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.

AIDS and Public Diplomacy

The United States in 2003 committed $15 billion over five years to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Although not labeled as such, this is public diplomacy as it should be done. It is about service, not advertising. It improves (and protects) people’s lives, and as a result wins friends and serves the diplomatic interests of the United States.

Tags: united states, government pd, science diplomacy, africa, aid diplomacy, hivaids, medicine, health diplomacy

Translating concepts into reality at Tianjin Eco-city

The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city is the second major government project between China and Singapore. Its goal is to develop a livable and efficient city in an ecologically sound and environmentally sustainable way. Another project in the pipeline is the development of a low-carbon living laboratory which is expected to appeal to Singapore companies keen to invest in the area.

Tags: china, government pd, singapore, sustainable development

The region’s first truly Pan-Arab social network?

With a predominantly English speaking subscriber base, it has been hard to view Facebook’s demographics as representative of the Arab consumer. At the same time, no homegrown social network has been successful in appealing to Arabic language Internet users in numbers and the region’s Arabic language social media environment has remained a fragmented one. This is now changing: fast.

Tags: middle east, arab spring, social media, new technology, non-state pd, crisis coverage, facebook

A social divide, not digital

It's never been so easy to find out what people whose experiences of the world are very different to our own, think and feel. Often the perspectives of an organisation's staff and would-be service users can be as different as any two people on Twitter, and as such, they may never cross paths...this is where both our greatest challenges and opportunities lie in the social web.

Tags: social media, new technology, twitter, facebook

Facebook growth slows for second month in a row

The number of people using Facebook during May fell in the US, UK, Canada, Norway and Russia, according to new data. The slowing growth in user numbers may indicate that Facebook has hit the limits of expansion in the countries where it was first successful – and perhaps even that some early adopters from those countries have stopped using it.

Tags: china, united states, social media, russia, new technology, canada, facebook, britain, internet diplomacy, norway

The press and the Arab spring: Six reasons for failure

Most people in the West were stunned and amazed at the revolts which spread across the Arab World that started in Tunisia in January. Yet the reality was all the ingredients for such uprisings were present and well known...It begs the question as to why the media were part of a collective failure: how come there was no sense in the press of this impending tempest...?

Tags: middle east, media, arab spring, crisis coverage

Alphabet soup of the BRIC battle

It's becoming an area of spirited debate in government and financial circles - what is and isn't a BRIC country and how should they be classified? As the emerging world forges ahead and western economies hesitatingly recover from the financial crisis the call for inclusion in the BRIC block becomes louder.

Tags: nation branding, public opinion, indonesia, economy, economic development

Murdoch makes film plea to China

Rupert Murdoch has warned China that it will encourage piracy and limit opportunities for its own booming movie market if it does not open up to foreign films, in the latest sign of western media owners' frustrations with Chinese restrictions.

Tags: china, Cultural Diplomacy, media, non-state pd, film diplomacy, speech

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