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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 11-13, 2008
by John H. Brown

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW, JANUARY 11-13

“Well, strictly speaking, we don’t have one, but me and three others are working on it.”

--Gust Avrakotos, the CIA operative in Mike Nichols’ film, “Charlie Wilson’s War,” talking about the US strategy in Afghanistan during the Reagan administration; cited in Paul Kengor, “Whose War? Separating Fact from Fiction in ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’” (American Thinker, January 12)
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REPORT

Arab Media and US Policy: A Public Diplomacy Reset - Marwan M. Kraidy (Stanley Foundation, January 2008)
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Courtesy Bruce Gregory

SITE OF INTEREST

Inside Iraq
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VIDEOS

a) Japanese American Internment (US Govt Propaganda)
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b) Bush In Israel – Jon Stewart
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EXHIBIT

“Over the Top: American Posters From World War I.” Falling somewhere between publicity and propaganda, these images from 1917 to 1919 were designed, for the most part, to sell war bonds. In a larger sense, they were advertisements for the war itself.

--Michael O’Sullivan, “Nothing Subtle in the Art of War” (Washington Post, January 11)
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A) PUBLIC DIPLOMACY (1-17)

1. Best and Worst America This Week - Rami G. Khouri (Agence Global, January 9): American military bases, secret prisons, outsourced torture chambers, and covert operations around the Arab world and Asia are expanding at a rapid rate, while American democracy activists and public diplomacy officials are widely viewed around the region as anathema.
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2. Arab Media and US Policy: A Public Diplomacy Reset - Marwan M. Kraidy (Ikhwanweb, January 10): During the past decade, numerous polls have underscored that the reputation of the United States in the Middle East has steadily deteriorated. The lack of an international communication strategy, insufficient funds for public diplomacy, and an inadequate public diplomacy structure have been identified as problems. Above all, an understanding should emerge that the US reputation crisis cannot be resolved by communication alone, but ought to rest on smarter policies.
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3. Our Pakistan Problem: Turmoil Requires a Shift in U.S. Policy - Brian Katulis, Caroline Wadhams (Center for American Progress, January 11): The US government has overemphasized military solutions to fighting terrorism, and has not focused sufficiently on democracy promotion, economic development, and public diplomacy.
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4. Nicaragua’s President Ortega: The Balancing Act After One Year - James M. Roberts (Heritage Foundation, backgrounder #2097, January 11): Specifically, the Bush Administration should, inter alia: Increase and enhance the State Department’s public diplomacy efforts in Nicaragua to encourage the development of strong, transparent, market-based, and pro-democracy political parties, economic policies, and institutions. For its part, Congress should increase funding for public diplomacy efforts in the country.
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5. Why Al-Qaeda Is Losing - Gary Anderson (Washington Post, January 13): No matter how much the government may disapprove, the government’s official propaganda will be overwhelmed by the deluge, both positive and negative, from the popular media. We need to accept this fact and move on, rather than waste more millions on strategic communications “charm campaigns.” What we can do is to expose our Islamic extremist enemies for what they are.
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6. Q&A: Public diplomacy at the Pentagon - Katherine McIntire Peters (Governmentexecutive.com, January 12): Last May, Michael Doran became the first deputy assistant secretary of Defense for support to public diplomacy, a newly created position to develop policy for strategic communications at Defense. Doran: “What the war has taught us is that the Department of Defense is engaged in public diplomacy activities all the time. One of the things we emphasize is awareness of the fact that actions speak louder than words. ... [I]n the current information environment a lot of strategic communication is talking to foreign audiences about themselves—giving foreign audiences information about themselves. That’s different than sending a U.S. government message.”
