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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.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, FEBRUARY 1-2, 2008
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, FEBRUARY 1-2 “Next thing you know, the Defense Department will be putting on cultural programs.” —Gerald Loftus, “Communicating America’s Message—Whose Core Competency?” (Avuncular American: An expatriate view from Europe, February 1) LINK PUBLIC DIPLOMACY: BOOKS, ARTICLES, WEBSITES #37 Intended for teachers of public diplomacy and related courses, below section F is an update on resources that may be of general interest. Suggestions for future updates are welcome. Kindly provided by Bruce Gregory, Director, Public Diplomacy Institute, George Washington University, (202) 994-0389, BGregory@gwu.edu IMAGES Military advice: What to do if you encounter an archeological site LINK courtesy of a valued PDPBR subscriber VIDEO David Letterman on Bush’s State of the Union Address LINK via LINK POLITICAL CARTOON I Got You Babe LINK A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY (1-29) 1. James Glassman: The Journalist Turned Journo-lobbyist’s Bid to Be PR Czar - Diane Farsetta (PR Watch.org, Center for Media and Democracy, January 31): If the Foreign Relations Committee and full Senate confirm James Glassman, the nominee for Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, he’s likely to follow in his predecessor Karen Hughes’s footsteps, with a greater emphasis on Internet tools and a new cadre of “credible” pro-U.S. Muslim influencers. But unless the United States makes real changes in its foreign policy, the U.S. global “brand” will remain tarnished. LINK 2. America’s New Publicist Takes the Stand; James Glassman: “enemies are eating our lunch online” – (PRNewser, February 2): “James K. Glassman ...  took the stand this week in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ... What emerged from the testimony is that Glassman—creator of the naysaying Tech Central Station—believes the U.S. needs to step up its online information efforts. Our humble and outsider opinion is that shooting a few thousand new pages of text in to the wind won’t do much to raise the country’s standing in the world from now until GWBII is over, or alleviate tension within the State Deparment.” LINK see also LINK LINK LINK LINK 3. The War of Ideas – Michael Goldfarb (Weekly Standard, February 1): JAMES GLASSMAN, in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations this week: “Muslims in America embrace U.S. values and participate actively in U.S. society, yet they differ with other Americans and with the U.S. government on policy. That is to say, policy is not the determining factor in their view of America. This is precisely the condition we should strive for in the world. People in other countries will not agree with our policies all the time, but we want them to have an accurate picture of those policies and the motivations behind them, and we want the disagreements to be constructive.” GOLDFARB COMMENT: Glassman “certainly strikes the right message here. We can’t change our policies in the Middle East because al Qaeda’s put a gun to our head, but we should strive to make sure ‘policy is not the determining factor’ in how Muslims view America. Let them hate us for our Big Macs…... FULL TEXT
 
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