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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

PAY TO PLAY
JUN 15, 2009 - 3:33PM PDT
Posted by Mark Dillen
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As the slots get filled for new U.S. ambassadors, I have to modify my earlier praise: too many sensitive overseas posts are being given to Obama fundraisers. For every Carlos Pascual (veteran envoy now assigned to Mexico), there now appear to be several David Jacobsons (Illinois lawyer and Obama-Biden fundraiser set to go to Canada). South Africa, for example, falls into the latter category: an important country in which the next U.S. Ambassador will be known first as a contributor/fundraiser (ambassador-designate Donald Gips reportedly raised $500,000 for Obama's campaign). Ditto for Belgium and Switzerland. Paris (Charles Rivkin) and London (Louis... FULL TEXT
 
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JEFFERSON ON SOFT POWER: BEHIND OBAMA’S CAIRO QUOTE
JUN 12, 2009 - 3:18PM PDT
Posted by Nicholas J. Cull
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Like many great orators President Obama knows how to quote scripture to maximum impact. His Cairo speech included passages from the Holy Koran, which his audience applauded. His conclusion also mustered words from the Talmud and a final quote from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount – "Blessed are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called the Children of God" which received no less applause. But some of his scriptures are those of America’s Civic Religion, as with his allusion to Tom Paine’s first issue of The Crisis in his inaugural address: "Let it be told to the future world...that in... FULL TEXT
 
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PASSING THE DAY AT GUANTANAMO BAY: A VIDEO GAME IS ON THE WAY
JUN 9, 2009 - 2:14PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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What do the following have in common? Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and North Korea’s sentencing of the two American female journalists to hard labor.

Answer: Each is relevant to Current TV, a U.S. satellite TV channel and Web site.

The two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, convicted of illegally entering North Korea from China, are reporters for Current TV.

Al Gore, who narrowly missed becoming a U.S. President in the 2000 election, is co-founder of Current TV. Well-behaved Guantanamo Bay prisoners, who are being supplied with laptop computers and provided access to... FULL TEXT
 
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FROM GUANTANAMO BAY TO PYONGYANG: THE DIPLOMACY OF DEEDS
JUN 8, 2009 - 3:27PM PDT
Posted by Shawn Powers
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On June 7, North Korea's highest court sentenced two American journalists to 12 years of hard labor, a sentence more severe than most had predicted.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), North Korea's Central Court convicted the two Americans, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, of "committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the charges as "baseless," and stated that their trial was conducted in absolute secrecy. Sources speculate that Ling and Lee, reporters for progressive-leaning Current TV were filming a report about North Koreans attempting to cross the narrow Tumen... FULL TEXT
 
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ENGAGEMENT IS THE NEW PUBLIC DIPLOMACY OR THE ADVENTURES OF A EUPHEMISM OF A EUPHEMISM
JUN 5, 2009 - 3:33PM PDT
Posted by Nicholas J. Cull
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President Barack Obama inherited two major public diplomacy problems. The first was the obvious crisis in America's communication with the world and the attendant decline in America's global standing. The second was the identification of the process of public diplomacy with the administration of George W. Bush. It was a paradox. The administration could not summon the cure without reminding people of one of the causes of the disease. The linking of Bush with Public Diplomacy was not wholly fair. The term was brought into its modern use in the U.S. in 1965, and moved into global currency during the... FULL TEXT
 
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