"If you want to irritate a professor of philosophy, you should corner one at at a party and confront him or her with the momentous question of the very meaning of life."

--Professor Crispin Sartwell, The Times Literary Supplement (May 23, 2014), p. 28; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

President Obama at West Point- Donald M. Bishop, Public Diplomacy Council: "The President’s foreign policy speech at West Point described a world full of challenges. He affirmed that they require American leadership, and he provided his vision for how America – 'the one indispensable nation' -- should address them. ... The President affirmed the importance of long term work to support democracy, transition to market and enterprise economies, end corruption, cope with famines, and respect human rights. It’s America’s diplomats and development specialists that do this.


He spoke of the need to explain our policies, face propaganda and international suspicion, and 'shape world opinion.' Exchanges were praised. This is the work of the State Department’s Public Diplomacy."Uncaptioned image from entry. See also Nick Cull, "Engagement is the New Public Diplomacy or the Adventures of a Euphemism of a Euphemism," CPD Blog (June 5, 2009) John Brown, "Smart Power In, Public Diplomacy Out?" Notes and Essays (March 2, 2009).

Obama Draws a Roadmap for Foreign Engagement - Tara Sonenshine, defenseone.com: "Five and a half years into his presidency, Barack Obama has just given international engagement advocates their best case yet for global action by pushing back on the notion of America in retreat from the world. Most importantly, the president steered a path that is interventionist without solely relying on the use of force or American boots on the ground—countering critics who say the country is disengaged or that the United States can’t afford to get involved overseas. ... The speech comes on the heels of Obama’s Memorial Day announcement that the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan will come down to 9,800 with an end to the combat mission at the end 2015 and all troops removed by 2017. Critics on the left will say the plan is too troop-dependent; critics on the right will say is not a large enough residual military presence. ... The West Point speech is unlikely to fit neatly on a bumper sticker like 'containment' or 'American exceptionalism,' but it offers lodestars at a difficult time in the foreign policy galaxy. Tara Sonenshine is former undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs."

Next Level Day 4: Just a little demo... - Paul Rockower, Levantine: "The State Dept should consider sending a DanceMotionUSA team to Patna...."



Uncaptioned image from entry

Coffee talk: Filmmaker Kiera Lewis’s documentary explores traditions, attitudes, and the different worldviews of U.S. and Arabic cultures - Wendy M. Levy, The Commons: "Kiera Lewis’s upcoming documentary 'Dates For Coffee,' the viewer is reminded things are not always as they seem. Seemingly innocuous cultural differences can lead to dangerous misunderstandings. The title alone has disparate meanings, depending on one’s background. For many Americans, 'dates for coffee' often means planned, informal social engagements occurring outside of the home, to perform work or share information. The activity conforms with the American story of hard work, success, and individualism. In the Arab world, 'dates for coffee' does not mean 'going on a date.' Rather, hosts serve dates — the fruit — with coffee


as part of the Arabic cultural traditions of supporting family cohesion and offering hospitality during daily visits from guests. The common element in both is in storytelling: narrative, sayings and folklore, traditions, opinions, and tales passed from person to person or group to group. By making this film, Lewis aims to bridge the gap between these two worlds, often seemingly at odds. ... Lewis anticipates beginning post-production in July and plans to enter 'Dates For Coffee' into the film festival circuit, where audiences at universities and colleges around the world will see it. She also hopes to create what she calls 'an opportunity for dialogue' with the United States Department of State Office of Public Diplomacy and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. 'The underlying mission of ‘Dates For Coffee’ is to show how an understanding of the master narratives and folklore of other societies is effectively a tool for peacebuilding,' Lewis says."Image from

First-ever exhibition of contemporary Emirati art held in the United States - gulftoday.ae: "Meridian International Centre and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have launched Past Forward: Contemporary Art from the Emirates, a groundbreaking cultural diplomacy programme that brings Emirati artwork and artists to the United States. The exhibition tells the story of the UAE’s rich history, culture and rapid development through the works of 25 notable Emirati artists. Past Forward represents the first major touring exhibition of Emirati art in the world. Over 50 paintings, sculptures, photographs and other artwork comprise the exhibition, which will be on public display in Washington, DC till July 13. The exhibition will then go on a national tour through 2015, and will include stops in Texas, California and Washington. In addition to being on public display while touring the US, Emirati artists whose works are featured in Past Forward will conduct educational outreach lectures, and workshops. The exhibition was formally opened at the White-Meyer House at Meridian International Centre during a gala reception that was attended by senior US government officials, members of the diplomatic community, business leaders and other friends of Meridian and the UAE."

Pope ends Mideast trip, says Abbas, Peres have ‘courage to move forward’ - omantribune.com: "Pope Francis on Monday said Israeli President Shimon Peres
and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had 'courage' after the two


accepted his invitation to come to the Vatican to pray with him. Abbas and Peres 'have the courage to move forward', Francis said on his return flight from a three-day trip to the Middle East in which he made a plea for peace in the region. Francis said his invitation was not a gesture of public diplomacy and had only a spiritual sense. 'The meeting in the Vatican is to pray together, it’s not a mediation,' the Argentine pope said. 'It is a prayer without discussions,'he added."Image from

Exclusive: 23,554 People the World Over Sign the Jerusalem Covenant - Raphael Poch, political-conservatives.blogspot.com: "On Sunday, May 25th, during a rather busy visit by Pope Francis to Jerusalem, a group of Jews and Christians from around the world gathered together to honor the city of Jerusalem and express their unending connection with the holy city.


