PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

NOV 20, 2008
President-elect Obama, We Need a New Kind of Public Diplomacy
The Washington Times
America is not well prepared to wage and win this conflict of ideas. We lack the focus and means to convince people around the world of the rightness of our cause of freedom...The biggest problem is a failure of overall leadership. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees U.S.-funded civilian international broadcasting, is conflicted by different agendas...At the end of the day, strategic communications - the sum total of the government's efforts to influence foreign opinion - is bigger than public diplomacy. It also must explain the purposes of foreign policy to Americans.   Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Reforming U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century
The Heritage Foundation (Issue Paper)
While there is no easy fix, the President and Con­gress need to reform the strategy, doctrine, and structure of strategic communications to engage in the war of ideas seriously and effectively. This requires establishment of a new institutional frame­work focused on a new agency--a U.S. Agency for Strategic Communications--as well as substantial reforms of the Department of State and greater uti­lization of the Pentagon's combatant commands.  Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Obama Poised to Rebrand America, Experts Say
CNN
Obama represents a "clean break" from the past, and his election is the first big step toward change, said Dick Martin, author of "Rebuilding Brand America."... Closing Guantanamo, adhering to the Geneva Conventions and eliminating torture are key issues for people around the world because they are the symbols of American unilateralism, Martin said. Martin also suggested that Obama take a page out of President Eisenhower's playbook and give the rest of the world an opportunity to experience American culture through an agency like the now-defunct United States Information Agency. In addition to exposing the rest of the world to U.S. culture, Obama should also make sure young Americans are citizens of the world. Martin recommends education reform, with an emphasis on world history and language classes.   Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Common Aim: Wives Push Peace
Xpress (Dubai)
A world torn apart by bigotry can turn to the UAE for a solution that works, the head of the Diplomatic Wives’ Circle in Dubai said. Larissa Krasnogor, Chairperson of the Peaceful Co-Existence Is Our Common Aim campaign and wife of the Russian Consul General, said: "The UAE has made it possible and has set an example for others to follow...Krasnogor – who has a doctoral degree in Arabic literature – and six other diplomats’ wives lent their support to the campaign held on Monday at the Dubai Public Library. "To achieve peaceful co-existence, we should promote cultural engagement. And being the wives of diplomats, our duty is to promote the cultural engagement between our people," she said.  Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Beijing’s thrust into Latin America
The International Herald Tribune
The rise to power of leftist governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela has strengthened bilateral diplomatic relations. China established a series of "strategic partnerships" and "strategic dialogues" with a number of Latin states, and also shares a common "South-South" perspective on many global issues, particularly with Brazil...Educational exchanges are needed. Only two bona fide university programs in Chinese studies exist in the region - Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Beijing's community of Latin American experts in universities, think tanks and government far outstrip their Latin counterparts, and the dearth of expertise means that Latin governments lack Chinese speakers and specialists to cope with Beijing's blitz into the region. China is also developing cultural ties, establishing six "Confucius Institutes" across the region to increase knowledge about the country.  Read more...

NOV 19, 2008
First Lady of the Arts
The Syndey Morning Herald
Matthews, the Opera House's former head of government relations, is one of the best-connected arts strategists in the business. She has worked for a number of cultural organisations in Sydney, including the Powerhouse Museum and the Australia Council. In a sense she has come full circle. She was the British Council's manager of arts and cultural relations when she arrived in Australia in 1998 after graduating from Cambridge and completing a masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Although the council, which turns 75 next year, has long been associated with arts, education and sport, Matthews points to new priorities, including climate change. "I love its ability to adapt," she says. "It's not this old crusty model of an organisation that doesn't know how to move."  Read more...

NOV 19, 2008
Facebook, Google to Rally the Kids at Columbia
The New York Observer
From December 3rd to 5th, Facebook, Google, YouTube, MTV, and Howcast will sponsor a summit to mobilize young people against violence and oppression at the Columbia Law School. The global network, called the Alliance of Youth Movements, aims to craft a "field manual" on how to create social change using online tools.  Read more...

NOV 19, 2008
Public Diplomacy Expectations
The Washington Times
According to the Obama campaign Web site, Mr. Obama's public diplomacy outreach will be mainly focused at the grass-roots level, doubling the size of the Peace Corps and Americorps, creating a body of citizen volunteers with special language skills, etc...What is specifically needed is a new U.S. Agency for Strategic Communication under the guidance of a director of strategic communications. Its director should have the confidence and trust of the president, though maybe not necessarily at cabinet level, and his responsibility would be to coordinate the informational activities of the entire U.S. government, including the vast resources currently commanded by the Pentagon. He would also be responsible for formulating a much-needed comprehensive new communications strategy that would address the activities of U.S. public affairs, public diplomacy, international broadcasting and military information operations  Read more...

NOV 19, 2008
Liberia: 25 Citizens Undergo Diplomatic Training in Egypt
allAfrica.com
Twenty-five Liberians have departed the country for Cairo, Egypt, to undergo a two-week training program in diplomacy...covering a wide range of topics including development diplomacy, conflict resolution and multi-track diplomacy, and media and public diplomacy.  Read more...

NOV 19, 2008
Restore the Voice
The Huffington Post
Barack Obama has the capacity to overcome the recent image of a global bully by restoring America's reputation as a peace-loving, progressive nation. But he faces far greater priorities during his first weeks and months in office as president than say the future of the Voice of America. But the international buzz caused by President-elect Obama earlier in the month offers him an opportunity to revive what had been a valuable American resource for so many years. In short, the reputation of the Voice needs to be revived and treasured -- not squandered as it has been by the Bush Administration the past eight years.  Read more...

NOV 18, 2008
Griffey becomes American Public Diplomacy Envoy
The Associated Press
The star outfielder became the newest American Public Diplomacy Envoy, introduced Tuesday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Griffey is set to make his first baseball-related trip for the State Department to Panama in January. In his role, he'll represent the "values of the United States, not the government of the United States," Rice said. "When Ken Griffey travels overseas, one of his greatest objectives will be to talk to young people and to spark their interest in America and in our culture," she said.  Read more...

NOV 18, 2008
A new President, a new era for CD?
Cultural Diplomacy News
With the end of Bush’s second presidential term approaching, and President-elect Barack Obama carrying the hopes of the nation on his shoulders, a new era for American Cultural Diplomacy appears to be on the horizon. Obama has made his stance on this issue clear during his political campaign, and outlined it in Barack Obama: A champion for arts and culture. He touches on three mains points: art education in schools, further consideration of artists’ singular economic situation, and cultural exchange. These are aimed not only at promoting cultural diplomacy in times of war, as has been the case in the past, but also at cementing a strong foundation for it to continue in the post-war era, if efforts are allowed to continue and develop.   Read more...

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