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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.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, JANUARY 5-7
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, JANUARY 5-7, 2008

“President Bush is not doing a single thing I don’t agree to ... He doesn’t support anything that I oppose.”

--Israel’s Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert; cited in Jon Ward and David R. Sands, “Bush bound for Mideast” (Washington Times, January 7)
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“’I can speak English,’ Dr. Habibullah said in Farsi ... He counted to twenty in English, only missing number eight.

‘Well done,’ I said.

‘That is nothing. I can count to one thousand.’

I say, ‘Perhaps later ...’”

--Rory Stewart, a Scot who traveled across Afghanistan on foot, in his “The Places in between” (2004), p. 124
With many thanks to a valued PDPBR subscriber.

VIDEO

Past Nazi propaganda & today’s Islamic propaganda compared: Then And Now, Parts I & II (Videos) - Krishna109 (Infidel Bloggers Alliance, January 6)
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A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY, 1-10

1. A Darker Shade Of Green Zone: In Baghdad, Low Expectations Have Supplanted High Ideals - Karen DeYoung (Washington Post, January 5): The US government has done its best to make Hussein’s Presidential Palace, a half-mile-long behemoth at the heart of the zone, look like an embassy. Drab drywall and metal slabs divide its extravagant rooms into cubicles. A mid-level Foreign Service officer whispers that the entire Iraq enterprise is “screwed,” and that somebody in Washington ought to do something about it. A public diplomacy expert explains the gift of democracy that Iraqis have been given, while a senior diplomat reflects on the difficulties of persuading the Iraqi government to do what Washington wants, saying, “This is really, really hard.” Meanwhile, the NEC, or New Embassy Compound, the most expensive US embassy in history, costing more than $600 million and scheduled for completion last September, is still unoccupied.
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2. Undiplomatic Diplomacy: Greener Than Thou – Gerald Loftus (Avuncular American: An expatriate view from Europe, January 6): “My purpose here is not to trash the Energy Independence and Security Act, which appears to be the fruit of the Democratic Congress elected in November 2006, and has a number of worthwhile initiatives ... . No, I am taking issue with the public diplomacy tone-deafness of this administration, which, ever since Inauguration Day 2001, has exhibited passive-aggressive attitudes towards the environmental policies adopted by large swaths of the world—and then has the gall to lecture our European partners on the need to be ‘bolder’ when it is finally forced by a Democratic Congress to (belatedly) start to go in the right direction.”
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3. Kim Andrew Elliot Discussing International Public Broadcasting and Public Dipomacy, latest edition. Contains important items pertaining to public diplomacy, both US and non-American.
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4. Laugh out loud funny? The Final Tony Snow Job? This White House is different. Really –(The Heretik: Slime Time News, January 5): [Former White House spokesman Tony] Snow: “This is not like some previous administrations where people are running around with talking points. You’re not going to find—I guarantee you—people using exactly the same phrase because that’s not a very convincing way to do public diplomacy. What you’ve got to do is allow people to speak honestly in their own words. You’ve just got to do it in a way that is not jarring or inconsistent with what the president is saying.“ Irony is not dead, but it is severely wounded. Again. In this White House people are allowed to speak honestly so long as they say what the president does, but in their own words. Then it is more convincing. Oy.
LINK (scroll down link for item)

5. 20 Responses to “A Spiritual Vacuum and American Politics” (A Spiritual Vacuum and American Politics, (Vox Nova: A Catholic Perspective on Culture, Society and Politics, January 6): Gerald L. Campbell: “I wrote recently to Senator Barack Obama. It was written within the context of US public diplomacy. The following paragraphs are from that 4,000 word letter: ‘… but there is more. Effective public diplomacy requires a process of renewal at home. For ‘telling America’s story to the world’—a phrase which denotes public diplomacy—is powerful only because it is true. But it can only remain true and powerful if America never stops rewriting the story it has to tell.”
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On Campbell see
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6. Not everyone likes flapping fish head – (People’s Daily, Beijing, January 1): As Zhao Qizheng, former minister of the State Council Information Office, sees it, Chinese can become better “world citizens” by improving communication skills, which is necessitated by the need for public diplomacy. Before the country opened its doors to the outside world, Chinese made 30,000 trips overseas a year. Last year, that number was 34 million, over a 1,000-fold increase.
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7. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs – StarofDavid (Shekinah Mercantile, January 6): The Jerusalem Center is engaged in both analysis as well as public diplomacy.
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8. Ketua Majelis Syuro PKS Buka Pelatihan Diplomasi – Cheriatna (pks+, January 7): Dalam sambutannya, Ustadz Hilmy mengungkapkan sebenarnya Deplu dan PKS mempunyai satu persepsi yang sama dalam membangun diplomasi. PKS, kata Ustadz Hilmy merupakan partai politik sekaligus partai dakwah. Menteri Luar Negeri Hassan Wirajuda, kata Ustadz Hilmy, mengeluarkan kebijakan total diplomacy(diplomasi total) dan public diplomacy (diplomasi public). Sedangkan PKS merupakan partai politik sekaligus partai dakwah.
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9. Stephen Michael Shaffer, State Department Official – Joe Holley (Obituaries, Washington Post, January 5): Stephen Michael Shaffer, 61, who directed the State Department’s Office of Research, died Dec. 11. Dr. Shaffer worked briefly at the Defense Department before joining the Office of Research at the U.S. Information Agency in 1980. He was an analyst and division chief in the office’s European division before being named deputy director in 1991. In 1999, USIA merged with the State Department. Two years later, Dr. Shaffer became director of the Office of Research in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and in 2005 he was named to the State Department’s Senior Executive Service.
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B) RELATED ITEMS (U.S. in world, 10-13; Hezbollah propaganda, 14; Pakistan, 15-19; Iraq, 20-23; Libya, 24; Middle East, 25; North Korea, 26; Georgia, 27; film and propaganda, 28-29; Rice, 30-31)

