public diplomacy
TALLINN --- Estonia’s capital seems a peaceful place. Tallinn’s cobblestoned streets are lined by medieval walls and towers, and tourists stroll amid churches and coffee shops. But Estonians live in a rough neighborhood; their eastern neighbor is Russia, which has never fully accepted that Estonia prefers the company of EU and NATO countries.
China and South Korea should boost mutual-understanding through more public diplomacy initiatives including the economic and trade exchanges, personnel exchanges, research cooperation, the mass media and others, officials said Tuesday during the Sino-South Korea forum on public diplomacy held in Seoul.
When public diplomacy issues are discussed, focus tends to be on major powers that are particularly active in this field – the United States, China, Israel, the United Kingdom, Russia, and a few others. But Romania has now announced that it wants to join the big guys’ club, and it is taking purposeful steps toward doing so.
A recent opinion piece in the Huffington Post raises some interesting issues about the Peace Corps and its relationship to official U.S. public diplomacy efforts overseas. I’d like to begin by professing my appreciation and admiration for the Peace Corps and the many thousands of volunteers who are serving or have served around the world. Although I am no development expert and cannot speak to their accomplishments in that regard, I have long appreciated the valuable contributions that Peace Corps volunteers make towards advancing our public diplomacy efforts.
BUCHAREST --- When public diplomacy issues are discussed, focus tends to be on major powers that are particularly active in this field – the United States, China, Israel, the United Kingdom, Russia, and a few others. But Romania has now announced that it wants to join the big guys’ club, and it is taking purposeful steps toward doing so.
The 2008 Republican presidential nominee, criticised Mr Putin and his associates for rigging elections, imprisoning and murdering opponents, fostering corruption and "destroying" Russia's reputation on the world stage.
A hardline backlash always looms large over any attempt by a new government in Tehran to present itself as one that the West can talk to. President Hassan Rouhani has already found that the greatest challenge to public diplomacy is an apparent lack of discipline, rather than a lack of influential allies or favourable laws in a country where Facebook and other social networks are banned but not illegal.
All this excitement over recent Russian public diplomacy on Syria is a bit odd to those of us who have been following that diplomacy strategy for over a decade. That Vladimir Putin chose to write an op-ed in The New York Times this week is not at all shocking. It is part of a broader pattern of Russian outreach that began in 2001.