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.
Obama Brings New Tone To Mideast
President Barack Obama's first call to a foreign leader was to Mahmoud Abbas, the beleaguered Palestinian president. His first interview, on Monday, was with Al Arabiya, a Dubai-based Arabic satellite television station. A new tone has entered American policy towards the Middle East
Obama Must Transcend Israeli/Palestinian Divisions
A new approach to diplomacy will reach out and talk to friends and critics, to those with "clenched fists" and those Middle East governments whose iron fists are often hidden in velvet gloves.
Obama Interview Underscores the State of Mid-East Television
t should come as no surprise that President Obama granted his first formal TV interview to the Middle East Arabic channel Al Arabiya. In the Middle East, the moderate news channel Al Arabiya drubs other Arabic news channels in popularity, including the controversial Al Jazeera and the U.S. government's Al Hurra,- the latter of which is getting better numbers than before, but nothing to match Al Arabiya's.
Opinion Briefing: U.S. Image in Middle East/North Africa
s U.S. President Barack Obama seeks to pave a new, more positive way forward with the Muslim world, Gallup Polls underscore the gravity of the task. Gallup Polls in 143 countries reveal the image of the leadership of the United States is generally poor worldwide, but that the Obama administration will have the most repair work to do on its image in the predominantly Muslim Middle East and North Africa, where regional median approval is just 15%.
Does Obama Snub of Alhurra Signal a Shift?
President Obama chose a Saudi-funded television network today for his first interview aimed at an Arab audience, passing over the U.S. government’s own heavily-funded Alhurra station...The president’s decision to go with Al Arabiya led several media watchers to wonder whether Alhurra would continue to receive the same kind of cash flow from the Obama administration as it enjoyed under former president Bush.
Don’t blame the State Department for its Own Starvation
What is needed is a wholesale rethinking of how we organize, train, and equip our diplomats and how we connect them to the President’s priorities. Does anyone really think we have enough diplomats for the people-intensive tasks of winning the war of ideas? How about advancing democracy? Strengthening civil society? Showing people in societies threatened by globalization the power of America’s creed of opportunity and self-reliance? There are more than 200 cities in the world with populations over a million people that have no U.S. diplomatic representation at all.
Obama to Arabs: “what you’ll see is someone who is listening”
It's impossible to exaggerate the symbolic importance of Barack Obama choosing an Arabic satellite television station for his first formal interview as President -- and of taking that opportunity to talk frankly about a new relationship with the Muslim world based on mutual respect and emphasizing listening rather than dictating. His interview promises a genuinely fresh start in the way the United States interacts with the Arab world and a new dedication to public diplomacy.
Pressing the Reset Buttons after January 20
By dint of Obama’s magnetism, one can logically expect a sharp uptick in the Pew Global Attitudes Survey’s favorability figures on the United States. Other factors, such as the promised closure of the Guantanamo prison camp and expected withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, signal clean breaks from the Bush years and will be applauded internationally.
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