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John Brown aggregates all the most recent public diplomacy related news, including current issues in U.S. foreign policy, international broadcasting and media, propaganda, cultural diplomacy, educational exchanges, anti-Americanism, and the reception of American popular culture abroad.

PDPBR FOR NOVEMBER 2, 2007
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, NOVEMBER 2

“Anybody who claims that they want to leave the White House is lying.”

--Former White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card; cited in Dan Fromkin, “Card Admits the Obvious” (White House Watch, washingtonpost.com, November 1)
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“It is rumored that Condi keeps trying to resign but Bush cruelly reminds her that no one is going to buy the ‘I need to spend more time with my family’ line since she doesn’t have one. Then he snickers.”

--Jess Wundrun, in a comment in Sparkle Pony Photoblog (November 1)
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VIDEO

Hughes Resignation: Karen Hughes, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs—the woman essentially in charge of making sure the rest of the world really likes America—announced on Wednesday that she would be retiring from her post by the end of the year. In today’s episode TPMtv takes a look back at just how wildly successful she has been in promoting America’s image abroad over the past few years ... LINK

IMAGE

Vice President Dick Cheney’s Labrador retrievers Jackson, left, and Dave, right, prepare for Halloween, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007, as they sit for a photograph at the Vice President’s Residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Jackson is dressed as Darth Vader, Dave is dressed as Superman. White House photo by David Bohrer.
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A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, 1-27

