APDS Blogger: Jennifer Yael Green

Nearly twenty years after the end of Apartheid, South Africa is still a country of controversy and conflicting narratives.

Currently, I am working for the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association (NaHHA), a non-profit organization that promotes a greater presence of Hawaiian culture in the tourism industry. NaHHA works “to connect the Hawaiian community and the tourism industry” through “consulting and educating, developing and implementing effective communication tools.” As a contractor of the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority (HTA), NaHHA is the lead agency for State of Hawaii’s initiative to promote Hawaiian culture in tourism.

Two recent books on China and India have highlighted the rising importance of public diplomacy within the foreign policies of these rising Asian giants. Taken together, U.S. academic David Shambaugh’s China Goes Global and Indian writer and Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor’s Pax Indica reveal some telling differences between the way both governments approach the pursuit of soft power. Both books suggest quite divergent outlooks for the two governments in their search for global influence through PD in the coming years.

Background

The Secretary, by BBC correspondent Kim Ghattas, is a remarkable book. Not only does it provide an insightful record of life on the road with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but also it treats public diplomacy seriously.

This latter point might not seem so special, but it is remarkable how few people understand what public diplomacy is and why it is an essential element of international relations. Rarely do journalists acknowledge public diplomacy’s existence, much less write about it as thoughtfully as Ghattas does.

This past week the Washington Post ran a story about the troubles of Russian lawmaker Dimitri Gudkov, assailed by his government for having the temerity to visit the U.S. and address U.S.-Russian relations on Capitol Hill. As the short article explained Gudkov was in the U.S.

APDS Blogger: Danni Li

President Barack Obama’s relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has never been warm. So while visiting Israel, Obama did not limit himself to the standard rhetorical niceties. He went over the heads of politicians and appealed directly to the Israeli public, especially the young, to make his case for a more flexible approach to negotiating with Palestinians.