Embassy of the Future

CSIS published the report of the Embassy of the Future Commission earlier this month. The Commission co-chaired by former Ambassadors Felix Rohatyn, Marc Grossman and George Argyros, has assessed the state of the U.S. diplomatic presence abroad and submitted recommendations for how to make the diplomatic pursuit of U.S. interests abroad even more effective than it is today. The report includes comments on IRCs, American Corners, American Centers, and other public diplomacy tools.

Why democracy?

Whydemocracy.net is a very interesting site, and an example of public diplomacy that transcends nations. I discoverd the project when one of the 10 films (see below) was shown by the Norwegian Broadcasting Company yesterday. The particular film, Taxi to the Dark Side, was profoundly disturbing. To see when the films are being screened in your country, see the screening times page.

Here is an article about the project that appeared in the S.African weekly Mail&Guardian earlier this month, and below is an excerpt from the site's "About" information.

Why Democracy?

Democracy is arguably the greatest political buzzword of our time and is invoked by everyone - but what does it mean? Can it be defined, measured, safeguarded? Can it be sold, bought, and transplanted? Can it grow? Can it die? What does it mean to people who can't even talk about it? What does it mean to people who don't believe in it? What does it mean to you?

In October 2007, ten one-hour films focused on contemporary democracy will be broadcast in the world's largest ever factual media event. More than 40 broadcasters on all continents are participating, with an estimated audience of 300 million viewers. Each of the broadcasters - an A-Z which includes everyone from Al Arabiya to ZDF - will be producing a locally-based seasons of film, radio, debate and discussion to tie in with the global broadcast of the Why Democracy? films. Read more

Interesting Research Site

I was alerted to this site by its creator, librarian Woody Evans of Texas. It is a useful example of a Google Custom Search engine - this particular engine searches 67 websites each morning to bring light to "the shadow-places of governments, governmental contractors, and non-government actors affecting policy. De-classified, open, or public sources scoured carefully every morning!" A search for "public diplomacy", for example, filters out much of the fluff that would turn up in a general Google search, and returns a pretty substantive list of pd hits.

Dipnote

The State Department has launched its first blog, Dipnote..here's what Sean McCormack has to say about it in his welcome message..:
"Welcome to the State Department's first-ever blog, Dipnote. As a communicator for the Department, I have the opportunity to do my fair share of talking on a daily basis. With the launch of Dipnote, we are hoping to start a dialogue with the public. More than ever, world events affect our daily lives--what we see and hear, what we do, and how we work. I hope Dipnote will provide you with a window into the work of the people responsible for our foreign policy, and will give you a chance to be active participants in a community focused on some of the great issues of our world today.

With Dipnote we are going to take you behind the scenes at the State Department and bring you closer to the personalities of the Department. We are going to try and break through some of the jargon and talk about how we operate around the world.

We invite you to participate in this community, and I am looking forward to stepping away from my podium every now and then into the blogosphere. Let the conversation begin."

see also New York Times article

The promise of noopolitikk

The promise of noöpolitik
by David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla
This is another interesting article from First Monday, about the noosphere - a realm of communal mind conceived of 80 years ago by Teilhard de Chardin, but only now enabled by cyperspace - and its impact on grand strategy and diplomacy in the form of noöpolitik. The authors' thoughts on noöpolitik will be collected in a forthcoming handbook on public diplomacy.

Table 1: Contrast between realpolitik and noöpolitik.
Realpolitik	Noöpolitik
States as the unit of analysis	Nodes, non–state actors
Primacy of hard power (resources, etc.)	Primacy of soft power
Power politics as zero–sum game	Win–win, lose–lose possible
System is anarchic, highly conflictual	Harmony of interests, cooperation
Alliance conditional (oriented to threat)	Ally webs vital to security
Primacy of national self–interest	Primacy of shared interests
Politics as unending quest for advantage	Explicitly seeking a telos
Ethos is amoral, if not immoral	Ethics crucially important
Behavior driven by threat and power	Common goals drive actors
Very guarded about information flows	Propensity for info–sharing
Balance of power as the “steady–state”	Balance of responsibilities
Power embedded in nation–states	Power in “global fabric”

Madison Avenue principles for hearts and minds

This sounds vaguely familiar; a new Rand report suggests that Madison Avenue advertising principles might be effective in winning hearts and minds around the world. "Enlisting Madison Avenue: 'The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation' extracts lessons from business practices and adapts them to U.S. military efforts in a unique approach to shaping the attitudes and behavior of local populations in a theater of operations. Foremost among these lessons are the concepts of branding, customer satisfaction, and segmentation of the target audience, all of which serve to maximize the impact and improve the outcome of U.S. shaping efforts. Enlisting Madison Avenue also offers insights based on previous operational endeavors to provide a much-expanded blueprint for shaping target audiences."