1. WHAT IS THE U.S. DOING TO IMPROVE ITS IMAGE ABROAD? - COLLEEN GRAFFY, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN AFFAIRS (REMARKS AT CHATHAM HOUSE, LONDON, ENGLAND, NOVEMBER 1, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE): “Public diplomacy is thus the practice—I try to think of it as an art—of communicating a country’s policies, values and culture to other peoples. It is an attempt to explain why we have decided on certain measures, and beyond that, to explain who we are. It is a based on a belief on our part that we are a good people, that we have not arrived at decisions irrationally and that these decisions can be explained to others. Certainly, we practice public diplomacy because we know that we do not act with malice, but strive to act on principle. We believe not in the subjugation of nations, but in the free choice of people of all nations.”
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2. KAREN HUGHES’ UPHILL BATTLE - FOREIGN POLICY, NOT PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, MOSTLY DETERMINES HOW THE WORLD VIEWS AMERICA - RICHARD WIKE (PEW GLOBAL ATTITUDES PROJECT, NOVEMBER 1)
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3. WAR STORIES: HECK OF A JOB, HUGHSIE—KAREN HUGHES THROWS IN THE TOWEL - (FRED KAPLAN, SLATE, NOVEMBER 1): The main purpose of public diplomacy is to foster a better understanding of America and to improve its image in the world. Yet since Hughes took the job, our image—already bleak—has deteriorated to new lows. Hughes can hardly be blamed for this dreadful situation, any more than Bill Cosby could be blamed for the failure of New Coke. You can wrap swill in the grandest ad campaign, but no one with taste buds will be fooled. It’s the same with foreign policy: You can craft a fine message and recite it with a smile, but the reception will be determined by what a country does. Nick Cull, a professor of public diplomacy at the University of Southern California and a close follower of Hughes’ tenure, says that she has rebuilt the institutions to the point where the next president—if he or she wanted to—could productively put them to use. “She’s laid the railroad tracks,” Cull said in a phone interview.
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4. THE HUGHES EFFECT: THEY HATE US MORE THAN EVER - KEN SILVERSTEIN (HARPER’S, NOVEMBER 1): Karen Hughes’s tenure as undersecretary of State for public diplomacy has come to a close, and not a moment too soon.
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5. THE TRAGEDY OF KAREN HUGHES - DAN FROOMKIN (WHITE HOUSE WATCH, WASHINGTONPOST.COM, NOVEMBER 1): The tragedy of Karen Hughes’s brief tenure as head of public diplomacy was not that she failed to improve the U.S. image abroad—in the current circumstances, that was beyond anyone’s ability—but that she failed to use her close relationship with Bush to get him to stop doing the things that made her job so impossible.
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6. FRIDAY FINISHERS NOV. 2, 2007 – (JOURNAL TIMES, WI): Thumbs down: A heck of a job. We see Karen Hughes, former White House confidante and advisor to President Bush, has resigned and is returning to Texas after trying to improve America’s image through the public diplomacy program at the State Department. Under her direction the program’s budget doubled to about $900 million, yet public opinion surveys show the image of the United States has not changed. Perhaps the administration could toss that spare billion at the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which the White House says is too expensive.
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7. ENOUGH OF A THANKLESS JOB – OPINION (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, TX, NOVEMBER 2): As the Bush administration winds down, it’s unlikely to pursue dramatically different goals, nor is Ms. Hughes’ replacement going to have enough time to tackle a long agenda. But the next president should give this thankless job the respect it deserves and appoint a diplomatic professional with substantive foreign experience. And a person who is deeply attuned to cultural nuance, especially in the Muslim world.
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8. GOOD RIDDANCE, MRS. HUGHES – JONATHAN SALIM BASKIN (DIMBULB, NOVEMBER 1): “I say her [Hughes’s] job was to invent ways for people to vote for the U.S. in a fight that could be compared to an election campaign. And in this sense, she failed to identify a candidate, find a way for people to vote, or promote a purpose for casting a ballot. In other words, she wasted her time (and taxpayer money) on branding the U.S. ... America doesn’t want the hearts and minds of people around the world; it wants their votes...their supportive behaviors, whether it’s in helping defeat terrorism, or taking steps to evidence a resistance to joining the bad guys.”
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9. THE HUGHES RESIGNATION: A GNAWING FEELING OF ICING THE CAKE, NOT BAKING IT - PAUL D. KRETKOWSKI (BEACON, NOVEMBER 2): “I imagine—I hope—that Karen Hughes has simply succumbed to the knowledge that she has been in charge of the icing, not the cake. No matter how much she believes in President Bush’s foreign policy, Hughes may finally have realized that until U.S. policy changes, it’s impossible to make much headway with the Muslim audiences who are the key target of U.S. public-diplomacy efforts. Perhaps the Under Secretary realized that there’s a difference between fighting the good fight and beating one’s head against the wall.”
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10. ZERO MINUTES TO NORMAL - DEAN BARNETT (WEEKLY STANDARD, NOVEMBER 1): The fact that Karen Hughes failed to make the Islamic world love us during her two years giving it a whirl is hardly her fault. Larger forces are at work, the kind that even the most accomplished PR maven couldn’t affect. It speaks well of Karen Hughes that she took on such an impossible task in an effort to serve her country. It speaks ill of our State Department that six years after 9/11 it remains so determinedly fond of its patented, irresolute form of “diplomacy” that it thinks a little PR-flavored sweet talk can bridge the cultural chasm between America and significant swaths of the Islamic world
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11. THE RESIGNATION OF KAREN HUGHES (TOPIC OF THE DAY) - WILLIAM MCKENZIE (DALLAS MORNING NEWS: EDITORIAL BOARD DISCUSSES THE ISSUES, NOVEMBER 1): About Karen: Sure, she can be assertive and overbearing. But she is very good at communication strategies. Ask anyone associated with Ann Richards about that fact. At State, she has set up a 24/7 rapid response team. We didn’t have that before. Now, diplomats, others can respond any time, any place to misinformation about the U.S., whether that’s on Al Jazeera or on some blog.
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12. SELLING AMERICA ABROAD – (DOUG BANDOW BLOG, NOVEMBER 1): Karen Hughes never had an easy job. After leaving the White House, she returned to Washington to lead the State Department effort to improve America’s image abroad. Unfortunately, what the administration never understood was that it was the substance of policy, not the PR terms in which the policy was presented, which has caused the U.S. so many problems.
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13. IRON TRIANGLE TRIFECTA DEFECTION COMPLETE – KELLY (LOONEY MOONBAT: WE CAN’T ALL BE RIGHT-WING NUTJOBS, NOVEMBER 1): In the role of representing the United States to the world, Karen Hughes was almost as uniquely unqualified and inappropriate as John Bolton was for the role of Ambassador for the United States to the United Nations. Like Harriet Miers, Hughes sole qualification for her position was her unabashed sycophancy of George W. Bush. She not only drank the Kool-Aid, she mixed it up and poured it into little paper cups.
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14. GOODBYE, SWEET KAREN! – DREW (LIBERAL EPISCOPALIAN, NOVEMBER 1): But there’s Karen Hughes. Again, putting the compassionate face on the Commander-in-Thief. She’s got that big ol’ bucket of paint, trying to turn his cowboy hat from black to white and nobody’s buying it here—and no one was ever going to buy it there. And what’s worse, perhaps they both new that all along.
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15. THE DANCE BAND ON THE TITANIC – JIM WRIGHT (STONEKETTLE STATION: PROFESSIONAL DRIVER, CLOSED COURSE. DO NOT ATTEMPT!, NOVEMBER 1): “And the rats continue to climb down the mooring lines and scamper away from the foundering SS Bush. ... Hughes was charged with spreading Bush’s message of ‘the universal principle of human liberty?’ Um, OK [insert dubious expression here]. How exactly does that work? ‘Well see here, Mohummed, the US Government policies of Rendition and Torture are about Liberty! The more of you towelheads we water-board at Gitmo, the more freedom you get! It’s a win/win. What?’”
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16. AT LEAST IT’S NOT D.C. – AL KAMEN (IN THE LOOP, WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 2): Some people at the State Department are upset about being ordered to do year-long tours in Iraq. But then the diplos took a look at the transcript of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s warm farewell Wednesday to public diplomacy czar Karen Hughes, who’s going back home to Texas. Some are furious that Rice commiserated over Hughes’s traumatic posting in Washington just days after the department ordered mandatory tours in Iraq. “I asked Karen to come . . . knowing, too, that she was going to serve here in Washington at great sacrifice because in fact Karen’s family has remained in Texas and I know that that has been a strain. But even with that, she’s done just a remarkable job.” SEE BELOW ITEMS 29-33.
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17. ACT NOW, OR ... - ALI H. ASLANT (TODAY’S ZAMAN, NOVEMBER 2): Only the genius (!) of a Bush White House would appoint someone such as Madam Hughes, who is so closely associated with one of the most globally unpopular presidents—if not the most—with the hope of improving the US image. And only it would be naïve enough to believe that without modifying the foreign policies which hurt Muslims most, a gentle lady’s touch would make a serious difference.
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18. SELLING AMERICA – (NEWS-INTERNATIONAL, PAKISTAN, NOVEMBER 2): Reports in the US media suggest that Ms. Hughes has resigned because of her department’s mixed results. However, to be fair to her, it has to be said that hers was a thankless job. Simply put, actions speak (much) louder than words and if Washington only realised the wisdom of this adage it would have understood that in fact there is no need even for a department of public diplomacy.
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19. TODD GITLIN ON ‘THE TERROR DREAM’ – (TRUTHDIG, NOVEMBER 1): Karen Hughes, now the keeper of our nation’s “public diplomacy” franchise at the State Department, declared on CNN before a 2004 anti-abortion demonstration that American opposition to abortion was “really the fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight.”
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MORE ON KAREN HUGHES IN SECTION C