In culmination of the tireless effort by the Israel organization, thousands of signatures were gathered in support of Jerusalem in a document called 'The Jerusalem Covenant. ... Faith-based public diplomacy NGO Israel founder and director Rabbi Tuly Weisz presented MK Rabbi Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid), himself a stalwart in Israel’s advocacy fight, with 23,554 signatures on the Jerusalem Covenant. The signators come from all over the world, hailing from Zimbabwe to Australia."Image from entry, with caption: MK Dov Lipman being presented with the Jerusalem Covenant by Rabbi Tuly Weisz from Israel

The IDF Is Among the Greatest Armies in the World. But Can It Fight Facebook? A social media mutiny is sweeping Israeli soldiers, leaving their commanders clueless - Liel Leibovitz, tabletmag.com: “'The military and government officials haven’t realized what the people, and especially the younger generation, have already figured out—control over information, and particularly its distribution, is no longer in the hands of the authorities,' said Danny Seaman, the former director of the Government Press Office and a retired senior hasbara official.


This, he added, will have implications that go well beyond the army itself: 'The people now have the means to influence and determine the flow of information. We are in the midst of this revolution and an evolution where the presentation of the country’s image is on the hands of the public. A few years from now no one will understand how public diplomacy was ever run by the government.' For now, the question remains how the IDF plans to react once the next social media crisis breaks out. Sources knowledgeable about the matter, speaking on background, admitted that there is currently no comprehensive plan being considered to regulate any upcoming outpouring of unauthorized opinions, images, etc. It is funny to imagine that, in the end, the Israeli army’s most formidable challengers may turn out to be not Hamas or Iran but Twitter and Facebook." Uncaptioned image from entry

Reclaiming human rights for the right - jewishnews.net.au: "Many Israelis complain that human rights advocacy has become synonymous with criticising their country. Yoaz Hendel decided to take action. Just over a year ago, he set up Blue and White Human Rights, a group that is galvanising the Israeli right for human rights causes. ... Hendel said that human rights have become a stick with which people beat Israel. 'Israel had become the biggest human rights ‘tourism’ site – you can find 20 groups every week here criticising Israeli policy and claiming that Israel is evil. These groups don’t go, of course, to Saudi Arabia or Lebanon, but rather here. These people are not meeting any officials or public diplomacy organisations – all the information they have is [from] human rights organisations.' Hendel was determined to get the Israeli right-wing involved in human rights work – and not only for the sake of public relations. To Hendel, just as some on the left have erred by using human rights language to harangue Israel, some on the right have erred by becoming dismissive of human rights, and neglecting the human rights emphasis which he claims is integral to Zionism." Uncaptioned image from entry

Ottawa art exhibit slammed for glorifying terror - Sheri Shefa, Canadian Jewish News: "Canada’s Israeli embassy and Ottawa’s Jewish Federation say that an art exhibit on display at Ottawa City Hall’s Karsh-Masson Art Gallery glorifies Palestinian terrorism and have urged the city to review its policy on how exhibits are approved. The exhibit, Invisible by Palestinian-born, Toronto-based artist


Rehab Nazzal, includes photographs of some of the most notorious Palestinian terrorists, including Abu Iyad, who was responsible for the 1972 Munich Games massacre, and Khalid Nazzal, the artist’s brother-in-law, who was the mastermind behind the Ma’alot school massacre that killed 22 children and three adults 40 years ago. Eitan Weiss, spokesperson and head of public diplomacy for the Israeli Embassy in Canada, said the embassy was moved to contact Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson when it learned that the city was 'endorsing it, and not only that, but paying for it. They are funding a lot of this with taxpayers’ money.' ... In an email statement to The CJN, deputy city manager Steve Kanellakos explained that the exhibit is in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that it won’t be taken down prematurely. All exhibits at the gallery are selected by an independent jury and the themes of each exhibit do not represent the views of the City of Ottawa, he said. 'To exhibit a work of art is not to endorse the work or the vision, ideas, and opinions of the artist. It is to uphold the right of all to experience diverse visions and views.'” Image from, with caption: Palestinian artist Rehab Nazzal. Usually, the Foreign Ministry tries to combat attempts to boycott Israeli artists abroad.

International exhibition censored by Turkish Embassy in Madrid - Pelin Başaran and Banu Karaca, indexoncensorship.org: "Last year, the exhibition Here Together Now was held at Matadero Madrid, Spain. Curated by Manuela Villa, it was realised with the support of the Turkish Embassy in Madrid, Turkish Airlines and ARCOmadrid. But in the exhibition booklet, the explanatory notes to artist İz Öztat’s work 'A Selection from the Utopie Folder (Zişan, 1917-1919)' was censored upon the request of the Turkish Embassy in Madrid, and the expressions 'Armenian genocide' and the date '1915' were taken out.