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7. George Weigel’s Anti-American Jeremiad [review of Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism by George Weigel] - Michael Scheuer (antiwar.com, January 11): The main goal of Mr. Weigel’s book is to harangue, condemn, and damn Americans because they do not see the world as do the neoconservatives. Weigel believes presidential power should be increased and the “[c]ore elements of the old U.S. Information Agency ought to be brought out of mothballs and made part of the Executive Office of the President” along with a “new White House office of public diplomacy.”
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8. Religion Book Notes – Jay Tolson (U.S. News & World Report, January 11): In his Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism, George Weigel offers sensible, if very broad, advice on how America should take a leading role in opposing the extremist Islamic strain. The problem, as Weigel passingly notes, is that American public diplomacy under a succession of woefully incapable leaders has done very little to identify and support the voices of moderation.
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9. Presidential Debates’ Missing Issues: Bruce Hapman (Discovery Blog, January 10): Why are we still doing such a poor job in the public relations battle ("public diplomacy,” or, if you will, propaganda)? Surely the candidates have some ideas on how to do better.
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10. H.R. 2553: Public Diplomacy Resources Centers Act of 2007 As passed by the House of Representatives on October 9, 2007 – (Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate, January 9, 2008): H.R. 2553 would authorize the Department of State to establish and maintain libraries and resource centers at or connected with U.S. diplomatic missions overseas, and to accept donations made to those facilities. The United States currently operates 378 American Corners and 182 Information Resource Centers worldwide.
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11. Kim Andrew Elliott Discussing International Broadcasting and Public Diplomacy, latest edition)
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12. Where is she now? – Ajumma (Ajumma’s Pad: An Asian American slant on things that go POP!): Secretary of State Rice has named Michelle Kwan, a nine-time U.S. Women’s Figure Skating Champion, a “Public Diplomacy Envoy.” This means Kwan travels to places like China and Russia and meets with young people to speak about leadership and to engage them in dialogue on social and educational issues.
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13. Jonathan Fanton: Looking Forward to MacArthur’s Second Year in Digital Media and Learning: MacArthur’s President looks forward to an exciting second year of the program in Digital Media and Learning and announces support for new projects – (Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, January 10): Support to Global Kids complements the ongoing work of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California to explore the role of philanthropy in virtual worlds.
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14. Whose War? Separating Fact from Fiction in ‘Charlie Wilson’s War’ - Paul Kengor (American Thinker, January 12): For the Reagan administration, the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan was part of a multi-layered assault—involving about a dozen different initiatives, from Poland to Nicaragua, from SDI to the MX, from economic warfare to public diplomacy—to take down the Soviet empire and win the Cold War.
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15. Observations on the Gül-Bush meeting - İlter Türkmen (Turkish Daily News, January 12): Of course, there are many lessons to be drawn from Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s Gül’s visit to Washington. Above all, we must start to give public diplomacy the importance that it deserves.
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16. Clinton’s Message Problem - Karen Hughes (Time, January 10) From 2005 to 2007, Hughes served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.
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17. Austin News: Hormel Historic Home: Gildner left Austin, traveled the world in federal role – Laura Helle (Post Bulletin, January 12): Jay Gildner graduated from Austin High School in 1944. In 1955, he joined the U.S. Information Agency and worked as an information officer in West Germany. In 1982, he was promoted to career minister class. Mr. Gildner died on Jan. 14, 2000, at the age of 73.
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B) RELATED ITEMS (anti-Americanism, 18; smart power, 19; US soft power in Poland, 20; Lebanese views of Americans, 21; foreign correspondents, 22; Iraq, 23-29; Iran, 30-36; Israel/Palestine, 37-39; Bush in Middle East, 40-43; democracy promotion, 44; Afghanistan/Pakistan, 45; North Korea, 46; China, 47; France, 48; Guantanamo, 49-52; war on terror, 53-55; US foreign policy, 56; State Department, 57-59)

