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.

The Arab World’s ‘Dallas’

A... historical soap opera based on the life of... Suleiman the Magnificent, it’s just one of more than 100 shows produced last year by Turkey’s booming TV-drama industry. The programs are becoming a wildly popular cultural phenomenon across the Middle East, bringing in their wake a renaissance in Turkey’s soft power and ushering in a low-key social revolution among the housewives of the Arab world.

Tags: soft power, middle east, media, turkey, women, television diplomacy, ottoman, soaps, gender equality

Calls for Enhanced Cultural Relationship between the Maroon Community and its Ashanti Origins

He used the opportunity to call for dialogue, exchanges and collaboration between the Caribbean and Africa and to factor the role of culture in social and economic development. This forms part of both countries overarching objectives on development, poverty reduction and our gradual integration into the global economy.

Tags: diaspora, cultural relations, ghana, jamaica, caribbean

After dramatic growth, ‘soft power’ contractors face more uncertainty

Small contractors that focus on the civilian tools of national security, such as diplomacy and law enforcement rather than weapons development, have found a valuable niche in recent years, growing exponentially as the Pentagon deployed these skills in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tags: soft power, public diplomacy, hard power, contractors, growth, military-civilian partnership

Libya’s Dark Lesson for NATO

Either Europeans will develop the security and defense identity they have advertised for so long, so Europe can have its own credible voice in a world not only run by soft power, or given the expense and difficulties of defeating even Libya, they will simply stop trying. The jury is out, but the verdict is important.

Tags: united states, soft power, european union, hard power, nato, libya, military, defense

Piecing together peace

The youth here dislike the armed forces. They are confused and susceptible to being radicalised. Unemployment level is high. It is a challenge dealing with them and that is why we are focusing on the soft power aspect. We have held interactions with students from Kashmir University and are now tapping into the National Cadet Corps, sensitising them.

Tags: soft power, public diplomacy, india, hard power, kashmir, army, hearts and minds

Witness to a decade that redefined Southeast Asia

China is taking note. It has begun flying Indonesia's Islamic scholars to China on study tours in order to show how Muslim minorities thrive in China, despite its official atheism. It's the kind of public diplomacy that the US has used for decades to burnish its image, so it's hardly surprising that China is doing the same.

Tags: china, united states, public diplomacy, indonesia, southeast asia, english, power, chinese language

Voice Of America’s Role In Internet Age

The ways that humans communicate with each other are diversifying and changing rapidly. Some people think if a golden era when Voice of America was on shortwave radio and there were the huddled masses listening and then looking for the secret police to knock on the door and hide the radio. That's not where we're at now.

Tags: international broadcasting, government pd, new technology, twitter, facebook, voice of america, internet diplomacy

Why is the Middle East Still in Thrall to 9/11 Conspiracy Theories?

In this sense, overcoming 9/11 revisionism is, perhaps, the greatest challenge facing American public diplomacy in the coming decade: So long as such conspiracy theories persist, Arabs will continue to view American policies aimed at preventing “another 9/11” as thoroughly illegitimate since, as they see it, 9/11 is just a big American lie.

Tags: united states, middle east, egypt, terrorism, september 11, muslim brotherhood, conspiracy

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