Middle East
I think my son was disappointed at what he got this year. After opening his gifts, he started throwing shoes at me.”
-David Letterman, December 29th
Alhurra is failing to improve understanding of American policies and culture in the Middle East, says a new report.
If we consider public diplomacy in the narrower sense, as one government's efforts to speak to the public of another nation, President Bush's visit to Iraq this weekend would be a, well, "fitting" symbol of the state of American PD. He narrowly ducked rage that was aimed at him by a new manner of shoe bomber, one equipped with both ninja skill and ferocity.
Can Al-Jazeera English (AJE) be more than a news source and aid conflict resolution through conciliation?
The Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Communication at The American University in Dubai kicked off its academic events for the current Fall semester with a lecture entitled, “Public Diplomacy, a New Tool for Dubai,” delivered by Dean of USC Annenberg School for Communication and CPD faculty fellow, Dr. Ernest J. Wilson III, at the university of southern California; the institution with which AUD is collaborating.
It is about time that the Al-Jazeera Network received some good news from America. Having been accused by the former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld of inciting terrorism and assisting Iraqi insurgents, and then allegedly considered as a potential target of a U.S.-led military strike, Al-Jazeera has not exactly felt welcome here in the United States since the beginning of the war in Iraq.
For all the seething scorn and vitriol Americans have hurled toward Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in recent years one would never suspect a kindly word of either uttered privately, let alone publicly. But when it comes to public diplomacy such inhibitions seem to disappear even amongst the highest ranking political leadership and in the most public fashion. In a speech on November 26 before an audience at Kansas State University, it was Defense Secretary Robert Gates' turn to wax profoundly on the subject.