18. Anti-Americanism: About American power, not policy: Contrary to much of today’s conventional wisdom, anti-Americanism is not a recent phenomenon. In Europe, for example, anti-Americanism is as old as the United States itself - Soeren Kern (Spero News, January 10)
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19. A smart power bridge? - Arnaud de Borchgrave (Washington Times, January 11): The bipartisan conclave in Oklahoma this week was designed as a bridge between moderate Republicans and moderate Democrats who seek to use “smart power” to build a new world order. Smart power is the skillful conjugation of soft (diplomacy) and hard power (military intervention), which kept the world at peace for half the 20th century (Korea and Vietnam were bumps on the road).
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20. Poland takes up for Poland – Editorial (Boston Globe, January 12): Like other Europeans, much of the Polish public has been dismayed at the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, and Bush’s disdain for international treaties and organizations. Disenchantment such as this, in what had been an ardently pro-American population, is a sign of how much soft power Bush has squandered.
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21. Primary Source: An American university in Beirut: A partial transcript of Lebanese American University President Joseph G. Jabbra’s discussion at The Times – Los Angeles Times (January 11): Tim Cavanaugh, LA Times: “Lebanese all think Americans are dumb.” Answer of Dr. Joseph G. Jabbra, president of the Lebanese American University: “Well, I’m not sure I would say that. ... Despite what people say about America, everyone wants to learn English, everyone wants a degree from an American institution. Now explain that ... ”
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22. Trend-spotting: The foreign correspondents issue: Opening a fascinating window onto the rest of the world, the Tribune’s foreign correspondents write about cultural fads, trends or phenomena that tell broader stories of the countries where they live, work and travel – (Chicago Tribune, January 13)
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23. Baghdad Embassy Is Called A Fire Risk: ‘Serious’ Problems Were Ignored, Says State Dept. Official - Glenn Kessler (Washington Post, January 12): Originally expected to be completed by July 1, 2007, at a cost of $592 million, the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in the world has been plagued by poor planning, shoddy workmanship and design changes that have added to the cost. SEE ALSO ITEM 58.
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24. For U.S., The Goal Is Now ‘Iraqi Solutions’: Approach Acknowledges Benchmarks Aren’t Met - Thomas E. Ricks and Karen DeYoung (Washington Post, January 10): With little progress in Iraq, U.S. officials in Baghdad now are simply looking for something that works, frequently spotlighting the Iraqi government’s top economic milestone—passing a national budget and spending some of the appropriated funds.
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25. Promises, Promises - Dan Froomkin (washingtonpost.com, January 10): Rather than admit the surge in Iraq has failed in its primary task (political reconciliation), Bush is calling it a success. It’s not just the surge in Iraq; Bush’s predictions about the Middle East in general have been almost uniformly wrong.
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26. Normalcy returns to Baghdad, block by block - Richard Tomkins (Washington Times, January 13)
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27. A war report discredited - Jeff Jacoby (Boston Globe, January 13): There was great interest when the British medical journal Lancet published a study in October 2006, three weeks before the midterm US elections, reporting that 655,000 people had died in Iraq as a result of the US-led war. But the truth, it turns out, is that the report was drenched with politics, and its jaw-dropping conclusions should have inspired anything but confidence, as demonstrated by a cover story last week in the National Journal.
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National Journal article at
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28. Gross Distortions, Sloppy Methodology and Tendentious Reporting: How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths - Andrew Cockburn (CounterPunch, January 12): A new result compiled by the Iraqi Ministry of Health under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization and published in the once reputable New England Journal of Medicine, (NEJM) estimate the number of Iraqis murdered, directly or indirectly, by George Bush and his willing executioners at 151,000—far less than the most recent Johns Hopkins estimate published by the Lancet magazine. The new report is guilty of sloppy methodology and tendentious reporting—evidently inspired by the desire to discredit the horrifying Lancet findings, which, the NEJM study triumphantly concludes, “considerably overestimated the number of violent deaths.”
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Lancet report at
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29. Unfinished Debate on Iraq - Editorial (New York Times, January 13): The United States must be prepared to use military force to pre-empt another attack on American soil. In Iraq, Mr. Bush went much further, invading a country that he imagined might someday pose a threat to the United States—not pre-empting an imminent threat but preventing the possibility of a threat. To justify his actions, he persuaded Americans that Saddam Hussein had chemical, biological and, especially, nuclear weapons programs—a claim that proved to be specious.
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30. Iran Shows Its Own Video of Vessels’ Encounter in Gulf - Thom Shanker and Nazila Fathi (New York Times, January 11)
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31. US Video of Iran Speedboats Doctored; Iranians Charge Fabrication – Juan Cole (Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion, January 11): The Bush administration’s assertion that 5 small Iranian boats confronted big, well-armed US ships in the Straits of Hormuz and threatened to blow up the American vessels is looking more and more like a serious error if not a Republican Party fabrication.
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32. Gulf speedboat guff - Austin Bay (Washington Times, January 11): The best long-term U.S. strategy toward Iran is political and economic—encouraging an active domestic political opposition to Iran’s clever religious leaders while whittling away at the clerics’ graft-crammed Swiss bank accounts.
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33. Will Naval Incident Undermine Bush’s Iran Message? - Trita Parsi (antiwar.com, January 10): The idea of an US-Arab-Israeli alliance being formed to counter Iran’s rise—a key impetus for President Bush’s Mideast tour—seems more farfetched than ever. In this context, the incident between five Iranian vessels and three US Naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz this past Sunday may not, as the Bush administration may have hoped, clarify the threat Iran poses to the region.
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34. Bush Fails Again – Charley Reese (antiwar.com, January 12): Bush’s trip is nothing more than a public-relations ploy to simulate an interest in peace. In fact, the main purpose of Bush’s visit is to harangue the Arabs about the alleged dangers of Iran.
