other campaign contributor neophytes to face veteran Russian diplomats in key European capitals, it is nothing short of delusional.

Russian Media Accused Of Using Propaganda In Ukraine Reporting - npr.org: The coverage of the crisis in Ukraine portrays the government in Kiev as neo-Nazis who seized power in a violent coup. That narrative has had a powerful impact on the way Russians perceive the crisis.

Ukraine Unspun Russian Professor Explains Media Manipulation - Glenn Kates and Pavel Butorin, rferl.org: Russian state media has been skewered in the West for its often outlandish coverage of events in Ukraine.  The "misinformation, exaggerations, conspiracy theories, overheated rhetoric and occasionally, outright lies," reverberate "hour after hour, day after day, week after week" on Russian TV, according to "The New York Times" on April 15. But according to a poll, conducted in late March by the state-funded Public Opinion Foundation, some two-thirds of the Russian population trust government-controlled television more than any other medium. A lecture by a history professor, apparently recorded in mid-April, sheds some light on Moscow's media strategy and why it seems to work. "Television determines the agenda," says Valery Solovei, in his hourlong talk at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO).

"The methods that I am talking about create a world view, something that's called a 'reality.' A reality is created for us. If we see this reality the way it is brought to us by television, then we act in accordance with this reality." Image from entry, with caption: Valery Solovei says that in order to create a new reality for Kyiv, Ukraine must look absolutely untenable as a functioning state.

Russian to CNN: Soviet Propaganda Never Reached Present Level of ‘Hysteria’ [incluces video] - Noah Rothman, Appearing on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Wednesday, The American Enterprise Institute’s Director of Russian Studies, Leon Aron, was asked for his take on the present state of anti-Western propaganda coming out of Russia.

Aron said that, in a number of ways, the propaganda he is seeing today is more excessive than anything he experienced as a teenager in the Soviet Union. Image from entry

NATO attacks Russia with propaganda factsheet -– Foreign Ministry - rt.com: By trying to make Russia the culprit in the current Ukrainian crisis, NATO has outperformed its own propaganda efforts from the aggressive time against Yugoslavia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Thursday's statement on the Foreign Ministry’s website is a reply to a number of recently circulated papers, including a NATO factsheet called “Russia’s accusations - setting the record straight”.

Russian diplomats claimed that the factsheet was an attempt to lay the blame for the crisis in Europe on Russia. Image from entry, with caption: Foreign Affairs Ministry on Smolensko-Sennaya Square in Moscow

Snowden appears with Putin on propaganda show - dailycaller.com: At 2:59, Snowden appears by video from the “video lineup center.” They call it a sensational outrageous message from someone who “revolutionized the world by leaking the information about American Secret services.” With that, Snowden gets the floor. “Recently the United States, two independent White House investigations as well as a federal court all concluded that these programs are ineffective in stopping terrorism. They also found that they unreasonable intrude into the private lives of ordinary citizens, individuals who have never been suspected of any wrongdoing or criminal activity. …I’ve seen little public discussion of Russians own involved in mass surveillance. …Does Russia store or analyze in any way the communications of millions of individuals?” Putin replied,

“Mr. Snowden, you are a former agent, a spy. I used to be working for an intelligence service. We are going to talk one professional language. First of all, our intelligence efforts are strictly regulated by our law. … You have to get a court permission to stalk a particular person. We don’t have a mass system of such interception and according with our law, it cannot exist. Of course we know that criminals and terrorists use technology for their criminal acts and of course special services have to use technical means to respond to their crimes including those of terrorist nature. But we don’t have a mass scale uncontrollable like that. We don’t have as much money as they do in the states. Our special services thanks God are strictly controlled by the society and the law and regulated by the way.” There you have it. Now we’ve seen it all: Snowden turned journalist. Uncaptioned image from entry

U.S. Media Propaganda: Russia Accused of Spreading “Conspiracy Theories” on Ukraine - Timothy Alexander Guzman, globalresearch.ca: The anti-Russian crusade carried out by the American mainstream media is more apparent as the crisis continues. The media reports are even sometimes laughable. Russian state media has been skewered in the West for its often outlandish coverage of events in Ukraine.  The "misinformation, exaggerations, conspiracy theories, overheated rhetoric and occasionally, outright lies," reverberate "hour after hour, day after day, week after week" on Russian TV, according to "The New York Times" on April 15. But according to a poll, conducted in late March by the state-funded Public Opinion Foundation, some two-thirds of the Russian population trust government-controlled television more than any other medium. A lecture by a history professor, apparently recorded in mid-April, sheds some light on Moscow's media strategy and why it seems to work. "Television determines the agenda," says Valery Solovei, in his hourlong talk at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). "The methods that I am talking about create a world view, something that's called a 'reality.' A reality is created for us. If we see this reality the way it is brought to us by television, then we act in accordance with this reality."

Most Russians Want McDonald's Closed, Poll Says - The Moscow Times:  Liberal Democrat Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky's call to close all McDonald's restaurants in Russia received a lot of media attention, and a recent poll shows that most Russians would be glad to see the back of the fast food chain. Sixty-two percent of respondents support the closure of all McDonald's in Russia, according to a survey conducted by

SuperJob's Research Center in the week that followed the company's announcement that it was shutting its three restaurants in Crimea. Younger Russians were more likely to defend the Big Mac purveyor, with 33 percent of those aged below 24 saying they wouldn't like to see the golden arches disappear from their towns. Image from entry, with caption: Sixty-two percent of respondents support the closure of all McDonald's in Russia.

AMERICANA

From: Tom McKay,"Princeton Concludes What Kind of Government America Really Has, and It's Not a Democracy," policymic.com. Image from entry