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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.

PDPBR FOR JULY 4-6, 2007
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, JULY 4-6 “coalition of the billing” —Peter Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who has written on military contracting, regarding the number of private contractors in Iraq; cited in T. Christian Miller, “Private contractors outnumber U.S. troops in Iraq” (Los Angeles Times, July 4) LINK “libbyration” —How one PDPBR subscriber characterizes President George W. Bush’s freedom agenda overseas; term cited at LINK “Eye Generation” —Linton Weeks, “The Eye Generation Prefers Not to Read All About It: Students in Film Class a Microcosm of a Visually Oriented Culture” (Washington Post, July 6, 2007) LINK “MMORPGs” —-“massively multiplayer online role-playing games”; cited in Michael Gerson, “Where the Avatars Roam” (Washington Post, July 6) LINK “Overvaluing American Values” —Ezra Klein, “Overvaluing American Values: The trouble with making ‘values’ the lodestar of our foreign policy” (American Prospect, June 28) LINK VIDEO America’s Public Diplomacy Failure and the War on Terror (Dan Verton’s Homeland Defense Week, June 5; Google) LINK A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY (1-24) 1. THE REAL PROBLEM WITH ‘EVERYBODY’S AL-QAEDA’ – MOLLY (MEANWHILE IN PALESTINE AND IRAQ [THE OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE’S GUIDE TO THE MIDDLE EAST]—WHILE THE MIDDLE EAST TAKES A LICKING, WE KEEP ON TICKING: AL BINTEIN MUDAWENETEIN, JULY 5): The administration in effect claims more power and military success for al-Qaeda in Iraq than al-Qaeda claims for itself—for which the al-Qaeda leadership can only be bemusedly grateful. Forget USG supported TV channel to the Middle East al-Hurra—if you’re looking for a real public diplomacy fiasco, you’ll be hard pressed to do worse than the U.S. acting as al-Qaeda’s agent in promoting its Iraqi success. LINK 2. MIDEAST HAS AN OLD COLD WAR LOOK: THE U.S. AND IRAN STRUGGLE MAKES USE OF PROXIES, PROPAGANDA AND ECONOMIC PRESSURE - BORZOU DARAGAHI (LOS ANGELES TIMES, JULY 5): The U.S. and Iran now openly joust on multiple fronts. While Karen Hughes, U.S. undersecretary of State for public diplomacy and public affairs, has promoted American values across the Muslim world, Iran’s once-reclusive diplomatic corps has wooed allies and whipped up anti-American sentiment. LINK 3. IRAN’S ENGLISH SATELLITE CHANNEL DEBUTS, FURTHER CROWDING COMPETITION FOR COVETED AMERICAN VIEWERS - ALVIN SNYDER (PUBLIC DIPLOMACY BLOG, USC CENTER ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, JULY 3) LINK 4. GOING FROM HAWK TO DOVE - GRETCHEN M. GRIENER (FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS, JULY 3): The House just passed the State Foreign Operations Appropriations bill and sent it to the Senate. The bill provides for greater spending on public diplomacy, $6.5 billion in spending on global health, and modest cuts in foreign military financing. These are incremental steps, to be sure, but they point in the direction of greater diplomacy, dialogue, and development. According go the Global Peace Index (GPI) ranking of 121 countries, the United States, finishing up far back in the pack at No. 96, was deemed less peaceful than Yemen, Cambodia, and Serbia. LINK 5. MID-CAREER OFFICIALS LEARN TO LISTEN, ADVOCATE POLICIES THROUGH PUBLIC DIPLOMACY - MIKE O’SULLIVAN (VOA, JUNE 6): In this information age, governments are reaching out…... FULL TEXT
 
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