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.

Birt Talks Tough on Who Now Foots the World Service Bill

So much World Service discussion habitually worries about cuts to inherited structures, but here was a bracing counter-blast: never mind soft power; now let’s make all the hard choices that help us, not Whitehall.

Tags: world service, united kingdom, lord birt, international broadcasting, soft power, bbc

Ethiopia's New Diplomacy: Regional Strategies and Significance

The Ethiopian Public diplomacy team has achieved its objectives. The Egyptian President Al-Sisi said, Ethiopia has every right to development and utilization of the Nile Waters.

Tags: ethiopia, egypt, president al-sisi, soft power, government pd, nile river

Confucius Institutes – Quo Vadis?

Since the first institute opened ten years ago, 475 Confucius Institutes and 851 smaller Confucius Classrooms have been established in 126 countries. These numbers raise concerns outside of China about the institute’s intentions, and have prompted some to consider the future of China’s most prominent and most controversial cultural diplomacy initiative.

Tags: china, confucius institute, Cultural Diplomacy, united states, xu lin

Janet Jackson on Palestine, Syria Peace Mission

Pop-music icon Janet Jackson was in Palestine on Sunday during a visit to Occupied Jerusalem with her Qatari billionaire husband Wissam al-Mana.  Jackson, also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, posted pictures on her Twitter account of herself posing with “beautiful Palestinian students.”

Tags: jordan, palestine, celebrity diplomacy, conflict

The Mexican Kitchen's Islamic Connection

Although Mexico and India were on opposite sides of the globe, the brown, spicy, aromatic curries that he was offered in India sparked memories of Mexico’s national dish, mole (pronounced MO-lay). Is mole, he wondered, “an ingenious Mexican version of curry, or is curry a Hindu adaptation of a Mexican sauce?”

Tags: mexico, islam, india, gastrodiplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy, history & theory

Does America Need a BBC?

Washington would do well to incorporate the business approaches of the BBC and other successful models that mix entertainment, education and news with a massive stock pile of programs for the foreign audience to consume. 

Tags: united states, international broadcasting, bbc, great britain

U.S.-Cuba Cultural Ties, Long Hearty, at Crossroads

With Detente, Politics Is Finally Catching Up With a Mutual Fascination That Survived a Half Century of Hostility Between Washington and Havana.

Tags: united states, cuba, Cultural Diplomacy, government pd, international relations

Obama's New Diplomacy — Who doesn't Want Cuban Cigars?

When the president of the United States moved to normalize relations with the communist nation, many on the right cried foul. (...) These criticisms refer not to President Obama's new Cuba policy, but to President Nixon's opening to China in 1971. Nixon's critics were on the wrong side of history then, just as Obama's critics are now.

Tags: obama, new diplomacy, us-cuba relations, bay of pigs, nixon, cold war, china

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