20. (KIM ANDREW ELLIOTT DISCUSSING INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTING AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, latest edition)
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21. MIDEAST EXECUTIVES NOTE DIFFERENCES AS THEY URGE TIES: A DES MOINES-BASED CENTER HOSTED THE YOUNG ARAB LEADERS’ TOUR TO PROMOTE UNDERSTANDING AND CONNECTIONS - S.P. DINNEN (DES MOINES REGISTER, NOVEMBER 2): The Young Arab Leaders’ tour is part of an effort launched by Des Moines-based U.S. Center for Citizen Diplomacy to promote understanding and respect between American and Arab business communities. Ann Schodde, executive director of the privately funded U.S. Center, said the tour’s aim is to “improve the business I.Q. of everyone involved and ... enhance opportunities for international business.” With polls showing anti-Americanism growing, Schodde’s group and others believe a poor U.S. image is bad for business. The Young Arab Leaders’ is also sponsored by Business for Diplomatic Action, a San Francisco group encouraging public diplomacy by business travelers.
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22. ASU NAMED TOP FULBRIGHTS PRODUCER – SARAH AUFFRET (ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY, TEMPE, NOPVEMBER 2): ASU is one of the top universities for producing 2007-2008 U.S. Fulbright Fellows, according to the Oct. 26 edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is the leading institution with 37 awards, in a list just announced by the Fulbright Program. Other top public institutions are the University of California-Berkeley with 23 and the University of Wisconsin-Madison with 18.
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23. ‘UNWELCOMING’ US SEES SHARP FALL IN VISITORS SINCE 9/11 – (AFP, NOVEMBER 2): The Discover America Partnership was set up by US business leaders last year to try to redress the flagging image of the United States through a campaign of public diplomacy, waged equally by the government, business and public. “The greatest public diplomacy tool America has is her people. Those who have visited the US and interacted with the American people consistently feel more positive about the US than those who have not visited,” the advocacy group says on its website, citing the Global Attitudes Project of the Pew Research Center, a think tank based in Washington.
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24. ATMOSPHERE IN ANKARA - CENGIZ ÇANDAR (TURKISH DAILY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2): If we add up the public diplomacy statements made by the President and the prime minister at Çankaya Palace with the latest developments, namely the Iraqi delegation’s returning home empty handed after a quick visit to Turkey last week and their being unwelcome in the frame of diplomatic courtesy rules, we see the clues of where we are at in the “crisis” and of the direction we are going.
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25. VOLUNTEERS – (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 1): This organization needs volunteer help for a day, for a week or on a regular basis. The American Councils for International Education seek volunteers to evaluate the scholarship applications of students from Afghanistan, Serbia, Montenegro and the former Soviet Union. Funding for these programs is provided by the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Students will spend one year living with a U.S. family and attending high school. Evaluation of applications will take place at the American Councils’ office at Dupont Circle from November through March. Training will be provided. Call the Future Leaders Exchange department at American Councils, 202-833-7522.
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26. NATHAN KINGSLEY, 80; JOURNALIST, U.S. OFFICIAL - PATRICIA SULLIVAN (OBITUARIES, WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 1): In 1965, Mr. Kingsley became news director of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for seven years; he returned in 1976 to be its vice president for an additional four years. He joined Voice of America in late 1972 as deputy director for news and programming. At the State Department, he was a senior officer in its bureau of human rights and humanitarian affairs from 1986 until 1991.
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27. SO HOW’S THAT PUBLIC DIPLOMACY EFFORT GOING, ANYWAY? - (PRINCESS SPARKLE PONY’S PHOTO BLOG: I KEEP TRACK OF PRINCESS CONDOLEEZZA’S HAIRDO SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO, NOVEMBER 1): PHOTO: A man removes darts from a portrait of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a demonstration in Ankara November 1, 2007, to protest against her visit to the Turkish capital on Friday. Rice arrives in Ankara on Friday for talks with Turkey’s leaders, before going to Istanbul for a meeting of Iraq’s neighbors and major powers that is also expected to be dominated by tensions between Iraq and Turkey. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY)
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B) RELATED ITEMS (English teaching in Japan, 28; Iraq and Foreign Service assignments, 29-33; situation in Iraq, 34-38; Iran, 389; Mideast peace, 40)

