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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.

APRIL 27, 2005
by John Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS REVIEW, APRIL 27 ESSAY “A Boot Stamping on a Human Face”: Orwell’s “1984” as a Process of Defacement - John Brown (Public Diplomacy Press Review): The book’s protagonist, Winston Smith, is punished for his rebelliousness against totalitarian Oceania by being literally de-faced, conditioned into seeing his own face as only a reflection of absolute leader Big Brother’s dehumanized image. “Nineteen Eighty-Four” could hold a lesson for the twenty-first century: In the process of letting ourselves be remade into generic Hollywood movie stars by advertising and technology, do we not risk the danger of losing the unique features of our very own, “imperfect” human faces, those essential indications of our precious, unique individualities? FOR FULL TEXT, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO SECTION C QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY “I THINK WE’VE BEEN WINNING FOR SOME TIME.” —Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, regarding the United States in Iraq; cited in Bradley Graham, “Pentagon Plays Down New Rise in Iraq Violence” (Washington Post, April 27) LINK “A FIFTEEN-YEAR PREGNANCY—WHAT A RELIEF!” —Scholar Richard Arndt, taking delivery of the first shipment of his new book, “The First Resort Of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy In The Twentieth Century”; cited in an e-mail from Dr. Arndt to PDPR’s compiler. WHENEVER YOU’RE WRONG, ADMIT IT; WHENEVER YOU’RE RIGHT, SHUT UP. —Ogdan Nash, “A Word to Husbands”; cited in Roderick Nordell, “A Husband Who Could Make a Living From Light Verse: Ogden Nash Had Fun with Marriage and Other States of Confusion, but He Wrote to His Wife Like a Lovesick Swain” (Christian Science Monitor, April 27) LINK A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY 1. THE DAILY OUTRAGE : TONE DEAF; WHAT’S WRONG WITH US PUBLIC DIPLOMACY? EVERYTHING - ARI BERMAN (NATION): It’s a perfect snapshot of American foreign policy today: the Bush Administration’s outreach program to the Muslim world has no Muslims on staff. Depending on your perspective, this is either a symptom or a cause of a much larger public diplomacy problem. If that weren’t enough, the new head of the public diplomacy effort is Bush’s longtime spin-master Karen Hughes, the spokeswoman for many of the policies that have fueled worldwide resentment of America in the first place. Her new task is evidently none too urgent—Hughes won’t start until the fall. What’s a few months to a program that hasn’t accomplished much of anything over the past four years? Even Dick Cheney, hardly a defeatist, now admits that public diplomacy “has been a very weak part of our arsenal.” The appointment of Hughes, Bush says, “signifies my personal commitment to international diplomacy.” Apparently, so does John Bolton. LINK 2. GLOBAL ANTI-AMERICANISM IS SPREADING, U.S. AGENCY SAYS - WILLIAM FISHER (FINALCALL.COM, APRIL 26): Most of the government’s public diplomacy efforts come from the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The GAO, as well as media and foreign policy authorities, have stressed the importance of public diplomacy—especially the job of “winning the hearts and minds” of Muslim audiences in the Middle East—but…... FULL TEXT
 
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