PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

DEC 1, 2008
Media to Play Greater Role in Increasing the Region’s Environmental Awareness
Al Bawaba
The media will play a greater role in increasing the region’s awareness of green issues as CNBC Arabiya launches a weekly program focusing on environmental trends for both businesses and consumers in the region.
According to a recently published report, residents in the Middle East consume more natural resources than anybody else on earth...“The need to create awareness about environmental challenges and help build a more sustainable community is paramount, especially during this era of rapid economic growth of business and markets in the Middle East,” says Steven F. Hall, CEO, CNBC Arabiya.  Read more...

DEC 1, 2008
A “Smart Power” Cabinet
The Atlantic
Even with the Bush Administration's second-term renaissance, the Department of State is fairly demoralized, understaffed and underfunded. It will have to learn to compete with the DoD when it comes to the arenas of public diplomacy and peacebuilding. Its foreign service officers need to figure out how to use 21st century technology to communicate with the public.   Read more...

NOV 30, 2008
U.S. Media Thrive Worldwide, but Not U.S. Image
The New York Times
In the last eight years, American pop culture, already popular, has boomed around the globe while opinions of America itself have soured...American culture is blossoming even in the Middle East, where polls consistently show starkly negative views of the United States. Viacom started MTV Arabia last fall and introduced Nickelodeon Arabia in July on satellite services — endeavors that entail lessons in cultural sensitivity.  Read more...

NOV 30, 2008
Information Warfare Matters
The Wall Street Journal
Last week's terrorist assault in Mumbai brings into focus one of the biggest challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama and U.S. allies: How to defeat the ideology that underpins the global jihadist insurgency and unifies its diverse adherents? The U.S. government needs to resurrect the nonviolent practice of "political warfare" and create an agency to manage it.   Read more...

NOV 30, 2008
U.S.-Funded Youth Center Aims To Lure Palestinian Teens From Extremism
Haaretz
A U.S.-funded youth center that has opened in the West Bank village of Beita is meant to show America at its can-do best: It will teach English and computer courses, hoping to provide an antidote to political extremism along the way. But if organizers hope the locals will also learn to love America a little - that's a much harder sell.  Read more...

NOV 30, 2008
World Falls for American Media, Even as It Sours on America
The New York Times
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the White House wanted major media companies to help improve the U.S. image abroad. That hasn’t panned out.   Read more...

NOV 30, 2008
Spreading Inclusion through Students
Times of Malta
The British Council, as a cultural relations organisation, set up the Indie project to help education authorities meet these challenges. Indie, which stands for 'Inclusion and Diversity in Education', is a Europe-wide project aimed at promoting social unity and raising educational standards in culturally-inclusive schools. In Malta, the project, led by the local British Council office in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, has just been launched in two local schools to help them deal with the realities of having pupils from diverse backgrounds join their classrooms. "The aim of the Indie project is to build lasting networks between schools in Europe which will focus on the common challenges presented by migration and cultural diversity," explained British Council representative Alison Driver.  Read more...

NOV 29, 2008
Persuasion, Not Popularity, Should Be Obama’s Goal
Baltimore Examiner
Good public diplomacy recognizes that “there is not a quick fix” for low popularity, and that the success (or failure) of actions speak far louder than any words can...Obama should not substitute American interests for popularity — because his own communications ability gives him the chance, if he will use it wisely, to convince the world of the benefits of American strength.  Read more...

NOV 29, 2008
Historical Issues Overshadow Japan’s Nation Branding
The Korea Times
Historical issues hurt Japan's diplomatic interests in neighboring countries, prompting Tokyo to look nation branding in an effort to make up for the possible losses, a scholar observed. Prof. Robert Dujarric, director of the Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies (ICJS) at Temple University's Tokyo Campus, said that unresolved historical matters, such as Japan's colonial rule of Korea and its invasion of China, have caused Japan to have a real image problem. "The problem has not only a diplomatic cost as it hurts relations with Seoul and Beijing. It may have some economic cost by hindering greater cooperation between the two countries and in some cases hurting Japanese businesses,'' Dujarric said. He claimed the possible solution to nation-branding challenges lies in government action that is not directly related to nation-branding per se. "It requires, among other things, more thorough and frequent apologies for past deeds, more generous compensation for survivors, immediate dismissal of officials who question the existence or extent of past war crimes and an end to the claim to Dokdo,'' he said.   Read more...

NOV 29, 2008
Iran Blocks Five Million ‘Immoral’ Websites
Sky News
Internet service providers have been told over the years to block access to political, human rights and women's sites, as well as anything deemed pornographic or anti-Islamic. The country's 21 million internet users will now also be prevented from viewing weblogs expressing dissent, along with popular sites as Facebook and YouTube. Sobh-e Sadegh, the publication of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said: "The internet, satellite and text messages played an important role in colour revolutions in Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia." It added that internet search engines Yahoo and Google, along with the BBC, CNN and international news agencies Reuters and Associated Press operated as "tools of diplomacy conducted through media." The magazine accused the European Union of seeking to "develop anti-Iranian cyber space" by supporting dissident bloggers.  Read more...

NOV 29, 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. (Yes we can... Twitter!) "The field manual will stand in stark contrast to the Al Qaeda manual on the basics of terrorism, found by Coalition Forces in Iraq," according to the press release. Whoopi Goldberg, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, MSNBC's Luke Russert, the U.S. Department of State's Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy James Glassman, and others are set to speak at panels, which will include 'How To Build Transnational Social Movements Using New Technology' and 'How To Use New Mobile Technologies.'  Read more...

NOV 28, 2008
Press and “Psy Ops” to Merge at NATO Afghan Headquarters
Reuters
The U.S. general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a merger of the office that releases news with "Psy Ops," which deals with propaganda, a move that goes against the alliance's policy, three officials said. The move has worried Washington's European NATO allies -- Germany has already threatened to pull out of media operations in Afghanistan -- and the officials said it could undermine the credibility of information released to the public.  Read more...

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