28. JAPANESE LESSON: HOW DO YOU SAY, ‘TAKEN FOR A RIDE’? - YUKARI IWATANI KANE AND YUKA HAYASHI (WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 2): English-conversation schools are a big business in Japan. Millions of Japanese dream of speaking English. But the six years of language classes given in middle and high schools focus on grammar, not conversation, so few children learn to speak English well. The $3.5-billion-a-year foreign-language-education industry teems with more than 1,100 companies catering to about two million students, according to the Japan Association for the Promotion of Foreign Language Education.
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29. RICE PRESSES DIPLOMATS ON IRAQ POSTS - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 2):  Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the U.S. envoy to Baghdad reminded diplomats on Friday of their duty to serve their country amid a revolt among some who are resisting forced assignments to Iraq.
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30. CROCKER DEFENDS IRAQ EMBASSY DECISION - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 2): The US ambassador to Iraq defended Washington’s recent decision to force foreign service officers to work in the wartorn nation, saying Friday that diplomats have a responsibility to prioritize the nation’s interest over their personal safety.
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31. THE FOGGY BOTTOM BLUES - PETERR (FIREDOGLAKE, NOVEMBER 1): “I’m guessing that the top floor at State is not a happy place. The career people downstairs are getting restless . . . and the political people upstairs haven’t a clue about how to deal with it. If they’d been paying attention, though, they could have seen this coming. ... Secretary Rice, these [Foreign Service] people are now turning their commitment and dedication on you. You are on the verge of a mutiny, because the Bush Administration has failed and failed and failed yet again to listen to highly trained career employees when they challenge the political spinmeisters at the White House.”
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COURTESY PAT KUSHLIS