GAO Public Diplomacy report

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report yesterday to Senator Richard Lugar on the evolving strategic communications and public diplomacy initiatives at the U.S. Departments of State and Defense, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors. As one might expect of an accountability(formerly accounting) office, emphasis is on measurable results - no touchy-feely stuff. A buzzword is "campaign-style", and one of the recommendations for the State Department is to "Formally endorse and adopt a research-based campaign-style approach to thematic communications." The State Department responds to the report by suggesting that its own “ABCDE” communication process model - a planning tool that can be used to think through the message and the best way to deliver it to a target audience - is essentially the kind of campaign-style approach the GAO is asking for. The ABCDE model is explained/exemplified (not very clearly) in the new PD Strategy document that was posted here last month.

PBS series America at a Crossroads

In the site's own words...
"America at a Crossroads is a major public television event that premiered on PBS in April 2007. This ongoing series explores the challenges confronting the post-9/11 world — including the war on terrorism; the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; the experience of American troops serving abroad; the struggle for balance within the Muslim world; and global perspectives on America’s role overseas."

A program dealing with anti-Americanism in Europe will air in August and examine perceptions of the U.S. role in the world in France, UK and Poland.

New PD strategy

Caroline Walters at the USC center for Public Diplomacy writes:
"After extensive input from various government agencies, private sector communication professionals, and over thirty independent studies of U.S. public diplomacy, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes unveiled her new national strategic communications plan on May 31. The plan is a result of more than a year of effort by Hughes and her staff, and is considered the first comprehensive national strategy ever developed for public diplomacy.

Strangely, the document is not to be found on the www.state.gov or usinfo.state.gov sites - even the public diplomacy and public affairs page at State, and its "public diplomacy update" section, fail to mention it.

New CIA website

CIA has a new website. The press release informs of the following key changes:

• Updated look and feel
• Consistent navigation throughout the site
• A movie on the homepage that easily(?) and quickly details who we are and what we do
• Virtual tours of CIA Headquarters and the CIA Museum
• Additional interactive presentations, including a piece on the enigmatic Kryptos sculpture and pieces on the Careers page
• A Quick Links section on the homepage to ensure visitors easy access to the most popular areas of CIA.gov

Also includes sections for kids K-5th, 6-12th, parents and teachers, and games (code breaking etc.) and a Kids Page Privacy Statement! The library section contains lots of interesting reports, articles, and declassified documents.

Intermap

This is potentially an interesting blog, by Craig Hayden of the USC Public Diplomacy center. "up-to-date" (below) seems a stretch considering the site has been updated only twice so far in 2007 but, encouragingly, both posts are dated today, May 3! Stay tuned! Argument-tracking, and questions about why we believe what we believe, constitute an interesting PD exercise. This site traces arguments in the Arab media, but it would be equally interesting to examine the U.S. and W.European media in this manner...
Here's what Hayden writes about the site: "The International Media Argument Project (INTERMAP) is based out of the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy. The purpose of the project is to track arguments in Arab media related to United States policies, actions, and events in the region. The project looks at these arguments through the lens of argument and rhetorical analysis based in communication studies. This website - intermap.org - provides an up-to-date review of newsworthy events and their coverage in the Arab press."

USIA/State merger and PD

While attending the National War College in 2003, former Oslo PAO and Reykjavik DCM appointee Neil Klopfenstein wrote an interesting and, in my opinion, accurate paper on the impact of the USIA/State merger on public diplomacy. His conclusions are reflected in the title, "USIA's intgration into the State Department: advocating policy trumps promoting mutual understanding."