The case shows how the Turkish state delimits artistic expression in the projects it supports, and how it silences the institutions it cooperates with. ... This is not the first case of the Turkish state censoring an arts event it sponsors abroad. ... The administrative channel for the state’s support to events outside of Turkey is the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Promotion Fund Committee, established under law 3230 (10 June, 1985) with the aim of supporting activities that 'promote Turkey’s history, language, culture and arts, touristic values and natural riches'. ... The objective of the fund is 'to provide financial support to agencies set up to promote various aspects of Turkey domestically and overseas, to disseminate Turkish cultural heritage, to influence the international public opinion in the direction of our national interests, to support efforts of public diplomacy, and to render the state archive service more effective'."Image from entry

Spain's relations with Africa - Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, Daily Sun: "The positive evolution of many countries in Africa is leading, gradually but resolutely, to a new stage of relations in which the par­ticipation of private companies, trade and investment are forming the bedrock on which the expecta­tions of the continent are based, on which to consolidate its stability, growth and development. Spain well understands the magnitude of the challenge, and for this reason, we are ready to act, viewing Africa as a strategic part­ner on equal terms, who will help us identify problems and provide solutions. ... Well aware of the importance of accompanying the processes of democratic governance, in 2012 we initiated the Masar programme in


North Africa, and we will soon launch the APIA programme to promote inclusive policies in sub-Saharan Africa. We have instru­ments of public diplomacy, such as Casa Africa, Casa Arabe and Casa Mediterraneano, to deepen mutual understanding. Our ties and Commitment to the continent will be strengthened as the soci­ety of our country comes to have a greater knowledge and under­standing of Africa. ... Garcia-Margallo is the Span­ish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation." Image from

Not Simply a Festival: Looking Beyond India by the Nile - Navdeep Suri, Abu Mathen George, uscpublicdiplomacy.org: For a few years now, Spring in the Arab world comes with a number of political connotations that have now become part of standard vocabulary. In Egypt, amidst constant political change, we thought of infusing a dose of Indian culture into this Spring – a festival of arts and music that would arrive seasonally from the East.


The idea was conceived in 2013, and the first edition of the festival turned out to be resounding success, ... In 2014, the India by the Nile festival was even bigger, with more than 13 different events spread across three different governorates. ... From a public diplomacy platform, the responses to the festival were overwhelming." Uncaptioned image from entry

Indonesia Looks to an ‘Asian Century’ With China - Vita A.D. Busyra, thejakartaglobe.com: "The Indonesian-Chinese Friendship Association, or PPIT, has officially inaugurated its new 2014-2016 board of supervisors, trustees and advisory council, as it seeks to continue improving the bilateral relations between the two countries in the social, economic and cultural sectors. ... Esti Andayani, the [Indonesian] Foreign Ministry’s director general for information and public diplomacy, pledged support for the PPIT’s programs. 'We’ve entered what we call the ‘Asian Century,’ in which all countries in Asia, including Indonesia and China, play a pivotal role at the regional and global levels,' Esti said.


'And with both countries’ sharing the same vision and perception on, for example, climate change, food security, energy and global financial institution reformation, we’ve come to agree to increase cooperation and coordination, while upholding the commitment to peace, stability and prosperity for the region and on the international stage.'” Image from entry, with caption: Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, second from right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping — accompanied by their wives — shake hands during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta in this file photo taken on Oct. 2, 2013.

Jeju forum to discuss ‘New Asia’ - koreaherald.com: "A three-day international forum on regional and global issues including security, culture and regional development will begin on Jejudo Island on Wednesday, organizers said. Under the theme 'Designing New Asia,' the ninth Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity is expected to bring together some 3,700 experts, government officials and politicians from more than 55 countries for in-depth discussions on the issues. ... Jointly hosted by Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, the International Peace Foundation, the East Asia Foundation and the JoongAng Ilbo, the annual forum consists of some 60 sessions on an array of issues including the future role of women, regional security cooperation, education, the environment and public diplomacy."

When China Was Cool: Mao’s Little Red Book - Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: “The Cultural Revolution with its hordes of Red Guards waving their copies of Selected Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung was a disaster for China but paradoxically it represents something of a high point for China’s cultural influence in the world.


There’s a fascinating new collection of essays that explores the global impact of Mao’s Little Red Book, edited by Alexander C. Cook of University of California, Berkeley it covers the origins, diffusion and global reception. Some of the chapters focus specifically on the book others look more broadly at Maoism.” Image from

Is the army fighting Boko Haram or traitors within? - Levi Obijior, sunnewsonline.com: "Many people have asked the question: Why is it difficult for the Nigerian Army to overwhelm Boko Haram insurgents and restore peace to the North? The answer to this question is not as simple as many people might think. There are many interests involved. First, the world has changed in various ways. Globalisation and, in particular, transformations in technology have made it easy for people to observe and follow what is happening in other parts of the world. Technology has also brought modern warfare to our living rooms. The same technology that brought the Olympic Games and the World Cup soccer to our lounge rooms have also made it possible for us to watch wars live on our television screens. Technology has reduced distances and the world to a small theatre of conflict. When soldiers exchange gunfire in the battlefield, we sit and watch the action live, as if it is a documentary. Technology has reduced distances and the world to a small theatre of conflict. When soldiers exchange gunfire in the battlefield, we sit and watch the action live, as if it is a documentary. As Philip Seib, professor of journalism, public diplomacy and international relations at the University of Southern California in the United States said, one of the reasons the broadcast media and websites engage in live reporting of news (including international and domestic conflicts) is because the technologies that make live reporting possible are 'available, less expensive and easier to operate'."

