PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

APR 10, 2008
Don’t pack your prejudices
The Daily Telegraph
Tourism for understanding, tourism for peace - call it what you will - is not a gesture of politics but of humanity. If anything, it is a bypass of politics; it is a contact between countries made people to people, prizing both what they have in common and their differences. It requires a purging of prejudice. It means having as open a mind about our own countries, attitudes and behaviour as about the way of life and beliefs of the countries we visit. It is people’s diplomacy.  Read more...

APR 10, 2008
‘We need to recreate the EU excitement’
Today's Zaman
AK Party's Çankırı deputy, member of the Parliamentary Foreign Relations Committee: "The next thing we need is to re-create the excitement of 2003-2004, so the communications side has to take priority. The technical side, the negotiations, the surveillance process is continuing with low-level diplomacy. The people may not know this, but they are going on. What is needed is rather a public diplomacy that will tell our people what the EU is and tell the Europeans what Turkey is."   Read more...

APR 10, 2008
Americans go a-wooing
The Economist
Dubbed the Africa Partnership Station, two American navy ships, the USS Fort McHenry and the twin-hulled USS Swift, are near the end of a six-month cruise that has taken in seven countries in the Gulf of Guinea (Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Liberia, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Senegal) with the aim of improving maritime security as well as winning hearts and minds in this oil-rich region.  Read more...

APR 10, 2008
Need More Soft Power
The Moscow Times
When the Kremlin applies hard power to relations with its neighbors, it only increases tensions and conflicts. Moreover, Moscow rarely uses soft power as a foreign policy strategy.  Read more...

APR 9, 2008
Germany’s Green Party Opens Chapter in Washington
Deutsche Welle
Germany's Green Party is setting up a branch in the United States. The bottom-up initiative aims to bring a more international perspective to the party's work and combat anti-Americanism among some members back home...."This is not supposed to be a one-way street -- it's an exchange, it's about cooperation," Buetikofer said. "It will attest to the fact that the Green party is open towards exchange with the United States."  Read more...

APR 9, 2008
India joins queue for Africa’s resources
The Guardian
India will have to rely on its "soft power" to win over Africa. "We need Africa not only for oil but for political power too. We need African votes in the United Nations to get on to the security council," said Ajay Dubey, professor of African Studies at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. "But we do not have the money of the Chinese or the military might of the Americans. Therefore we have to rely on cooperating with African nations in information technology, agriculture, engineering."  Read more...

APR 9, 2008
Europe blue, Asia red
International Herald Tribune
Europe votes Democrat, but Asia tends Republican. That's the headline from the fastest-growing part of the world where, as throughout a shrinking globe, the U.S. election is arousing passionate interest. Eric John, the U.S. ambassador to Thailand, told me the campaign was "the best public diplomacy tool I've had in a long time."  Read more...

APR 9, 2008
Narratives of war
Middle East Times
Americans and Iraqis tell two different stories about the war in Iraq. Most Iraqis say that the U.S.-led invasion and occupation have fuelled violence. The dominant American story is that U.S. forces are curbing sectarian violence and making things better in Iraq. This gap in perception severely undermines public diplomacy efforts throughout the Muslim world, necessitating a much greater effort toward understanding the Iraqi point of view.  Read more...

APR 9, 2008
British Council Blogger Day
OhMyNews International
The rising uproar of citizen journalism and the high increase of online users are perhaps the reason why British Council would like to give its special attention to the Indonesian bloggers in the celebration of its 60th anniversary of service in Indonesia, one of 109 countries in which the British Council has offices. On April 6 British Council Indonesia invited at least 100 bloggers to its British Council Blogger Day, not only to come to meet other bloggers but also to try live blogging which they claimed to be the first live blogging competition in Indonesia.  Read more...

APR 9, 2008
London book fair receives large number of Arab authors
Middle East Online
The British Council and London Book Fair announce the 2008 Arab World Market Focus Programme, which will see over 40 leading writers, commentators and industry professionals from the Arab World take part in a three day cultural programme celebrating the strength and diversity of Arabic literature...Improving cultural understanding is considered to be the driver behind the Arab World seminar programme, according to Susanna Nicklin, British Council Director of Literature.  Read more...

APR 8, 2008
Dave Brubeck wins medal for spreading jazz abroad
Reuters
Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck accepted a State Department award on Tuesday for promoting America with concerts in countries from Iraq to Poland... "As a little girl I grew up on the sounds of Dave Brubeck because my dad was your biggest fan," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at ceremony where Brubeck received the department's Ben Franklin Award for public diplomacy.  Read more...

APR 8, 2008
Chinese Student Shares Positive Experiences at Duke University
VOA News
“I would say that studying in the United States is an eye opening process. You got to be proactive and you got to take initiatives. There are so many wonderful resources lying quietly in every corner of the university that you are attending and you have to really be the person who can take initiatives to find them out and take advantage of these resources.”  Read more...

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