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.
China Lifts Security Restrictions to Appease Advertisers
Beijing Olympics organisers were forced to lift draconian security arrangements after complaints from sponsors that the millions of pounds they had spent was going to waste in an empty and joyless Olympic park.
‘Minorities Park’ Has Everything But Minorities
The Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, where seven people on Wednesday protested China’s human-rights abuses in Tibet, occupies the southwestern corner of the huge swathe of northern Beijing that has been redeveloped into the National Olympic Park. Until recently, the park employed Tibetan monks from Sichuan Province. Tibetan dancers and singers still add some color to the Tibetan section, but the monks are gone. “They haven’t been here for several months,” a shop assistant said last week.
Nastia Liukin Wins Women’s All-Around Title
Nastia Liukin of the United States edged her compatriot Shawn Johnson to win the women's individual all-around gold medal after a breathtaking Olympic gymnastics competition here on Friday. Finishing one-two on the podium, the American duo forced the time for another national anthem to be played after hosts China wrapped up all the first three gymnastics titles in the National Indoor Stadium
Table Tennis Legend Averts National Disaster
One cannot imagine the horror that beset Peking University Gymnasium in the midst of this improbability yesterday morning – the mighty Wang Liqin struggling to defeat an Australian named William Henzell. It will go down in Chinese history, we have determined after consultation with the finest translators in the business, as "a doozy."
Taiwan in Shock After Loss to China
The game was so important that Taiwan's baseball chief had offered to resign if his team, officially named "Chinese Taipei" because of political sensitivities with China, lost. Other heads could roll as well, he said ahead of the Olympics.
U.S. shifts ‘hearts and minds’ fight
Nearly seven years after the 9/11 attacks spawned the question, "Why do they hate us?" and made the repair of America's poor international image a top foreign-policy pursuit, the Bush administration is taking a new tack in the "war of ideas." Out, or at least de-emphasized, is the effort to explain America and its widely disdained foreign policy.
Public Diplomacy and the New Transatlantic Agenda
Terrorism, climate change and the need to sustain a vibrant international trading system will challenge the United States and Europe for many years to come. At times, these issues may test the cohesion of the transatlantic partnership itself. Nonetheless, U.S. and European leaders recognize that confronting transnational challenges effectively means confronting them together. But they must also recognize an important fact: cooperation between governments alone will not be enough.
Nations as Brands: Singapore and Estonia
In today’s competitive global market, nations are realizing that their reputations, the image of them that the rest of the world sees, are vital to their growth and development. The label, or “brand” that the rest of the world puts on them, can be either a valuable asset or a harmful detriment to their economy, industry, and relations with other countries. For this reason, the business of nation branding has become a popular marketing strategy among federal governments and national tourism sectors in recent years.
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