The Global Five: Key Corporate Diplomacy Trends for 2014/2015 - Cari E. Guittard, uscpublicdiplomacy.org: "We need an


army of corporate diplomats, from multiple sectors, engaged in strategiccorporate diplomacy efforts to shore up America’s soft power reserves."Image from

20 Question Time... Global Greek Style: Conversation with Dena Kouremetis - Writer, Columnist and Very Proud Mum! - globalgreekworld.blogspot.com: "Dena Kouremetis [:] Global Greek writer and Forbes Columnist who took a break from her writing to hold this conversation with us... ... [Q:] You’re one of our several million Global Greeks who are Greece’s Ambassadors in the World.


Public Diplomacy at its best! Have you done something to help Greece today? [A:] I wish I were a 'mover and shaker' but alas – I am only a writer. I often write about Greece and the experiences I have had as 'one of the tribe'… but I suppose my biggest claim to fame is having produced a non-college-educated (by choice) daughter who emulates the ideals of the hard-working immigrant who sees no limits to what he or she can do in life."Kouremetis image from entry

Remarks at IWP Commencement 2014 - John Lenczowski, John Lenczowski.com: "As most of you know, IWP [Institute of World Politics] has a four part mission: ... [including:] to develop leaders who have skill in the use of the various arts of statecraft – the instruments of national power. These are the means of handling the challenges which this dangerous world sends our way.


They include military power, intelligence, counterintelligence, diplomacy, public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, information policy, political action, and economic statecraft."Image from, with caption: The Institute of World Politics

Day the second in Budapest... - Global Business and Media:  A Georgia State University program in Istanbul, Turkey and Budapest, Hungary:


"Meeting with Ferenc Kummin (left), State Secretary for External Communication. Sort of like their head of public diplomacy. Gabor Kaleta (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) is in the middle, Paige is on the right."

Harvard Project Names Three Honoring Nations Leaders - indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com: "Sharing outstanding programs in tribal self-governance and helping to expand the capacities of Tribal leaders through learning from each others’ successes is the mission of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development’s Honoring Nations program. Recently the Honoring Nations program announced the selection of three Nation-building leaders for its 2014 Honoring Nations Leadership Program ... [among them:] Amber Annis, Cheyenne River Sioux, PhD candidate in American Studies at the University of Minnesota [whose] ... her research interests include American Indian education and history in the 20th century and American Indian cultural and public diplomacy during the Cold War era."

Make the World Your Home - morethanatestscore.com: "One of the most trusted leaders in intercultural exchange is Youth For Understanding (YFU), whose mission is to advance intercultural understanding, mutual respect, and social responsibility through educational exchanges for youth, families and communities. With a long-term objective to engage young people in personal development opportunities that will increase their leadership ability and improve international understanding and public diplomacy, YFU along with local volunteer host families have been making these opportunities a reality since 1951."

So You Want to Be a Foreign Service Officer - capitolstandard.com: "When one comes into the Foreign Service, a person selects a career track.


My track is public diplomacy. My first assignment happened to be a public affairs assignment, but very often people serve in positions outside of their chosen career track. I’m currently in Banjul, where we have a small embassy. As such, I wear a number of hats, even in any given day. Not only am I the Embassy’s Public Affairs Officer, but I’m also the backup Political and Economic Affairs Officer and Consular Officer – having spent weeks or months at a time fulfilling these responsibilities."Image: blog heading

Karachi: In Anticipation of The Unexpected - Andrew, Global Business Leadership: "When going to Karachi, the unexpected can be awesome. I sat next to a group of Karachi’ites who were traveling home. As soon as we’d boarded the plane, one of them asked me for a pen as we filled out immigration forms. His compatriot meanwhile busied himself with opening a large bottle of rum. Pakistan is functionally a dry country. This was their last sure chance for a drop of the true before arrival. As the flight proceeded they badgered the flight attendant for multiple individual-sized bottles of wine. When I asked for a second glass of wine myself they had to go the galley for more. As I waited, one of the Pakistanis shoved a glass into my hand. 'Red wine!' he proclaimed.




It was public diplomacy at its finest as raised our glasses over the lights of Tehran. This anticipation of the uncertain penetrates into everyday aspects of life."Image from

Southeast Asia's Regression From Democracy and Its Implications: A CFR Working Paper - Joshua Kurlantzick, cfr.org: "Joshua Kurlantzick is senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). ... Previously, he was a fellow at the University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy.

New Additions to the TriSight Leadership - trisight.org: VP of External Relations: Justine Saquilayan ... She currently holds the position of PR Specialist within USC’s renowned Center on Public Diplomacy."

Former U.S. Ambassador Joins CDC Foundation Board of Directors - einnews.com: "Betty King has been elected to the board of directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation. King is the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva from 2010 to 2013. In the public sector, King has served ... on the advisory board of the Annenberg School of Public Diplomacy."

