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.
Building a bridge across cultures
"Promoting cultural communication is an interesting job," says Krause in fluent Chinese. "The Confucius Institute is more like my kid, a 5-year-old who has started kindergarten but doesn't need breastfeeding anymore," he adds.
The impact of the Olympic Opening Ceremony
As the profile of the Games has exponentially increased over the years,the Games is no longer seen purely as a celebration of the best of sport, but also a celebration of the host country, a communication exercise intended to increase a country’s ‘soft power’ and relative standing within the international arena.
‘Small’ Georgia takes on ‘big’ Russia with new media
Since such 'hard power' options are unavailable to them, small states are often left with 'soft power' as an only means of influencing their adversaries. Soft power comes in many flavors, including public diplomacy and propaganda, traditionally costly endeavors.
Diplomacy devalued
The YouTube video of Madam Ambassador's address at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Geneva has gone viral on social media, leaving behind a nation cringing in embarrassment at the quality of its diplomatic representation in a key location in the world.
EU citizens: Ukraine deserves to join the EU
Almost half of the European guests, who visited Ukraine during EURO 2012 football championship, stated that Ukraine deserved to enter the EU in the near future. EU citizens were surveyed by GfK Company as a part of the Soft Power of Ukraine in the EU and Beyond project, commissioned by the Institute of World Policy, USA.
Amid crisis, Europeans flock to learn Chinese
Aggregate data are not available, but figures from local language centres across the continent suggest that the number of people in Europe enlisted in taking the official Chinese Proficiency Test - or HSK - over the last two years has grown by close to a factor five.
At 49, China’s Tamil radio station plans an expansion
CRI, one of Beijing’s four main state-run media outlets along with the Xinhua news agency, China Central Television (CCTV) and the English-language China Daily newspaper, is now at the centre of an $8 billion expansion, part of China’s plans to boost its “soft power” overseas.
Guest Post: “Here's to Cultural Diplomacy” by Caroline Miller (UK)
Whatever the London 2012 opening ceremony includes, I am sure it will effectively communicate to a mass audience more about modern Britain in just one show than politicians have achieved in decades... we must remember that no matter what our countries financial difficulties (or not), the arts have a role to play challenging the idea of what a country is and stands for… So here’s to cultural diplomacy.
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