public diplomacy

March 9, 2012

Great Britain is a very different place from Cool Britannia. Coolness might have been the single most impressive human quality, according to the guitar-wielding Tony Blair and his baby-boomer cohorts, but the Conservative-dominated government of today prefers an adjective of stiffer stuff.

In a world where attention scarcity has displaced access as the new information problematic, how do you get your issue noticed? This is precisely the question that confronted Invisible Children, the international NGO that produced the viral online video “Kony 2012.” Since its release on March 5, it has been nothing short of a sensation: within two days YouTube tallied over 11 million viewings. That number tripled by the following afternoon and presently – four days after release – the number exceeds 52 million.

The Indonesian minister, said that deeply rooted cultural affinity and commonality between Iran and Indonesia prepares grounds for upholding relations and cooperation between the two countries. In cultural diplomacy, all parties should look forward to commonalties....

Ma’s push to reposition Taiwan on the international stage as a peacemaker... “We are trying to deliver on this goal by utilizing our soft power assets in a variety of fields spanning humanitarian aid and cultural exchanges, and as a creator of business opportunities and high-tech devices.”

Invisible Children has turned the myopic worldview of the adolescent -- "if I don't know about it, then it doesn't exist, but if I care about it, then it is the most important thing in the world" -- into a foreign policy prescription... Awareness of their plight achieved, child soldiers are now visible to the naked American eye.

VOA faces net cuts totaling $17 million, several times more than any other broadcaster managed and funded by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, VOA’s parent agency. VOA would lose 170 professional front line broadcasters and producers in the proposed budget if it is passed by Congress.

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