RELATED ITEMS

President Obama Misses a Chance on Foreign Affairs - Editorial, New York Times: President Obama and his aides heralded his commencement speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday as a big moment, when he would lay out his foreign policy vision for the remainder of his term and refute his critics. The address did not match the hype, was largely uninspiring, lacked strategic sweep and is unlikely to quiet his detractors, on the right or the left.


He provided little new insight into how he plans to lead in the next two years, and many still doubt that he fully appreciates the leverage the United States has even in a changing world. Falling back on hackneyed phrases like America is the “indispensable nation” told us little. Mr. Obama’s talk of the need for more transparency about drone strikes and intelligence gathering, including abusive surveillance practices, was ludicrous. Mr. Obama’s comments on China and Russia barely touched on how he plans to manage two major countries that have turned increasingly aggressive. Pledging anew to close the jail at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which Congress has blocked, was, at this point, little more than a reassuring gesture. This was far from Mr. Obama’s big moment. Image from

Tying America’s hands: Obama’s foreign policy is at odds with history [subscription] - Editorial, Washington Post: Quotations from editorial at, with this one cited: "President Obama has retrenched U.S. global engagement in a way that has shaken the confidence of many U.S. allies and encouraged some adversaries. That conclusion can be heard not just from Republican hawks but also from senior officials from Singapore to France and, more quietly, from some leading congressional Democrats. As he has so often in his political career, Mr. Obama has elected to respond to the critical consensus not by adjusting policy but rather by delivering a big speech."

Obama just accidentally explained why his foreign policy hasn’t worked - Elliott Abrams, Washington Post: At bottom, the speech was a labored defense of a foreign policy that has come under attack from left and right recently for being weak. Mr. Obama’s response was to say that the refusals


to lead here or act there are all in the plan, and the refusals are called “multilateralism,” and anyway the alternative is constant invasions and wars and Iraqs and Afghanistans. Image from entry, with caption: Sea of confusion: West Point underclassmen give the president a hearing.

Obama at West Point: The President skipped a few world events in his big foreign policy speech - Review and Outlook, Wall Street Journal: The speech President Obama delivered Wednesday at West Point was intended to be a robust defense of his foreign policy, about which even our liberal friends are starting to entertain doubts. But as we listened to the President chart his course between the false-choice alternatives of "American isolationism" and "invading every country that harbors terrorist networks," we got to thinking of everything that wasn't in his speech. No mention of the Reset, of the Pivot or "rebalance" to Asia, of Mr. Obama's Red Line in Syria against the use of chemical weapons, of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, of Mr. Obama's effort to seek "a world without nuclear weapons," as he said in Prague in 2009, or of his arms-control treaty with Russia.

Obama defends troubled foreign policy at West Point commencement: Takes on critics who see diminished U.S. clout - Dave Boyer and Ben Wolfgang, Washington Times: Some critics and analysts say the president lacks a guiding doctrine on foreign policy, leaving the rest of the world guessing about U.S. interests and when they might count on American action. Mr. Obama did say the U.S. will offer more assistance to rebels battling Syrian President Bashar Assad, chided Russia for meddling in Ukraine’s affairs and promised to battle terrorists in the Middle East, North Africa and elsewhere.


He also defended his decision, announced Tuesday, to leave a residual force of 9,800 troops in Afghanistan until the end of 2015, at which point all U.S. forces will exit. More broadly, critics say the president is too wedded to his “enlightened” foreign policy, taking a cautious, more academic approach to world affairs rather than acting forcefully and decisively. “This was a highly defensive speech, one that will do little to allay growing concern, both at home and abroad, that American leadership is in decline on the world stage,” said Nile Gardiner, director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation. “President Obama failed to outline a coherent strategy for meeting the biggest foreign policy challenges of the day, from mounting Russian aggression in Eastern Europe to the looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. The speech was short on policy but big on platitudes and self-congratulatory statements.”  Image from

Obama's foreign policy speech: 5 takeaways - Edward-Isaac Dovere, Politico: Without much in terms of specifics for people to latch onto, the speech barely registered in the wider public consciousness. But here are POLITICO’s main takeaways: 1. Obama’s no-doctrine doctrine. Looking for a clear, concise Obama doctrine? Keep looking. America should care about international opinion, but never ask permission for protecting its interests. 2. America, not in decline. 3. War in the 21st century is against terrorist splinter groups. 4. More unspecified help for Syria 5. Climate change as national security threat.

Obama receives standing ovation from less than 25% of West Point cadets - Douglas Ernst, Washington Times: President Obama was welcomed by the Black Knight of the Hudson for his speech at West Point on Wednesday, but less than 25 percent of the cadets gave him a standing ovation upon his introduction, the Daily Mail reported.


During his speech, which the Wall Street Journal called “consistent with that of every post-Cold War administration,” the president also took a swipe at critics, saying: “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it’s our willingness to affirm them through our actions.” Image from entry, with caption: West Point cadets listen to President Obama speak May 28, 2014.

