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John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press & Blog Review Archive is an aggregation of 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 between January 2004 and February 2008.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, FEBRUARY 3-4, 2008
by John H. Brown

Dear Friends, This will be the last PDPBR, due to circumstances beyond my control. With best wishes and with many thanks for your interest in public diplomacy and America’s role in the world.

Best,

John

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, FEBRUARY 3-4

“Bill Kristol: Look, the only people for Hillary Clinton are the Democratic establishment and white women. The Democratic establishment—it would be crazy for the Democratic Party to follow an establishment that’s led it to defeat year after year. White women are a problem, that’s, you know—we all live with that.
(laughter)

Juan Williams (National Public Radio correspondent and Fox News contributor): Not me!”

--Exchange on the February 3 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday
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via
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EVENT

The West’s Secret Plan for the Mind: Book Distribution to East Europe during the Cold War (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, February 6 : 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m)
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courtesy Len Baldyga

VIDEO

a) Donald Duck In The Spirit Of ‘43
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via
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b) FOX - George Bush Just Like Abraham Lincoln
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A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY (1-15)

1. SFRC Hears From Public Diplomacy Nominees – (U.S. Diplomacy: A Great Decisions 2008 Blog, February 4): On Wednesday of last week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard the testimony of three of President Bush’s nominees seeking confirmation to hold State Department positions in the bureau of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. The first to testify was James K. Glassman. It appears that Glassman has been doing his homework. Also testifying was Goli Ameri, President Bush’s nominee to hold the position of Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA).
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Glassman prepared testimony at
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2. Newsletter: Public Diplomacy in Europe, December 2007 (Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. State Department, Washington DC)
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Courtesy Len Baldyga

