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.
Isis Are Armed With Smartphones, But So Are We. Let's Fight Them Online.
Why? Because it’s becoming pretty obvious that Isis’s most effective weapon is the smartphone. The group has been using Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to great effect, to create a digital broth that has both panicked and fascinated us. Their graphic videos make front page news and their deranged tweets sway international diplomacy. Social media strategists round the world must be watching in awe.
You Can't Be Successful Globally Without This...
Contextual intelligence is critical for corporate and public diplomats alike. It is as essential to the effective practice of public diplomacy as it is to the global business environment. And as someone who has taught in various law enforcement and military academies, I would even argue it has direct application to our broader counter-terrorism and infrastructure protection efforts.
A Transformative Global Agenda for Development
A beacon of hope shines from the East River: Following a year and a half on a journey replete with bumps in the road and many twists and turns, member states of the United Nations completed a proposal for sustainable development goals, the set of global priorities to steer the international development agenda, once the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire at the end of 2015.
The Not So Cold War: State Department Bans Ice Bucket Challenge for Diplomats
With terrorists running rampant in Iraq and Russian convoys violating Ukrainian borders, the U.S. State Department is fussing over a new unnerving threat: its own diplomats taking the “Ice Bucket challenge.” The ice bucket challenge is this summer’s social media fad with a philanthropic twist (donations go to the ALS Foundation, which funds research to fight Lou Gehrig’s disease).
International Volunteering- an Investment in Development
International volunteering can challenge prevailing models of development, according to a new report by the Australian Red Cross which has called on the Federal Government to grow international volunteer programs with sustainable funding. The report said international volunteering contributes greatly to a legitimate and sustainable development process, above and beyond public diplomacy.
'Watching Titanic Made Me Realise Something was Wrong in My Country,' Says North Korean Defector
Crackdowns on foreign media in North Korea are a continuation of long-standing attempts by the government to suppress interest in foreign cultures. Studies show that access to foreign media undermines state control on several levels.
Forgotten Missions: Out of the Headlines but not out of Action, the U.S. Military is still Engaged in Long-Forgotten Interventions.
In this crisis-heavy summer, once high-priority missions are quickly falling off the public's - and sometimes the national security establishment's - radar. Even the biggest of U.S. military missions - Afghanistan, where roughly 29,000 U.S. troops are deployed -- seems to be on Washington's back burner compared with Ukraine and the threat of the Islamic State. But the commanders running these operations, as well as the personnel carrying them out, certainly haven't forgotten. The Pentagon's top five "forgotten missions" follow.
Qatar Seeks to Free More U.S. Hostages in Syria
Qatar is working to help free four Americans held hostage in Syria by various armed groups, a Gulf source familiar with the matter said on Monday, a day after the Gulf Arab state's diplomacy helped free a journalist held since 2012.
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