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John Brown aggregates all the most recent public diplomacy related news, including current issues in U.S. foreign policy, international broadcasting and media, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, educational exchanges, anti-Americanism, and the reception of American popular culture abroad.

PDPR FOR MARCH 15-16
by John Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS REVIEW, MARCH 15-16 QUOTATION FOR THE DAY “THE IDEA IS TO GET THE PIECES OF AN IED TO ‘SEXY.’” —The Air Force’s Bob Sisk, a veteran explosives-disposal specialist, referring to Improvised Explosive Devices and CEXC, the Counter Explosive Exploitation Cell, a secretive group at Baghdad’s Camp Victory that is building a database on IED incidents; cited in Charles J. Hanley, “Billions Spent to Defeat IEDs” (Associated Press/AirForceTimes.com, March 13) LINK ESSAY Has Bush L-IED again? – John Brown (Common Dreams): As was the case with WMD, Bush is using IED to justify the U.S. military engagement in Iraq. See also below items 19-20. LINK A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY 1. IRAQ’S SECOND FRONT: IDEAS - ROBERT CHARLES (WASHINGTON TIMES, MARCH 15): We must urgently expand the discussion of freedom, deepen it—across the Middle East. Private and public diplomacy are no longer secondary. They are primary. Lasting change comes from within and depends on indigenous leadership. We must find freedom’s leaders in the Middle East. LINK 2. HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ENCOURAGE EXTREMISTS -  WILLIAM FISHER (MIDDLE EAST TIMES, MARCH 16): Perhaps the job description of Karen Hughes, this culturally-challenged Friend of Bush ought to ask, “How Do We Win Back the Hearts and Minds of Friends We Have Lost?” Through exchange programs? By trying to bond with Muslim women by telling them that she, too, is a Mom? By insisting they drive the cars they’d rather have their drivers drive? By denying or remaining silent on what her country has become and by slavishly justifying whatever her boss, the President, does in the name of the “Global War on Terror?” LINK SEE ALSO LINK 3. CAN YOU PLEASE GIVE US AN UPDATE ON THE UNITED STATES’ OVERSEAS ‘PUBLIC DIPLOMACY’ CAMPAIGN? DON’T PANIC ... YOUR WAR QUESTIONS ANSWERED - ANDISHEH NOURAEE (CREATIVE LOAFING ATLANTA, MARCH 15): Appointing Hughes and trumpeting her appointment to anyone who would listen was just a publicity stunt. Shortly after taking her post, Hughes hopped on a plane with some reporters and went on a “listening” tour of the Middle East. The tour was a disaster. To her credit, Hughes appears to have learned an important lesson from her initial failure. When she went on her second Middle East listening tour last month, she didn’t take any reporters with her. LINK 4. DEEP BACKGROUND: AT GOSS’S CIA, CRITICIZE TORTURE, GET FIRED; HUGHES PURGES THE EMBASSIES - PHILIP GIRALDI (AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, MARCH 13): During her trips abroad Hughes was surprised by the intensity of criticism of U.S. policies that she heard from organizations that were actually funded or otherwise supported by American Embassies. Not greatly given to introspection or critical analysis, she has decided that the fault lies with the overseas embassies themselves, not the message, and has issued a series of memos condemning their passivity in promoting a positive American agenda. She has followed up on the memos with the recent dispatch of several of her senior staff to visit the embassies, with the stated…... FULL TEXT
 
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