10. Voting for a Smile - Maureen Dowd (New York Times, January 6): Many Americans can no longer see themselves in the warped values of the Bush White House or the pathetic paralysis of Congress or the disapproving gaze of the world. “I want to go before the world and say, America’s back,” Obama told cheering Democrats in Milford, N.H.
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11. Confidence in America: The Best Change the Next President Can Make - Madeleine K. Albright (Washington Post, January 7): To many, the Bush administration is America. Our reputation is in disrepair. We will not recover by acting out of fear but by educating ourselves about the world around us, learning foreign languages, appreciating other faiths, studying the many dimensions of historical truth, harnessing modern technology to constructive ends and looking beyond simplistic notions of evil and good.
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12. Why I Believe Bush Must Go: Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse. - George McGovern (Washington Post, January 6): The conduct and the barbaric policies of Bush/Cheney have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world.
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13. Ten Ways to Prevent Peace and Goodwill on Earth - Colleen Turner (Huffington Post, December 29): Among them: 1. Repeatedly declare that the USA is the greatest country in the world. 2. Ignore international polls and discount, minimize, or completely deny how other countries feel about the U.S. 5. Disregard the perceptions of those within countries we are striving to serve while telling them how wonderful we are and how much we are doing for them. 6. Ensure our nation’s spokespersons do not take advantage of available state-of-the-art systems thinking and communications training. 8. Avoid reorganizing strategic communications and counterinsurgency efforts under the National Security Council.
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14. Seeds of Hate [Review of Jihad And Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11 by Matthias Küntzel] - Jeffrey Goldberg (New York Times, January 6): Hezbollah officials employ language that shamelessly echoes Nazi propaganda, describing Jews as parasites and tumors and prescribing the murder of Jews as a kind of chemotherapy.
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15. Democracy Gets Small Portion of U.S. Aid: Documents Show Much of the Money Helps Entity Controlled by Musharraf - Glenn Kessler (Washington Post January 6): The entire US budget for democracy programs in Pakistan in 2006 amounted to about $22 million, according to State Department documents, much of it reserved for aiding the Election Commission—an entity largely controlled by Pakistan’s president Musharraf.
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16. Conspiracy and Democracy in Pakistan – Editorial (New York Times, January 7): For the vote to have any hope of legitimacy, Mr. Musharraf must now release jailed democratic activists and lawyers, lift press restrictions, allow international monitors to observe the polling, and permit Nawaz Sharif, now the country’s most prominent opposition leader, to stand for election. The United States must insist that Mr. Musharraf do all of this and make clear that ballot-rigging will be exposed and condemned.
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17. The Duty My Wife Left Us - Asif Ali Zardari (Washington Post, January 5): “I call on the United Nations to commence a thorough investigation of the circumstances, facts and coverup of my wife’s murder, modeled on the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. And I call on the friends of democracy in the West, in particular the United States and Britain, to endorse the call for such an independent investigation.” Asif Ali Zardari, a former senator, is co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party with his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
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18. Hands Off Pakistan - Sheldon Richman (Commentary, Future of Freedom Foundation, January 4): Pakistan is the most dangerous country in the world, we’re told incessantly. If that’s true, it’s all the more reason for the United States to keep its hands off. Intervention only creates and provokes enemies.
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19. It’s Troubled, But It’s Home - Mohsin Hamid (Washington Post, January 6): In the United States, there will be newspaper columns and television talk shows dedicated to “loose nukes” and the “war on terror.” Here in Pakistan, one can see signs of people coming together. Scare stories notwithstanding, it is possible (although by no means certain) that out of this tragedy the world’s sixth-largest nation may succeed in finding its voice—and with that the chance for a better future.
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20. 46,000 Iraqis Have Left Syria: Returns Reflect Security Gains, Aid Workers Say - Amit R. Paley (Washington Post, January 5)
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21. A Year in Iraq - Adriana Lins De Albuquerque and Alicia Cheng (New York Times, January 6): For those in uniform in Iraq, 2007 was the deadliest year since the invasion.
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22. Iraq’s unknown economy - Michael O’Hanlon (Washington Times, January 6): Last year was the year of security in Iraq, a remarkable period of unmistakable and hugely encouraging progress in reducing violence. Of course, 2008 needs to a year for Iraqi political progress to reinforce that security trajectory. But just as much, it needs to be the year of the economy. With the security environment so much better, that is now possible.
LINK