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35. Bush’s Mideast mission - Editorial (Washington Times, January 11): In recent days, Iranian and Syrian officials have publicly taunted Mr. Bush, telling him that his efforts to push forward the peace process and persuade Arab nations to stand against Iran are doomed to failure. The president should try to prove them wrong.
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36. Forging ties with Iran - Mark Brzezinski and Ray Takeyh (Boston Globe, January 11): Now that a nuclear threat is not imminent, the US long-range goal for negotiations with Iran ought to be to create a context in which Iran sees it as in its own self-interest to become more closely associated with the West and the international order.
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37. George in Jihadland - Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post, January 13): Bush stated that he has come to the Middle East to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians and to ensure US allies that the US is committed to preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet on both scores US actions do not accord with the president’s message.
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38. Welcome, Mr President, to the Misery You’ve Created: In eight years Palestinians have seen the bald eagle of enlightened US power degenerate into a phoney, biased, cynical lame duck - Jonathan Steele (Guardian, January 10/Common Dreams)
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39. Why the President Now Seems to be Implementing the Iraq Study Group Report: Bush in the Middle East - Marwan Bishara (CounterPunch, January 11): The US president must pressure his Israeli allies to be more forthcoming in their talks with the Palestinians. He must also pressure his Baghdad allies to do more for national reconciliation in Iraq.
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40. Bush Faces Wall of Arab Ire: Skeptical View of President Attends His Mideast Tour - Farnaz Fassihi (Wall Street Journal, January 11): Almost everyone here believes that no other American president has had such a big impact on the region’s political and social landscape, but critics say the change hasn’t produced improvements.
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41. Bush in the Middle East – Marc Lynch (Abu Aardvark, January 10): Bush clearly views the purpose of the trip as mobilizing support for confronting Iran, something in which the Gulf states these days don’t seem to have a lot of interest. Most of the Arab media, at least, sees the trip almost exclusively through the Palestinian-Israeli lens.
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42. A Middle East Commitment: Seven years later, President Bush picks up where Bill Clinton left off – Editorial (Washington Post, January 13): If Gaza is left to fester, Mr. Bush’s push for peace may well fail in the same way as Mr. Clinton’s—with an explosion of violence.
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43. Still Waiting to Seize the Moment – Editorial (New York Times, January 12): It has been six weeks since Mr. Bush hosted the Annapolis peace conference. Six weeks and one Middle East presidential visit later, and nothing on the ground has changed.
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44. Freedom Fighters: The State of the Bush Administration’s Democracy-Promotion Push: Even as the president makes a last-ditch speech to resurrect his “freedom agenda,” the policy warriors who fought to advance his vision to democratize the Middle East have been sidelined - Laura Rozen (Mother Jones, January 11)
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45. Pakistan, Afghanistan in tandem – Editorial (Washington Times, January 11): Three-thousand additional Marines will be headed to Afghanistan if, as is expected, Defense Secretary Robert Gates approves a “mini-surge” for the country’s deteriorating security situation. At some point, a more secure Pakistan will make recourse to U.S. troop increases less necessary, which would be merciful.
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46. North Korea’s True Colors - John Bolton (Wall Street Journal, January 11): Getting China to take concrete steps against North Korea’s nuclear capabilities through increased economic and political pressure would be a true diplomatic success for the Bush administration in its waning days.
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47. Defense Ministry information office under preparation – Xinhua (People’s Daily, Jauary 12): China has widely applied the news briefing system to most central government departments and local governments since 2003.
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48. Pop Goes the President: Nicolas Sarkozy and what American candidates might learn from France’s permanent reality show - Michael Young (Reason, January 11): Americans are more likely than the French to appreciate a celebrity-president who likes popular culture—indeed who is popular culture—because that’s far closer to the nature of their society than it is of French society.
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49. Guantánamo: How Much Longer? The notorious prison is six years old today. But despite calls from across the US political spectrum, it doesn’t look likely to close soon - Moazzam Begg (Guardian, January 11/Common Dreams)
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50. Our Shameful Guantánamo Anniversary—The appalling fact that innocents have been locked up and abused at the U.S. prison for six long years is not the only reason we must close it now - Anthony D. Romero (Salon, January 11)
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51. Guantánamo—Six Years of Impunity - Rosa Maria Pegueros (Common Dreams, January 11)
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52. Six Years Of Guantánamo: Enough Is Enough - Andy Worthington (antiwar.com, Junuary 12): A solution is to free the 130 or so detainees who are currently regarded as too dangerous to release, but not dangerous enough to be charged (which is, of course, another extraordinary invention on the part of the authorities) and to bring those regarded as genuinely dangerous—no more than 40, according to various intelligence estimates—to trial on the US mainland.
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53. A Terror Threat in the Courts - John Farmer (New York Times, January 12): The continued reliance on our criminal justice system as the main domestic weapon in the struggle against terrorism fails on two counts: it threatens not only to leave our nation unprotected but also to corrupt the foundations of the criminal law itself.
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54. Repress U: How to Build a Homeland Security Campus in Seven Steps - Michael Gould-Wartofsky (TomDispatch, January 10): The homeland security state and its constituents have come a long way in their drive to remake the American campus in the image of a compound on lockdown.
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55. Indonesia’s success: using terrorists to fight terrorism - Joshua Kurlantzick (baltimoresun.com, January 13): Indonesia instituted a program called deradicalization. Former fighters who agree to help the program often receive incentives, such as reduced sentences or assistance for their families. LINK