32. A DIPLOMACY OF NEIGHBORHOODS - AUSTIN BAY (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 2): Twenty-first century diplomacy isn’t an office job. It is a demanding and, at times, a dangerous trade, one that requires accepting deprivation, running physical risks and hanging out in bad neighborhoods. If this echoes a field soldier’s job description, it’s not a coincidence.
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33. DIPLOMACY: DIPLOMATS BITCHING ABOUT MANDATORY IRAQ SERVICE – JIM NEWELL WONKETTE (NOVEMBER 1)
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34. KEY FIGURES ABOUT IRAQ - ASSOCIATED PRESS (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 1)
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35. IN IRAQ, A LULL OR HOPEFUL TREND? SIGNS OF DECLINING VIOLENCE LEAVE RESIDENTS, U.S. COMMANDERS CAUTIOUS -JOSHUA PARTLOW AND NASEER NOURI (WASHINGTON POST, NOVEMBER 2)
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36. RISE IN IRAQI DEATHS UNDERCUTS ADMINISTRATION’S CLAIMS OF ‘MOMENTUM’ IN THE WAR - SATYAM (THINKPROGRESS, (NOVEMBER 1)
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37. HOW IRAQ’S ELECTIONS SET BACK DEMOCRACY - AYAD ALLAWI (NEW YORK TIMES, NOVEMBER 2): The restructuring of the electoral process will be the beginning of the end of the sectarianism that now dominates Iraqi politics and our dysfunctional government. (Ayad Allawi, the prime minister of Iraq from 2004 to 2005, heads the Iraqi National Accord Party.)
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38. CONGRESS AND IRAQ: A NEW PLAN – WILLLIAM M. ARKIN (WASHINGTONPOST.COM, OCTOBER 31): A timeline for withdrawal is essential to push the Iraqis to accelerate their efforts to take on greater responsibility. And Congress should challenge the plan to continue to base large numbers of non-combat/non-training troops in Iraq. Still, the piecemeal withdrawal of forces is risky.
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39. HOW EUROPE CAN PRESSURE IRAN - PATRICK CLAWSON AND MICHAEL JACOBSON (WALL STREET JOURNAL, NOVEMBER 2): A combined initiative by the U.S. and individual European countries to press Iran may strengthen the hand of those in Tehran arguing for accommodation. It would also be a good way to show China, Russia and laggard European governments that with or without them, action will be taken against Iran.
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40. CHASING MIDEAST PEACE - DIANA WEST (WASHINGTON TIMES, NOVEMBER 2): The longer the peace process goes on, the more vulnerable Israel becomes to Arab conquest—and the more vulnerable the concept of Israel becomes to the next stretch of peace process.
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C) MORE ON KAREN HUGHES

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