Advertising Democracy

In the 12 minute film "Selling America" at the PBS POV (Point of View) American ID website, Gregory Warner "charts a brief history of efforts to advertise democracy — then and now." The main focus of the film - of course - is the USIA library program, and its evolution from early days through the current administration. Very interesting and concise presentation - and a good primer for that question libaries, ircs, or whatever we now call ourselves need to be asking - how do we remain relevant? The film includes an interview with Donald Hausrath, for those who might remember him, and the webpage also includes an 8 minute mpg with former USIA librarian Aggie Kuperman (picture) talking about "the USIA Library program... one of the most ambitious efforts at cultural diplomacy that America ever attempted." The American ID website is an impressive presentation of public diplomacy history and issues....check out subsections...

American ID | Freedom | Democracy | Choice | Border Talk | For Educators | Resources | Credits | Site Map

Demos

I was alerted to this UK site via mention of their recent report on cultural diplomacy, but it has a wealth of other information that is also relevant to the larger topic of public diplomacy. The Cultural Diplomacy report concludes with synopses of cultural diplomacy as practiced in 5 nations, including the U.S., and has this to say about new developments in U.S. cultural diplomacy: "...there is a clear sense that any statefunded cultural diplomacy must be strictly in the national interest. The emphasis is very much on promoting immediate US interests overseas."

CQ Researcher: "Rethinking Foreign Policy"

CQ Researcher has published a new 24 page resource "Rethinking Foreign Policy," dated February 2.
It offers a broad survey of the current state of American foreign policy and the issues at stake, a little historical background, some "where do we go from here" ideas, links and a bibliography.
This resource should serve as introductory material for high school and first-year college students, via a subscription to the online edition, which our post is fortunate to have. The approach is very professional, as you would expect from this source. New reports are published weekly, and give useful outlines of topics in the news.
While the CQ Researcher is not freely available on the web, the Ralph Bunche Library has access to the print edition in its print periodical collection.

A "New Paradigm": the private sector and public diplomacy

Craig Hayden at USC's Center for Public Diplomacy takes a critical look at the "Private Sector Summit on Public Diplomacy" hosted by the State Department in January. He concludes, with little enthusiasm, "A corporate vision for public diplomacy appears to be on the rise again... It would seem that branding-as-public diplomacy has once again surfaced as a corrective for U.S. communication strategy. Does any of this sound familiar?" Richard Edelman's words will presumably be music to the ears of USIS diehards... (p.s. - that was another example of CiteBite in action...wonderful tool!"

Heritage Foundation on PD

This executive memo from the Heritage Foundation makes some recommendations for moving U.S. public diplomacy forward. Among them, "look beyond short-term needs, assign clear authorities and responsibilities, and establish sensible processes to aid PD research, planning, clearing, and assessment."

Cultural diplomacy for armed forces

Through the Lens of Cultural Awareness: A Primer for US Armed Forces Deploying to Arab and Middle Eastern CountriesThe statement "Cultural understanding is necessary both to defeat adversaries and to work successfully with allies" sounds a bit peculiar to a librarian, but I guess cultural awareness is always a good thing. This 150-page primer addresses the critical task of providing U.S. armed forces with a better cultural understanding of adversaries as well as allies.

World View of US Role Goes From Bad to Worse

Time to put some more Public Affairs Officers in the dog house, they just can't seem to get it right...or perhaps we IRCs are to blame? According to this BBC World Service poll, released January 23, the view of the U.S. role in the world has deteriorated both internationally and domestically. What's a librarian to do?

Merger of State and DOD

This piece, by former FSO, former colleague and mensch David Arnett, is a fable about something that could happen - but I suspect it's also a tale of something that has already happened...

(Incidentally, here's an example of how useful "Deepquote" - which I described in an earlier post - can be. David's fable is located at the very bottom of this page, at the USC Public Diplomacy site. It's kind of hard to find, despite the well-intentioned notice at the top of the page (ie. For “The Merger of State and DOD: A Fable” by David L. Arnett, please scroll down to Section E.) This is when Deepquote, now renamed CiteBite, comes in handy. When you provide CiteBite with a chunk of text and the url of the page, it generates a new url that goes straight to the selected text. Neat!)