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.

NATO To Open Liaison Office In Uzbekistan

ATO is opening a liaison office in Tashkent -- but don't read too much geopolitical significance into the move. A number of Russian-media outlets have reported the move, seeing in it yet another piece of evidence that Uzbekistan is moving away from Russia (leaving the Collective Security Treaty Organization) and toward the West (cooperating with the U.S. on military transit to and from Afghanistan, getting increasing military aid from Washington).

Tags: nato, uzbekistan, treaty

Guns Versus Trade: U.S. and China Rivalry over Africa’s Riches

It is not hard to outshine the West in Africa, given the horrifying record of Western nations there. As I have documented in my Monitor article “The Ravaging of Africa” (October 2002) and the radio documentary of the same title (2007), U.S. imperial strategy towards Africa has devastated the continent.

Tags: china, united states, soft power, government pd, public diplomacy, africa, aid diplomacy, military diplomacy

Stop Human Trafficking at the Beginning

Cultural exchange and commercial transactions between whalers, traders and missionaries, and island women, have been occurring since the 18th and 19th centuries. Food, water and commodities were often exchanged for female companionship. In 1962, the changed status of Guam's security clearance requirements, and the budding tourism industry, spurred the striptease industry.

Tags: united states, public diplomacy, cultural exchange, tourism, human trafficking, guam

War Of Words: France Debates Teaching Courses In English

So it's not that just by teaching in English you completely cut off French as a language. On the contrary, you get more people interested in France, more people interested in the ideas that French intellectuals have," he says. "They get passionate about the place. And so France carries on living in their imaginations when they've left France again." That, says Gumbel, is the very definition of soft power.

Tags: soft power, language, france, english

Chinese, German PMs Agree to Promote Cooperation, Strategic Partnership

Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his German counterpart Angela Merkel held talks to map out future mutual cooperation and reached an important consensus on deepening the strategic partnership between the two nations.

Tags: china, culture, germany, strategic partnership

Smart Power Opens Minds, Opens Markets

The most forward-looking companies increasingly use their own "smart power" partnerships with international development agencies and NGOs as a way of opening markets. While a country uses smart power when it intelligently combines hard military power with soft...

Tags: united states, soft power, public diplomacy, non-state pd, smart power, usaid,

Foreign Projects Give Afghans Fashion, Skate Park and Now 10,000 Balloons

With more than a hundred billion dollars in Western aid and private philanthropy sloshing around Afghanistan in the past dozen years, and thousands of groups trying to find ways to spend it, examples abound of efforts from the ridiculous to the sublime.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, afghanistan, usaid

Fifty Anthems for the African Continent

To mark the 50th anniversary of the African Union - formerly the Organisation of African Unity, BBC World Service listeners suggested the African songs that summed up the continent to them.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacy, africa, music diplomacy, art diplomacy, african union

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