USC Center on Public Diplomacy | John Brown's PD Review

Direct link to this article: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newsroom/johnbrown_detail/2678/

Published: JAN 7, 2008 - 7:22PM PDT

John Brown's Public Diplomacy Review
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, JANUARY 5-7
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, JANUARY 5-7, 2008 “President Bush is not doing a single thing I don’t agree to ... He doesn’t support anything that I oppose.” —Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert; cited in Jon Ward and David R. Sands, “Bush bound for Mideast” (Washington Times, January 7) http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080107/SPECIALREPORT/111420189/1001&template=printart “‘I can speak English,’ Dr. Habibullah said in Farsi ... He counted to twenty in English, only missing number eight. ‘Well done,’ I said. ‘That is nothing. I can count to one thousand.’ I say, ‘Perhaps later ...’” —Rory Stewart, a Scot who traveled across Afghanistan on foot, in his “The Places in between” (2004), p. 124 With many thanks to a valued PDPBR subscriber. VIDEO Past Nazi propaganda & today’s Islamic propaganda compared: Then And Now, Parts I & II (Videos) - Krishna109 (Infidel Bloggers Alliance, January 6) http://ibloga.blogspot.com/2008/01/past-nazi-propaganda-todays-islamic.html A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, 1-10 1. A Darker Shade Of Green Zone: In Baghdad, Low Expectations Have Supplanted High Ideals - Karen DeYoung (Washington Post, January 5): The US government has done its best to make Hussein’s Presidential Palace, a half-mile-long behemoth at the heart of the zone, look like an embassy. Drab drywall and metal slabs divide its extravagant rooms into cubicles. A mid-level Foreign Service officer whispers that the entire Iraq enterprise is “screwed,” and that somebody in Washington ought to do something about it. A public diplomacy expert explains the gift of democracy that Iraqis have been given, while a senior diplomat reflects on the difficulties of persuading the Iraqi government to do what Washington wants, saying, “This is really, really hard.” Meanwhile, the NEC, or New Embassy Compound, the most expensive US embassy in history, costing more than $600 million and scheduled for completion last September, is still unoccupied. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/04/AR2008010404125_pf.html 2. Undiplomatic Diplomacy: Greener Than Thou – Gerald Loftus (Avuncular American: An expatriate view from Europe, January 6): “My purpose here is not to trash the Energy Independence and Security Act, which appears to be the fruit of the Democratic Congress elected in November 2006, and has a number of worthwhile initiatives ... . No, I am taking issue with the public diplomacy tone-deafness of this administration, which, ever since Inauguration Day 2001, has exhibited passive-aggressive attitudes towards the environmental policies adopted by large swaths of the world—and then has the gall to lecture our European partners on the need to be ‘bolder’ when it is finally forced by a Democratic Congress to (belatedly) start to go in the right direction.” http://avuncularamerican.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/undiplomatic-at.html 3. Kim Andrew Elliot Discussing International Public Broadcasting and Public Dipomacy, latest edition. Contains important items pertaining to public diplomacy, both US and non-American. http://kimandrewelliott.com/ 4. Laugh out loud funny? The Final Tony Snow Job? This White House is different. Really –(The Heretik: Slime Time News, January 5): [Former White House spokesman Tony] Snow: “This is not like some previous administrations where people are running around with talking points. You’re not going to find—I guarantee you—people using exactly the same phrase because that’s…... FULL TEXT