3. Kremlin More Subtly Jams Freedom’s Beams - Diane Zeleny, Director of Communications, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Prague (Letter to the Editor, Wall Street Journal, February 1): Little can be done, apparently, to convince the Kremlin to allow a free and fair domestic media, which makes the mission of international, independent Russian language media all the more critical.
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4. (Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy), latest edition
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5. UNI [University of Northern Iowa], other U.S. colleges, benefit from increase in international students - Mary Stegmeir (Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, IA, February 3): “Having international students here is really a good form of public diplomacy,” said Ross Schupbach, UNI’s international student admissions advisor. “It is something that breaks down barriers and lets people know how things work in the United States. We hope that they have a good experience here, and communicate that back in their home country.”
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6. “Politics and The Arts” — (hatto fischer, poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground, January 31): “One thing I don’t understand and with that I shall close my comments: the use of the term ‘cultural diplomacy’. Like in Europe efforts are made to use artists as ambassadors abroad, but if tied in with the traditional diplomatic methods and more so becomes a part of ‘branding culture’ as if the American, German, Mexican etc. one, then damage is caused to the artists quest for universal understanding. We are then back in the nationalist fold especially if ‘cultural diplomacy’ is really a way to sell a positive image of one’s own country abroad. It is pure marketing but with different, that is cultural means. More so cultural diplomacy can be linked to the public diplomacy practiced by the Bush administration insofar it is nothing but propaganda and has nothing to do with being truthful nor with the desire to level with people about the realities they live in. The arts and culture should never be instrumentalized as propaganda tools but there is a clear danger that this will be the case. They are too often abused in order to blind people about the true state of affairs.”
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7. Baghdad crud and the new embassy – (EgSinBaghdad: occasional comments about living and working in Beautiful Baghdad, the Mesopotamian Metropolis between the Rivers, February 3): “did a tour of the new embassy compound. you can read much about it in a vanity fair article of some months ago, but ed’s scoop: nice apartments, good office space, lots of creature comforts unheard of at most embassies (indoor pool, gyms, weight/exercise room, concession space for burger king, etc., etc..) but, as we cannot go out and shop on the local economy s we would normally do, well, everything must be provided inside the hardened structures where we’ll live and work. sucha shame - most people in the foreign service like to get out with the locals - shopping in the souk, buying brochettes from street vendors in conakry, water from vendors in the djma il fna in marrakesh, etc. but, to keep us safe, we’ll here be behind the walls and isolated away fromt he populace - rather self-defeaating of public diplomacy efforts.”
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8. Back to the Embassy of the Future – (The Skeptical Bureaucrat, January 28): [T]he new EOTF [Embassy of the Future would have both a secure central compound and several small satellite offices for public outreach and “distributed presence.” By the way, I very much like the new EOTF recommendations for that distributed presence, even though implementing them will require changing some current security standards and even a U.S. law (the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act, Public Law 106-113). It seems to me a reasonable risk, and a more appropriate venue for conducting public diplomacy.”
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via
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9. StratComm gets a black eye in the blogosphere – Chad B. Holmes (Beyond Blather: Promoting discussion of strategic communication among communicators dedicated to supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States of America, February 4): Strategic Communication got taken to the woodshed in the blogosphere last week after former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld again promoted a high-level government office to manage strategic communication for the United States.
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10. Got it? - cannoneerno4 (Civilian Irregular Information Defense Group: Distributed Information Operations by domestic PSYOP auxilliaries, February 3): Public Diplomacy—PD is the U.S. State Dept’s influence and information capability—PSYOP can support public diplomacy.
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11. Matt Armstrong’s “Mountainrunner” – Rima Tatevossian PD Blogger Interview (USC Center on Public Diplomacy): Armstrong’s key interests and studies in Public Diplomacy are echoed in the manifesto of MountainRunner: “This blog is a device to discuss, explore and even link ideas in the four major, and overlapping and often mutually dependent, areas important to the future of America’s national security: public diplomacy, unrestricted warfare, privatization of force, and civil-military relations.”
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see also
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12. Chronicle readers question the candidates: Sen. Barack Obama (SFGate.com, February 4): Obama— “I have … called for a comprehensive public diplomacy program, including funding for ‘America Houses’ to incorporate youth centers and libraries that are needed throughout the broader Muslim World, and the establishment of a “Voice Corps” to rapidly recruit and train fluent speakers of Arabic, Bahasa, Bahasa, Farsi, Urdu, and Turkish who can ensure our voice is heard—and that we listen—throughout the world. As President, I will lead this public diplomacy effort, beginning with a speech at a major Islamic forum in my first 100 days.“
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13. Official says institutes are propaganda tools - Fan Cheng-hsiang (Taipei Times, January 31): An Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC) official said yesterday that China has established more than 200 “Confucius Institutes” in a bid to disseminate propaganda. While these Confucius Institutes claim to promote Chinese language and culture, they are controlled by the Chinese government and aim to use education and culture to gain international influence and promote the viewpoints of the Beijing government, said an OCAC official, who declined to be identified.
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14. Devalued norms – (Jerusalem Post, February 3): The replication in Gaza of some of the many mistakes made in that war against Hizbullah—the lack of forward planning, the basing of decisions on assumptions rather than facts, the inadequate evaluation of the consequences of certain policies, the absent public diplomacy, and more—has confirmed the ongoing lack of expertise and of crucial decision-making processes that characterize Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s leadership.
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15. Spy vs. Spy – Wes Pedersen (Letters to the editor, Washington Post, February 3): “In his review of Hugh Wilford’s The Mighty Wurlitzer (Book World, Jan. 27), Michael Kazin gets it at least three-quarters right. The CIA in the Cold War did indeed create a mighty clandestine web, recruiting American and foreign writers to produce propaganda aimed at destabilizing many of the official and unofficial institutions in the communist orbit. But in its founding years, the U.S. Information Agency demonstrated repeatedly that it, too, could play the game and, on occasion, play it better.”
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on USIA see
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B) RELATED ITEMS (U.S. in world, 16-19; Iraq, 20-21; Iran, 22-23; Afghanistan, 24-26; Pakistan, 27; North Korea, 28; Darfur, 29; Spain, 30; Russia, 31; democratization in Central Asia, 32; global warming, 33; US torture, 34-36; US Foreign Service, 37; Rice, 38-39)

