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.
Exploitation Isn’t ‘Cultural Exchange’ | Commentary
In a July 15 Roll Call opinion piece, “Don’t Devalue Exchange Programs in Immigration Reform,” Michael Petrucelli argues that the Senate immigration bill was wrong to include basic labor protections for the more than 100,000 student guestworkers who come to the U.S. each year through the J-1 visa program. Petrucelli argues that these workers aren’t really workers, but cultural exchange participants, and that the J-1 Exchange Visitor program isn’t really a guestworker program, but a tool of public diplomacy.
N. Korean Footballers Make Rare Seoul Visit
North Korea's women's football (soccer) team is on a rare visit to Seoul to play in the East Asia Cup and on July 21 will take on rival South Korea. While relations between the teams remain tense, analysts say the friendly sports exchange could help improve relations on the peninsula.
The PRISM Scandal, the Kremlin, and the Eurasian Union
The scandal caused a decline in American soft power. After the presidency of George W. Bush, Barack Obama incarnated the promise of a new, value-oriented America, a promise for which he received – rather prematurely – the Nobel Peace Prize. Five years later, the PRISM affair has dealt a heavy blow to Obama's – and America's – reputation, which was already dented by the unresolved question of the Guantanamo detainees and Obama's secret drone war.
Innovation Needs a Lingua Franca
Why pulling people in is more successful than pushing them on board. The second lesson I learned was about soft power or the ability to "influence nations far beyond the hard edge of traditional balance of power politics," a concept developed by Harvard political theorist Joseph Nye. As one would imagine, soft power rests on foreign policy and political values. It also relies on culture. The U.S., for example, exerts soft power by exporting over a half a million U.S.-educated foreign students each year. Having lived in Latin America, I was on the receiving end of soft power.
VOA Mock Reality Show Teaches Language Through Laughs
The Voice of America has its very own "mockumentary"-style comedy series – “English Off the Mic.” The program, by the VOA Mandarin Service, aims to teach American English and culture to viewers in China. The show's hosts/actors Lin Yang and Michael Bond and director Chenxing Zhang invite On Assignment's Alex Villarreal to a taping and tell her all about their fun approach to an important need.
Taiwan Strengthens Partnership With Student Exchange Programme
The Republic of China on Taiwan continues to strengthen its partnership with St. Kitts and Nevis in many areas, but a key area of focus for both countries is education, which is the basic pillar of growth and development in any society. With the introduction of a student exchange Programme between both countries, the importance of the role that education plays in development is underscored.
The Case for Mediated Public Diplomacy
For more than a decade, American public diplomacy has centered around Joseph Nye’s soft power approach. This approach is based on the assumption that nations can win global hearts and minds of foreign citizens by highlighting the attractiveness of its culture, political values, and foreign policy. To this end, public diplomacy officials have allocated billions of dollars into a variety of soft power programs such as cultural and educational exchanges, foreign aid and development, and English language instruction.
Delays, Underspending Plague Canadian Aid
About $1 in every $10 of Canadian aid money was reportedly unspent last fiscal year, hinting at the difficult road ahead for the government to streamline, simplify and speed up operations in the merged Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. Preliminary figures recently released by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer show that the former Canadian International Development Agency reportedly spent only $2.76 billion out of the $3.14 billion set aside for grants and contributions for fiscal year 2011-2012.
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