Obama signals foreign policy shift but insists: 'America must always lead'• President promises less armed conflict and more diplomacy • Tells cadets: 'We have been through a long season of war'- Dan Roberts, The Guardian: America should provide global leadership with less recourse to military might in future, Barack Obama announced on Wednesday, proposing a new foreign policy doctrine focused on soft power diplomacy and launching financial grants to fight terrorism through international partnerships instead. In a graduation speech to cadets at the US military academy in West Point, New York, the president sought to carve a middle way between the relentless US interventionism of recent decades and a growing isolationist tendency that some fear will leave the world less stable and without a dominant superpower. The much-anticipated foreign policy address came after Obama presented a delayed timetable for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan but amid growing criticism from Republicans of foreign policy “weakness” after setbacks in Syria and Ukraine.

Obama Lays Siege to His Critics: At West Point, President Obama defends a foreign policy vision based on more than U.S. military might - Fred Kaplan, Slate: Obama’s point was not (contrary to some commentators’ claims) to draw a “middle-of-the-road” line between isolationism and unilateralism. That’s a line so broad almost anyone could walk it. The president’s main point was to emphasize that not every problem has a military solution; that the proper measure of strength and leadership is not merely the eagerness to deploy military power; that, in fact, America’s costliest mistakes have stemmed not from restraint but from rushing to armed adventures “without thinking through the consequences, without building international support and legitimacy for our action, without leveling with the American people about the sacrifice required.”


He drew one other distinction. On the one hand, there are “core interests”—direct threats to America and its allies—that we would absolutely defend with military force, “unilaterally if necessary.” On the other hand, there are crises that may “stir our conscience or push the world in a more dangerous direction” but don’t threaten our core interests. In those cases, “the threshold for military action must be higher”; and if force is used, “we should not go it alone,” for the practical reason that “collective action in these circumstances is more likely to succeed, more likely to be sustained, and less likely to lead to costly mistakes.” Image from entry, with caption: President Obama arrives at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, to deliver the commencement address to the 2014 graduating class on May 28, 2014. Via MP on Facebook

Obama just announced the most anti-war foreign policy doctrine in decades - Max Fisher, Vox: President Obama made a commencement speech at West Point on Wednesday that the White House had aggressively billed as a grand articulation of Obama's foreign policy vision. This was not the first time he had attempted to lay out a foreign policy doctrine, and few expected much more than the usual vague policy mish-mash — when it's year six of your presidency and you still need to explain your doctrine, it's not a great sign that you really have one.


So it was a legitimate surprise when Obama articulated a unified, tightly focused vision of America's role in the world. And while it's not a vision that will thrill many foreign policy hands, including perhaps some of those in his administration, it is the clearest Obama foreign policy doctrine he's made in years: no war, no militarism, no adventurism. Image from entry

Obama Outlines a Doctrine Where Restraint Makes us Stronger [subscription] - E. J. Dionne, Washington Post

Did Obama Make His Case? - Room for Debate, New York Times: In his address to graduating West Point cadets on Wednesday, President Obama laid out his administration’s foreign policy goals. His speech was directed at his critics who have suggested “that America is in decline” and “has seen its global leadership slip away.” Did it work? Ali Wyne: one need not accept the presumption of American exceptionalism to appreciate the risks that relative U.S. decline poses to peace and prosperity: No other country or coalition possesses comparable capacity and willingness to anchor the global economy, safeguard the maritime commons and prevent flashpoints in Eurasia from expanding into regional or even continental conflagrations. While the United States would ideally be able to get its economic house in order before turning to the task of building a more inclusive, responsive international system, it does not have the luxury of pursuing those tasks sequentially. The good news is that developments in recent years may allow it to undertake them in parallel. Kori Schake: President Obama’s speech was a litany of grandiose claims unenforced by policy: a paean to the Law of the Sea Convention, of which he has put no effort into ratification; a restatement of the need to close Guantanamo; “new restrictions on how America collects and uses intelligence”; a “willingness to act on behalf of human dignity.” Don't expect to see important trade deals, crowning achievements of "smart power,” concluded in Obama's presidency.

Long goodbye in Afghanistan - Editorial, Los Angeles Times: As Obama acknowledged, the original justification for sending U.S. forces to Afghanistan was to end its use as a staging ground for attacks on Americans by Al Qaeda, not to engage in nation-building. But having overthrown the Taliban, the U.S. and its allies rightly saw it as their responsibility to try to undo the effects of that fanatical regime's misrule.



The residual force Obama announced Tuesday could play an important role in consolidating the progress already achieved — by training Afghan forces and engaging in limited counter-terrorism operations. Top image from; below image from

Myanmar’s Appalling Apartheid - Nicholas Kristof, New York Times: Welcome to Myanmar, where tremendous democratic progress is being swamped by crimes against humanity toward the Rohingya, a much-resented Muslim minority in this Buddhist country. President Obama, who visited Myanmar and is much admired here, should flatly declare that what is happening here is unconscionable. Obama has lately noted that his foreign policy options are limited, and that military interventions often backfire. True enough, but in Myanmar he has political capital that he has not fully used.

