APDS Blogger: John Nahas While the controversy surrounding the proposed Muslim Community Center and Mosque at Ground Zero continues on in the U.S., another site of worship has been restored and opened in the most unlikely place—Beirut, Lebanon. The Magen Avraham Synagogue in Beirut’s Wadi Abu Jmil district reopened this past week after nearly three decades of being closed due to significant damage during the Lebanese civil war. Ironically, the Synagogue was destroyed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) as they sought to route the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from Beirut in 1982. The restoration project is the culmination of…... Full Text

TAMPA --- At the headquarters of U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, some young civilians are pushing back at extremist messages that permeate Internet forums. This Digital Engagement Team’s members, who are fluent in Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu, comb through online postings in their respective languages looking for incendiary or inaccurate commentary about U.S. military operations or related activity. When these messages are found, the team prepares “engagements” that challenge the writer’s logic or facts. A recent example: a Farsi-speaking member of the team found a commentary defending the suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed more than 40 Iraqi Army…... Full Text

As a major emerging economy and the host of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, Brazil is keen to present the country as more than about soccer, samba, and carnivals. Pavilion Director Pedro Wendler discusses the country’s positioning and communication at Shanghai Expo. Beyond Soccer … >> For viewers in China, follow this link to watch the video >> More Videos on Nation Branding at Expo 2010 Shanghai

Every so often, with about the same frequency as a combination hailstorm and solar eclipse, I get an op-ed published. In 2002 and 2007, The New York Times published my pieces about the need for autonomy in U.S. international broadcasting. On July 13, they published me again. The op-ed, "Radio Free of Bureaucracy" is about my other recurring theme: the need for consolidation in U.S. international broadcasting. I pointed out that the audience for U.S. international broadcasting (Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and TV Marti, Alhurra, and Radio Sawa), at about 180 million, is…... Full Text

As a venue for public diplomacy, the World Expo is highly valued yet under-analyzed. This is particularly true of the current Expo in Shanghai. For many countries, Shanghai Expo is the most expensive and arguably the most important one they have ever attended. And, for the millions of Chinese, for whom international travel is still a luxury they cannot afford, visiting the Expo has become a once-in-a-life time chance to get a glimpse of other countries epitomized in the national pavilions. The potential cultural impact can certainly be vast. The Expo being a “tournament of cultures” – more celebratory than…... Full Text