PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

NOV 23, 2008
New Zealand to Hold Cultural Presentation in Seoul Next Year
The Korea Times
Preparation is under way for New Zealand to share its cuisine, music, art and movies next April in Seoul. As part of the New Zealand Cultural Diplomacy International Program, the three-day cultural presentation will be the first and largest New Zealand event in Korea. The presentation will take place at the COEX, in southern Seoul. The preview event, "Celebrating New Zealand" last week allowed guests to get a quick glimpse of New Zealand culture, which is expected to widen perspectives of the island country to Koreans, about which little is known other than it is an English-speaking country.   Read more...

NOV 22, 2008
Israel, Palestinians Seek Support Through Media Campaign
China View
Israeli Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) are both using the media to gain access to each other's population in what analysts believe is positioning for negotiations. Israeli Foreign Ministry has launched a YouTube channel in Arabic to bypass Arab media and offer Israeli version of current events directly to Arab viewers across the Middle East..."Israel is taking public diplomacy seriously for the first time. The government is actually looking at long-term efforts to reach out, of which YouTube is one of many," said Gerald Steinberg, Political Studies Department Chair at Bar Ilan University.  Read more...

NOV 21, 2008
Revitalising America’s Image
Al-Ahram Weekly Online
US President-elect Barack Obama will inherit a heavy legacy of domestic and foreign policy crises. Foremost among his challenges will be to address the attrition that two Bush terms wrought on America's image, especially in the Arab world...Obama will ultimately have to introduce radical changes in Washington. After all, it is impossible to separate national policy from public diplomacy. The latter cannot succeed where the former fails. The only type of public diplomacy that can succeed in the long run is one founded on sustainable policies, and policies are sustainable only if they continue to promise to fulfill mutual interests.  Read more...

NOV 21, 2008
America’s Image in the Age of Obama
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin and Brookings Institution scholar Kenneth Pollack today assessed the impact of Barack Obama's election as President of the United States on America's image abroad as well as the challenges his administration will likely face as it confronts the 21st Century's 'War of Ideas.' "In public diplomacy, the messenger matters," Gedmin said to a packed house at the DC-based Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). "President-elect Obama's global appeal marks a real opportunity for the U.S. to improve its image overseas. But the message matters, too – his administration needs to craft sound policies that advance our interests and values." Pollack agreed that the Obama administration represents a chance to improve America's image, but warned that "popularity cannot be a substitute for good policy." "Our actions speak louder than words," said Pollack.  Read more...

NOV 21, 2008
European History, Culture and Art Goes Digital
The New York Times
Attention all culture-craving couch potatoes: Cultural riches from over 2,000 years of European civilization are going digital. It's part of a new European Union online library project that is set to rival Google and aims to create a one-stop-shop to access history, art, literature, cinema and music from across the continent...The project, which started two years ago, seems to be Europe's answer to Google's efforts to build a private digital library and is to be launched amid much fanfare by the EU's ministers on Thursday. ''Just imagine the possibilities it offers students, art-lovers or scholars to access, combine and search the cultural treasures of all member states online,'' said Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, which is co-financing the project.  Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
President-elect Obama, We Need a New Kind of Public Diplomacy
The Washington Times
America is not well prepared to wage and win this conflict of ideas. We lack the focus and means to convince people around the world of the rightness of our cause of freedom...The biggest problem is a failure of overall leadership. The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which oversees U.S.-funded civilian international broadcasting, is conflicted by different agendas...At the end of the day, strategic communications - the sum total of the government's efforts to influence foreign opinion - is bigger than public diplomacy. It also must explain the purposes of foreign policy to Americans.   Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Reforming U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century
The Heritage Foundation (Issue Paper)
While there is no easy fix, the President and Con­gress need to reform the strategy, doctrine, and structure of strategic communications to engage in the war of ideas seriously and effectively. This requires establishment of a new institutional frame­work focused on a new agency--a U.S. Agency for Strategic Communications--as well as substantial reforms of the Department of State and greater uti­lization of the Pentagon's combatant commands.  Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Obama Poised to Rebrand America, Experts Say
CNN
Obama represents a "clean break" from the past, and his election is the first big step toward change, said Dick Martin, author of "Rebuilding Brand America."... Closing Guantanamo, adhering to the Geneva Conventions and eliminating torture are key issues for people around the world because they are the symbols of American unilateralism, Martin said. Martin also suggested that Obama take a page out of President Eisenhower's playbook and give the rest of the world an opportunity to experience American culture through an agency like the now-defunct United States Information Agency. In addition to exposing the rest of the world to U.S. culture, Obama should also make sure young Americans are citizens of the world. Martin recommends education reform, with an emphasis on world history and language classes.   Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Common Aim: Wives Push Peace
Xpress (Dubai)
A world torn apart by bigotry can turn to the UAE for a solution that works, the head of the Diplomatic Wives’ Circle in Dubai said. Larissa Krasnogor, Chairperson of the Peaceful Co-Existence Is Our Common Aim campaign and wife of the Russian Consul General, said: "The UAE has made it possible and has set an example for others to follow...Krasnogor – who has a doctoral degree in Arabic literature – and six other diplomats’ wives lent their support to the campaign held on Monday at the Dubai Public Library. "To achieve peaceful co-existence, we should promote cultural engagement. And being the wives of diplomats, our duty is to promote the cultural engagement between our people," she said.  Read more...

NOV 20, 2008
Beijing’s thrust into Latin America
The International Herald Tribune
The rise to power of leftist governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela has strengthened bilateral diplomatic relations. China established a series of "strategic partnerships" and "strategic dialogues" with a number of Latin states, and also shares a common "South-South" perspective on many global issues, particularly with Brazil...Educational exchanges are needed. Only two bona fide university programs in Chinese studies exist in the region - Mexico City and Buenos Aires. Beijing's community of Latin American experts in universities, think tanks and government far outstrip their Latin counterparts, and the dearth of expertise means that Latin governments lack Chinese speakers and specialists to cope with Beijing's blitz into the region. China is also developing cultural ties, establishing six "Confucius Institutes" across the region to increase knowledge about the country.  Read more...

NOV 19, 2008
First Lady of the Arts
The Syndey Morning Herald
Matthews, the Opera House's former head of government relations, is one of the best-connected arts strategists in the business. She has worked for a number of cultural organisations in Sydney, including the Powerhouse Museum and the Australia Council. In a sense she has come full circle. She was the British Council's manager of arts and cultural relations when she arrived in Australia in 1998 after graduating from Cambridge and completing a masters at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Although the council, which turns 75 next year, has long been associated with arts, education and sport, Matthews points to new priorities, including climate change. "I love its ability to adapt," she says. "It's not this old crusty model of an organisation that doesn't know how to move."  Read more...

NOV 19, 2008
Facebook, Google to Rally the Kids at Columbia
The New York Observer
From December 3rd to 5th, Facebook, Google, YouTube, MTV, and Howcast will sponsor a summit to mobilize young people against violence and oppression at the Columbia Law School. The global network, called the Alliance of Youth Movements, aims to craft a "field manual" on how to create social change using online tools.  Read more...

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