Jonah Goldberg: Putin's well-worn fascist lies - madison.com: Vladimir Putin, with the aid of his vast propaganda machinery, has convinced many Russians the interim government in Ukraine is expressly Nazi and fascist. And while there were some neo-Nazi goons among the protesters who brought down the corrupt government of Victor Yanukovich, and there are definitely ultra-nationalists among the coalition resisting Moscow, it’s simply a transparent lie that the current government is fascist. That hasn’t stopped some left-wing writers and crackpots in the West from buying the Russian claim that the United States is in cahoots with a “fascist junta” in Ukraine. Russia’s propaganda campaign hinges on more than the use and


abuse of the “f-word.” It’s been lying about all manner of things, manipulating events on the ground and doctoring images on the airwaves. Image from

Ukraine Election Results Discredit Kremlin Propaganda - David Adesnik, forbes.com: There was no democratic uprising in Kiev. There was an illegal coup d’etat, led by a motley crew of fascists, ultra-nationalists and anti-Semites. Viktor Yanukovych, the ousted president, was certainly no saint, but he was the winner of a free and fair election in 2010. Those who toppled Yanukovych had only the support of the mob that gathered in the Maidan. These are the basic tropes of the propaganda broadcast relentlessly by Kremlin-controlled media for the past three months. Western media have generally proved resistant to such nonsense, but various policy experts and commentators have given such propaganda far more credit than they should. The bottom line is that the only threat to the liberty of Russian-speaking Ukrainians comes from Moscow, not Kiev. The population of Donetsk and Luhansk was deprived of the right to choose their own government — not by Kiev, but by Putin’s thugs.

Propaganda: the U.S. ‘News’ Media Coverage of Ukraine’s Civil War - Eric Zuesse, globalresearch.ca: The New York Review of Books is a leading intellectual publication in the United States, and it (like all of the major U.S. “news” media) has “reported” on the Ukrainian civil war


as having been incited by Russia’s Vladimir Putin — a simple-minded explanation, which also happens to be deeply false. Image from entry


AMERICANA

Ex-NFL linemen discover that weighing 300 pounds or more is no asset in life after football- Kent Babb, Washington Post: Three weeks ago, when 256 players entered the league via the NFL draft, 57 were listed at weights of at least 300 pounds.


The NFL is bigger than ever, and about a dozen years ago offensive lineman Aaron Gibson became the league’s first 400-pound player. “Once you’re done, you’re done,” said Antone Davis, a former NFL offensive lineman who grew to nearly 450 pounds after he retired. “You’re out, and you’re on your own.” Image from

MORE AMERICANA (video)

Zooey Deschanel speaks with vocal fry in a 2011 interview. Top image from; below image from



IMAGE


Image from SD on Facebook, with comment (in Russian; loose translation): "The beginning of the tourist season in Crimea?"

on Facebook from a Facebook friend

Book Review: 'Strange Glory' by Charles Marsh
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a man of contradictions—and his theology the essential response to modernity.

By CHRISTIAN WIMAN, Wall Street Journal
May 30, 2014 5:30 p.m. ET

Why Putin Says Russia Is Exceptional: Such claims have often heralded aggression abroad and harsh crackdowns at home. LEON ARON, Wall Street Journal

New York Review of Books
The Art Hitler Hated

Michael Kimmelman

JUNE 19, 2014 ISSUE

Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937

an exhibition at the Neue Galerie, New York City, March 13–September 1, 2014

Catalog of the exhibition edited by Olaf Peters, with a preface by Ronald S. Lauder and foreword by Renée Price
Prestel, 320 pp., $60.00

As he had lived, Cornelius Gurlitt died at eighty-one early in May, in thrall to a trove of inherited art he kept hidden for decades mostly at a modest apartment in Munich. The announcement last year of the collection’s discovery by German authorities yanked the reclusive Gurlitt from the shadows. Stories about him busied the front pages of newspapers for weeks.

He seemed a figure out of Sebald or Kafka. He had never held a job, kept no bank accounts, was not listed in the Munich phone book. Aside from sporadic visits to a sister, who lived in Würzburg and died two years ago, he had had little contact with anyone for half a century. Der Spiegel reported that he had not watched television since 1963 or seen a movie since 1967, and that he had never been in love, except with his collection.

The art, nearly 1,300 works, some of which belatedly turned up in a second home in Salzburg, was mostly nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century European pictures, a good deal of it what the Nazis called Entartete Kunst, or degenerate art, who knows how much of it seized from museums and Jews. Cornelius’s father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, accumulated the collection. Under the Nazis, Hildebrand was dismissed from two museum posts—one in Zwickau, “for pursuing an artistic policy affronting the healthy folk feelings of Germany” by exhibiting modern art, the other in Hamburg, partly for having a Jewish grandmother. But then Goebbels handpicked him, among a few others, to sell abroad confiscated modern works. That is how Hildebrand spent the war years, placating his Nazi bosses while enriching himself, then afterward lying to Allied investigators about the destruction of his collection in Dresden.

He died in a car wreck in 1956. His widow, Cornelius’s mother, died a dozen years later, when Cornelius seems to have taken over the collection, selling the occasional picture to stay afloat but otherwise holding the art as a sort of sacrament. His father had written a self-serving essay shortly before his death describing the collection “not as my property, but rather as a kind of fief that I have been assigned to steward,” which Cornelius clearly took to heart, until his nervous behavior on a train from Zurich made Bavarian customs officers suspicious.

