November 2010: The View from CPD

This past month has offered up a plethora of PD stories from around the world for our amusement and analysis.  From Deutsche Welle’s feature about Queen Elizabeth II‘s entry into Facebook to columns about Ghana‘s ecotourism efforts, not to mention the trove of diplomatic cables publicized by WikiLeaks which will undoubtedly shape and deform foreign opinions of U.S. diplomatic practices and personnel. To delve into the PD ramifications of “Cablegate,” CPD immediately launched a Media Monitor to follow the WikiLeaks story as it unfolds, paying particular attention to the way the leaks have been received abroad.

But the focus of this issue of PDiN Monitor is President Obama‘s recent visit to Indonesia. In the PDiN Roundup, CPD Director Philip Seib assesses the public diplomacy impact of this trip using a wide angle lens.  How did Obama‘s November 10 speech to the Indonesian people fit into his administration‘s approach toward the Muslim world, and to what extent was he catering to his domestic audience? In the CPD Spotlight, APDS President Melanie Ciolek (MPD ‘11) - and winner of the CPD Prize for Best Student Paper in Public Diplomacy on the topic of the U.S. Embassy‘s use of Facebook in Jakarta – offers a balanced view of how Obama‘s visit was received by Indonesians.

It is gratifying to know so many of you read PDiN Monitor carefully. We‘ve published a sampling of the Letters to the Editor that we‘ve received on page 12. Please do continue to send us your comments and feedback to cpd@usc.edu.

We will take a short break from publishing PDiN Monitor next month and look forward to resuming our publication cycle in late January.

Best wishes for the holidays and the new year!

Sherine B. Walton
Editor-in-Chief, PDiN Monitor
Deputy Director, USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD)