A curated selection of public diplomacy-relevant news from a global cross-section of English-language media outlets, including independent, corporate-owned, and state-sponsored sources. The stories featured don't necessarily represent CPD's views nor have they been verified by CPD.
In First Trip, Clinton Brings Different Style to Diplomacy
In her first overseas trip, a weeklong tour through Asia, Clinton rewrote the rulebook, employing gravitas with foreign leaders but leading a free-wheeling, campaign-like effort to mend what she says is a tattered U.S. image, prod people into saving energy and serve as empowerment coach for women around the globe.
Clinton presides over State Department 2.0
Barack Obama outdueled Hillary Clinton on the Web during their battle for the Democratic presidential nomination. But Secretary of State Clinton is giving President Obama a run for the money in the latest Web 2.0 sweepstakes.
Beijing Wants State Press to be Heard, and Believed, Around the World
China’s propaganda chief Liu Yunshan said as much in the Chinese Communist Party’s main ideological journal Qiu Shi (Seeking Truth) last month. He wrote: “It has become an urgent strategic task for us to make our communication capability match our international status.” The party’s ideology czar Li Changchun has been more explicit.
US Can No Longer Write Script for World
Since less than 10 per cent of the famously insular and post-textual American public travels abroad annually, they get most of their impressions (and misconceptions) about the world beyond their borders from the image media, particularly from Hollywood films like the Mission: Impossible, James Bond or, God forbid, the Rambo series. If politics in the information age is about whose story wins, then, given this reality, America's storytellers - Hollywood - have a starring role in defining America's presence globally.
Mexico at the Cross Roads
“Poor Mexico“ the nation’s nineteenth century dictator Porfirio Díaz supposedly remarked, “so far from God and so close to the United States!” His lament continues to strike a chord today.
A Quieter Approach to Spreading Democracy Abroad
During her trip to Asia last week, Secretary Clinton said that human rights violations by China “can’t interfere” with cooperation between Washington and Beijing on other issues. That may simply be a more honest statement of longstanding reality in the Chinese-American relationship, but it still seemed jarring.
Clinton Campaigns to Mend U.S. Image, Connect With Asian Public
In her first trip as President Barack Obama’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Clinton has taken her talents as a politician and her personal celebrity to East Asia, stumping to rehabilitate a view of America battered by widespread disapproval of former President George W. Bush’s foreign policy...Clinton’s trip has been heavy on a message for ordinary people: The door is open and the U.S. is ready to listen.
Diplomacy Gets a New Lease on Life
For more than a year Gates has been banging American heads against the hard – if hardly new – truth that soldiers need more help from diplomats and aid agencies to counter insurgents. In sharpening the point that war just isn't what it used to be, Gates made famous the statistic, repeated by Obama, that the U.S. has more military musicians than foreign service officers. Losing "soft" power isn't unique to the U.S. In rebuilding Canada's decayed military – a worthy project begun by Liberals and accelerated by Conservatives – the federal government let its other foreign policy arms wither.
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