56. Cornered in square one: Trying to go back to the beginning in foreign policy, the Bush administration has hit a dead end - Steven Weber and Bruce W. Jentleson (Los Angeles Times, January 13): In trying to reverse the damage done during its first seven years—including an overstretched military and a loss of global prestige and influence—the administration, ironically, has quietly adopted many of the policies it once scorned.
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57. Living in a Dream World: The political fantasies of foreign service officers - Michael Rubin (Weekly Standard, January 21): Washington has always been a place where down is up, but nowhere is the world quite so inverted as at the State Department. While American forces fight wars in Afghan mountains and Iraqi deserts, train counterterror troops in Philippine jungles, and stare down North Korean soldiers across the Demilitarized Zone, Foggy Bottom remains as removed from reality as Lilliput, Brobdingnag, and Laputa ever were.
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Courtesy Len Baldyga

58. Robbing Peter to pay Paul? A view from inside the Foreign Service - Patricia H. Kushlis (Whirled View, January 13) The Foreign Service is a fascinating and unique career but it is not for everyone and Iraq is an anomalous situation. Regardless, the State Department needs to treat its employees far better and it also needs to listen to what those in the know say about the outsized, overblown diplomatic mission in Iraq. It is crystal clear that there are serious problems at Foggy Bottom under Ms. Rice’s tutelage. Something’s gotta give.
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59. Longing for the Land of Beer and Chocolate - Al Kamen (In the Loop, Washington Post, January 11): One of President Bush’s most high-profile recess appointees, Ambassador to the European Union C. Boyden Gray, is back in Washington and, for the moment, out of a job. There is buzz that the White House wants to name Gray as Bush’s “special envoy” to the European Union, a position that doesn’t require Senate confirmation and apparently would not give him supervisory authority over mission officials.
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C) MORE QUOTATIONS FOR THE DAY

“[L]ove lasts a long time, but burning desire, two or three weeks.”

--Carla Bruni, reported to be the next wife of France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy; cited in Guy Trebay, “The woman behind France’s hyper-publicized romance” (International Herald Tribune, January 13)
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“We mistake the object of our government, if we hope or wish that it is to make us respectable abroad. Conquest or superiority among other powers is not or ought not ever to be the object of republican systems.”

--South Carolina’s Charles Pinckney, during the 1787 constitutional convention, describing the role—at home and abroad—of America’s new republican government; cited in Michael Scheuer, “George Weigel’s Anti-American Jeremiad” (antiwar.com, January 11)
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