Take a look at Barack Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo.... The beautiful words were seen to have been built on air, not on a foundation of policy. Arabs are a tough audience. They’ve heard it all before: blueprints, roadmaps, promises about this and that. And yet nothing ever seemed to change…until they took matters into their own hands.

“Muslims do not ‘hate our freedom,’ but rather they hate our policies…when American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy” in light of the U.S. record of blocking democracy in the region.

DUBAI --- Take a look at Barack Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo. It was beautifully written and radiated good intentions. The U.S. government relied heavily on new media tools to disseminate it throughout the Arab world and beyond. Arab opinion of Obama improved significantly; and then it dropped like a rock.

In the latest sign of the hardline movement's rapprochement with at least some areas of the modern world, the Taliban have embraced microblogging. Their Twitter feed, @alemarahweb, pumps out several messages a day, keeping followers up to date with often highly exaggerated reports of strikes.

CPD Director Philip Seib, along with several other media experts, will be participating in the 10th Arab Media Forum in Dubai, UAE.

Some tourist destinations thrown into the media glare by political turmoil or natural disasters are starting to incorporate these events into their marketing campaigns. Take, for instance, Chile's re-branded campaign slogan ‘Chile is good for you’.

There is no question that Osama bin Laden’s death is a significant milestone in the U.S. fight against Al Qaeda. But the youth-led uprisings in the Middle East ultimately pose a greater threat to Al Qaeda than bin Laden’s death. It is therefore critical that the United States maintain support for the revolutions’ call for political and economic reforms as they continue to unfold.

Liquid Comics and Open Hands Initiative, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to public diplomacy efforts, announced Saturday the launch of a new comic book that will introduce children around the world to The Silver Scorpion...[whose] powers include the ability to “help build bridges between the youth of America and the Arab world, starting with Syria.”