23. Washington, Ankara and the PKK – Editorial (Washington Times, January 7): It remains—as it should be—a priority of U.S. policy-makers to do their utmost to prevent Turkey from launching a large-scale invasion of northern Iraq to root out PKK terrorists. But it is past time for America’s allies in the Kurdistan Regional Government to do their part as well.
LINK

24. Rehabilitating Libya – Editorial (New York Times, January 5): Libya is keen to have Ms. Rice visit this year. Before that happens, she is going to have to press a lot harder for changes in Libya’s behavior, including releasing dissidents and settling the Lockerbie claims. Colonel Qaddafi needs to understand that Libya’s responsibilities don’t end just because its isolation has.
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25. Bush’s Mideast trip - Chuck Freilich (Washington Times, January 7): President Bush’s upcoming Mideast tour may be well intentioned, but the stage is set for a dark comedy—not a feel-good play. SEE BELOW ITEM 30.
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26. Accountability for Pyongyang: Time to send North Korea a unified message: Come clean - Editorial (Los Angeles Times, January 7): It was vital that the United States sit down with North Korea to try to figure out what terms—if any—would persuade it to abandon its nuclear arsenal. But for diplomacy to succeed, each side must conclude that it will be worse off without a deal. North Korea appears to need some reminding.
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27. Georgia’s Way Back: It starts, but does not end, with elections today – Editorial (Washington Post, January 5): Whatever their outcome, the Bush administration should not view the elections as the last step needed to fortify democracy in Georgia. For despite Georgia’s admirable traits—its relatively free and pluralistic media, its openness to foreign investment, its eagerness to engage with the West—the country has some ways to go to match its stated adherence to democratic principles with reality.
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28. Tomgram: Chalmers Johnson, An Imperialist Comedy (Tom Dispatch, January 6): “My own view is that if [the recent film] Charlie Wilson’s War is a comedy, it’s the kind that goes over well with a roomful of louts in a college fraternity house. Simply put, it is imperialist propaganda and the tragedy is that four-and-a-half years after we invaded Iraq and destroyed it, such dangerously misleading nonsense is still being offered to a gullible public.”
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29. Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction – Chuck Tryon (Chutry Experiment, January 7): Patricia Aufderheide’s breezy but informative Documentary Film: A Very Short Introduction, part of the Oxford University Press “Very Short Introduction” series, is useful in helping to differentiate between government-supported propaganda, such as Leni Reifenstahl’s Triumph of the Will or the Frank Capra Why We Fight series and documentaries that advocate for a specific cause (such as the Michael Moore films). Here, Aufderheide is also careful to remind readers that media effects theorists have rightfully challenged simplistic notions of manipulation (in fact, Triumph of the Will was far from a box office success in Germany, to name one significant example).
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30. Bush, forgotten man of 2008 - Jurek Martin (Financial Times, January 3): US foreign policy is mostly spinning its wheels, with the secretary of state more at the mercy of events (Pakistan merely the latest) than controlling them. Condi Rice, who once walked on the waters of adulation, now barely stays afloat. Indeed nobody seems to be paying much attention to her any more(including, not a happy thought, Dick Cheney).
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31. Condi’s Saddest Condiweek Launches Condiweek ‘08 - Peter Huestis (Wonkette, January 7): “I’ll be honest with you: It wasn’t the Condiweek of all Condiweeks. One of her diplomatic BFFs got assassinated, Condi’s democracy didn’t work out so well in Kenya, and instead of glamorous foreign guests, she only got visits from Bulgaria and Libya. But how can we learn all there is to know about the adorable Foggy Bottom hostess with the mostest if we don’t try to understand these “down times” together?”
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C) ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“[H]e violated ...U.N. Security Council resolutions ... ; he had the blood of perhaps one million people on his hands; he transformed his country into ... the ‘republic of fear.’”

--Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Michael O’Hanlon, regarding Saddam Hussein; cited in O’Hanlon’s “Obama and Iraq” (Wall Street Journal, January 7)
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D) ONLY IN AMERICA?

John Martorano: The Executioner: Steve Kroft Interviews Triggerman Of Boston’s Notorious Winter Hill Gang – 60 Minutes (CBS News, January 6): For years, he was one of the most feared men in Boston, and this is why: Martorano says he never kept count of how many people he killed.

‘Until in the end, I never realized it was that many,’ he tells Kroft.

Asked how many, Martorano says, ‘A lot. Too many.’

‘Do you have a number?’ Kroft asks.

‘I confessed to 20 in court,’ Martorano replies.

‘You sure you remembered ‘em all?’ Kroft asks.

‘I hope so,’ Martorano says.

Martorano had to remember them all. It was part of a deal he cut with the federal government that put him back on the streets of Boston after only 12 years in prison—a little more than seven months served for each of the 20 people he killed, many of them fellow gangsters, and many of them at close range after looking into their eyes.

Asked if he always killed people by shooting them, Martorano tells Kroft, ‘I think I stabbed one guy.’

‘But you like guns,’ Kroft remarks.

‘Well, it’s the easiest way I think,’” Martorano says.
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