16. The whole world is watching - Times (Los Angeles Times, February 4): Correspondents assess the U.S. campaign through local lenses in four regions:
Asia
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Latin America
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Middle East
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Europe
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17. The Cold War as Ancient History - Roger Cohen (New York Times, February 4): It’s time again for a new U.S. leader to find words that embody the world’s hopes.
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18. Downsizing our dominance: The next president will have to deal with a world in which U.S. hegemony is a thing of the past - Fred Kaplan (Los Angeles Times, February 3): The next president’s big challenge will be to revive America’s influence and stature while facing up to the limits of its power in a newly fractured world.
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19. Blowback from the GOP’s holy war: The 2008 Republican race has left a bitter legacy of sloganeering against Muslims. It may well haunt the party this November - Juan Cole (Salon, February 1): If any of the remaining candidates does win the presidency, he is going to have to cultivate close relations with Middle Eastern regimes to even begin resolving the mess in that region. And that president will have to do so saddled from the start with a legacy of denigrating Islam and Muslims.
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20. In Iraq, Three Wars Engage U.S. : Shiite Extremists Pose Greatest Challenge, Military Officials Say - Thomas E. Ricks (Washington Post, February 3): The wars are against al-Qaeda in Iraq, against the domestic Sunni insurgency, and against Shiite extremist militias.
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21. Iraq as Stepchild of the American Empire: A Colony By Any Other Name - Robert Fantina (CounterPunch, February 2/3)
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22. Target: Israel - Louis René Beres and Thomas McInerney (Washington Times, February 4): If America won’t act decisively against Iran, Israel must.
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23. Three Internet Cables Slashed in a Week: Has Iran lost all Internet Connectivity? - Mike Whitney (GlobalReserach.ca, February 3)
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24. Deconflicting the GWOT Matrix - Meatball One (Swedish Meatballs Confidential, February 3): Some are now suggesting it’s time to deconflict the GWOT [Global War on Terrorism] matrix and save what can be saved of an Afghanistan critically foundering in the shadow of an embarrassing and debilitating controversy called Iraq.
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25. Teams work to rebuild Afghanistan - Philip Smucker (Washington Times, February 4): With vast swathes of the Afghan countryside slipping under the sway of insurgent groups, the U.S. military is attaching new interest and urgency to the work of the 25 Provincial Reconstruction Teams charged with bringing development to the country.
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26. The world can’t ignore the Al Qaeda and Taliban threat in Afghanistan: A surge by the US and its allies is needed in the country – editorial (Christian Science Monitor, February 4)
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27. What to Do About Pakistan – Ivan Eland (antiwar.com, February 4): With both aid and democracy promotion, U.S. policy toward Pakistan should first be “do no harm.” Doing less in both cases is likely to get better results.
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28. Pulling the plug on Pyongyang - James T. Hackett (Washington Times, February 3): President Bush changed policy on North Korea when things were going badly in Iraq and he needed a victory. He was not well-served by those who suggested he could find his legacy in North Korea. But now there is a chance to make amends.
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29. Help Wanted in Darfur: The Bush administration should put some muscle behind deploying a peacekeeping force – Editorial (Washington Post, February 3)
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30. Remember the Maine: Not much love lost between the United States and Spain - Mark Falcoff
(Weekly Standard, February 2)
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paid subscription

31. Putin’s Russia, Armed With Oil, Menaces West in `New Cold War’ - George Walden (Bloomberg, February 4): It would be comforting to think that hostility to the West is limited to unsophisticated Russians and to an elite cadre in the Kremlin. Yet a recent poll found that resentment of the U.S. is strongest among university-educated male Muscovites. Ambitious Russians, like BBC executives in the U.K., have apparently decided that anti-Americanism is a good career move.
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32. Seeking a Path in Democracy’s Dead End - C. J. Chivers (New York Times, February 3): In the last three years in the former vassals of the Kremlin that lie to Moscow’s southeast, from the Caspian Sea to China’s borders, the exuberant vision of nurturing pluralistic societies and governments responsive to popular will—enunciated by President Bush’s public calls for democratization—has met so many obstacles that it has been quietly recalibrated.
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33. Late and Lame on Warming – Editorial (New York Times, February 4):
Even allowing for the low expectations we bring to any lame-duck president’s final State of the Union address, President Bush’s brief discussion of climate change seemed especially disconnected from reality: from the seriousness and urgency of the problem and from his own responsibility for obstructing progress.
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34. Torture Does Not Work, as History Shows – Robert Fiske (Independent, February 3/Common Dreams): Who said “waterboarding” was new? The Americans are just apeing their predecessors in the inquisition.
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35. Torture Unnecessary to Get Information - Peter Weiss (Vindicator, Youngstown, Ohio, February 2/Common Dreams)
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36. Would It Be Torture If It Was Done to You? - David Bromwich (Huffington Post, February 3): Attorney General Michael Mukasey intimated that the president could have been acting legally when he authorized the drowning torture: a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, and under the treaty obligations of the United States.
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37. Bush Aims To Hire More Diplomats: Foreign Service Would Gain 1,100 Positions - Matthew Lee, Associated Press (Washington Post, February 4): President Bush wants to hire nearly 1,100 new diplomats to address severe staffing shortages and put the State Department on track to meet an ambitious call to double its size over the next decade, according to administration officials. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has lobbied hard for the new hires.
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38. Quickie: Condi Just Wants 1,100 New Underlings, OK? (Princess Sparkle Pony’s Photo Blog: I keep track of Condoleezza’s hairdo so you don’t have to, February 4): “Hey, that’s an average of just over 3 hires a day for the remainder of the administration. Hop to it, OPM!”
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39. Condoleezza’s Glamorous World of Dinner Parties & 9/11 – Peter Huestis (Wonkette, February 4): Condi was back in Foggy Bottom 24/7 last week, and you know what that means: photo-ops, photo-ops, photo-ops!
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C) MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

“We’ve grown into a culture of searchers, not readers.”

--School Librarian Thomas Washington; cited in Washington’s “Kids Can’t Focus These Days. Then Again, Neither Can I” (Washington Post, February 3)
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’How long is it?’ has replaced ‘Will I like it?’”

--Thomas Washington, from above article, noting a question asked by younger readers

D) ONE MORE VIDEO

New American Gladiators! Rejected Auditions!
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E) IMAGES

Battlestar Galactica Propaganda Posters
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