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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.

WORLDCASTING: U.S. FAILS TO FIGHT RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP OF VOA/RADIO LIBERTY NEWS BROADCAST
JUL 13, 2006 - 1:40PM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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To be or not to be -- A 'Re-Jiggered' U.S. Information Agency

That is the question, or one of them anyway, as to how America's public diplomacy efforts may be ratcheted back up to speed.

My recent "F" grade to those who pine for a reassembled USIA is challenged by former Director Bruce S. Gelb, who headed the U.S. Information Agency from 1989-91. He contends that:

… [A]ll the "transformational" BS and the re-jiggering of the half-man half-beast organization that purports to be the 21st century upgrade of the once effective USIA just doesn’t work and cannot work period.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY’S MID-YEAR REPORT CARD
JUL 5, 2006 - 10:46AM PDT
Posted by Alvin Snyder
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It's mid-year report card time!

Sadly, there are some failing "F" grades thus far this year for international media, but others show improvement.

Sir David Frost knows the "F" grade first-hand, as he continues to await his long overdue breakfast, which he ordered many months ago. The British TV star of yester-year was to debut his breakfast show on Al-Jazeera's International English service early in 2006, but there is speculation that Sir David's pancakes may not flip until year's end, if then. The reason: Al-Jazeera has yet to secure a major domestic U.S. cable or satellite-to-home carrier to transmit its... FULL TEXT
 
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TWO WAYS OF LOOKING AT PROPAGANDA
JUN 29, 2006 - 4:30PM PDT
Posted by John Brown
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The greatest lure of propaganda, for those using it to achieve total victory in the so-called war on terror, is that on surface it may appear to pose no intellectual problems about what it is and what it does. Drop leaflets on enemy territory; place pro-U.S. articles in newspapers abroad; broadcast radio programs that attack the enemy and praise American values -- and hearts and minds in hostile lands will be won over, like a salivating Pavlov dog reacting to food-related stimuli. But propaganda is not as simple as that. In fact, with its long history, it is a complicated... FULL TEXT
 
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THE “BATTLE” OF THE TAIWAN STRAITS
JUN 28, 2006 - 9:36PM PDT
Posted by Peter Herford
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Without firing a shot, China is winning its "war" to gain de facto incorporation of Taiwan into the mainland orbit. That's a tortuous way of saying that it may not be long until Taiwan is no longer a de facto state.

Beijing's strategy is instructive.

There are only 26 countries left in the world that accord Taiwan full diplomatic recognition as a "nation."

How many can you name?

How many do you recognize?

In the Asia-Pacific region the nations recognizing Taiwan are: The Solomon Islands, The Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Palau and Kiribati.

Kiribati is an interesting case in point, and... FULL TEXT
 
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CHINA’S PD: PROMOTING CHINESE LANGUAGE STUDIES
JUN 26, 2006 - 6:57PM PDT
Posted by Joshua Kurlantzick

Via http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501060626/story.html

The cover story in Time's Asian edition highlights an important part of China's public diplomacy that is not yet well understood in the West -- promoting Chinese language studies.

After an initial rocky start trying to promote Chinese language studies in the late 1990s, the Chinese government, including its ministry of education, seems to have realized the need to divorce language studies from explicit government support. Hence the name of the Chinese language programs -- Confucius Institutes -- betrays no links to China's own political system or modern history; in actuality, Mao tried to disown Confucius' legacy. Hence, also, although... FULL TEXT
 
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