Early in 2012, police, customs, and tax officials descended on his Munich apartment and spent three days removing works by Picasso, Matisse, Otto Dix, Emil Nolde, and Oskar Kokoschka, along with older artists like Renoir, Courbet, Dürer, and Canaletto. Gurlitt was ordered to sit and watch. He told Der Spiegel that it was worse than the loss of his parents or his sister. By the time newspaper and television reporters discovered him and his story more than a year later, he was ill and bereft.

The usual media chatter focused on how much Gurlitt’s hidden art was worth, a noise that competed with the sound of slow, grinding wheels, justice belatedly turning toward restitution. “All I wanted was to live with my pictures,” Gurlitt said, but of course who knows how many original owners of the works would have said the same, had Hitler’s henchmen not stolen the art from them. In Gurlitt’s ruin, and the liberation of captive art, one could also make out the twisted echoes of families discovered hiding in attics, of fleeing refugees unmasked on trains.

A culprit, a figure divorced from time—far removed from a century of hedge fund investors buying $100 million paintings—Gurlitt loved the art he hoarded truly and too well. The pictures survived him, like Paul Celan’s bottles tossed into the ocean, suddenly returned from oblivion, inevitable tokens of lives lost and reminders of art’s endurance. Hitler couldn’t exterminate modern art—the great Jewish Bolshevik cultural conspiracy, as he saw it—whose daring and pungency, obscured by today’s babble about money, somehow gained new life in the story of Gurlitt and the Nazis’ degenerate campaign.

I suspect this partly explains the popularity of “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937,” at the Neue Galerie in New York, where lines stretched out the door as soon as the show opened in March. Seeing the exhibition, you can recover a sense of what was once radical and thrilling about pictures by Expressionists like Max Beckmann, George Grosz, and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. A debased term, the avant-garde gets its jive back. Art matters again. The Nazis raised the stakes by stigmatizing modern art. As Genet once put it, fascism is theater. So modernism returns to its role as tragic hero in the show.

It is organized by Olaf Peters, an art historian and board member of the Neue Galerie, whose founder, the billionaire collector Ronald Lauder, was United States ambassador to Austria and outspoken on issues of Nazi repatriation. The exhibition retraces ground covered a generation ago in a 1991 exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Far larger than this show, that one, put together by the curator Stephanie Barron, also revolved around the notorious 1937 “Entartete Kunst” exhibition in Munich that the Nazis mounted to coincide with the opening of the first “Grosse Deutsche Kunstaustellung,” or Great German Art Show, of approved Nazi art. Barron recovered nearly two hundred of the 650 works crammed into the original show in Munich, along with Nazi films and archives. The Los Angeles catalog provided a wealth of information, illustrations, and biographical details, many about German artists who had slipped down the memory hole.

The Neue Galerie exhibition condenses the same story into a handful of rooms. It is modest in size but ingenious, poignant, pointed. It traces the concept of degeneracy back to its well-known roots in the writing of a nineteenth-century rabbi’s son, Max Nordau, and connects the 1937 “Entartete Kunst” to smaller Schandausstellungen, Exhibitions of Shame, staged by extremists earlier in the 1930s in cultivated cities like Dresden.

The New York show brings together vivid propaganda and photographs, identifying the degenerate art campaign as a prelude to extermination. It recovers empty picture frames from paintings now lost, which speak volumes hung side by side. Artists like Paul Klee come across as genuine provocateurs. A suite of Klee’s twittering, toylike pictures, with their spidery symbols and scribbly shapes, whimsical and ingenious, indebted to children’s art and the art of the insane, were like Davids to the Nazi Goliath. And it’s hard to miss the heartbreak in a self-portrait by Kirchner, the artist staring straight ahead, face half in shadow, or more likely erased, a work begun in 1934 but finished in 1937, when Kirchner added yellow bands, like bars, almost forming a swastika, handcuffing his wrists. The Nazis had confiscated hundreds of Kirchner’s works that year and put dozens in “Entartete Kunst.” A fragile, sickly man, Kirchner committed suicide, an early victim of Hitler’s cultural cleansing.

The show’s opening room lays it all out, pitting works from “Entartete Kunst” against art from the “Grosse Deutsche Kunstaustellung,” or GDK, a clash encapsulated by the pairing of two large triptychs: Beckmann’s Departure (1932–1935) is a dark riddle about torture and loss; Adolf Ziegler’s The Four Elements (1937), an academic quartet of marmoreal, Teutonic nudes, as mundane as the Beckmann looks mysterious, exemplifying what Susan Sontag meant when she wrote years ago in The New York Reviewabout fascist nudes being “sanctimoniously asexual.”

It was Ziegler who gave the opening speech for “Entartete Kunst” in 1937 (“monstrosities of madness, of impudence, of inability and degeneration,” he said, calling the artists “pigs”); and Hitler hung The Four Elements over his fireplace at the Führerbau in Munich, until Ziegler fell out of favor, for joining secret peace negotiations with the Allies in 1943. Dachau was his penalty.

The show also pairs works like Richard Sheibe’s bronze Decathlete (1936), a typically airless Nazi nude, with Karel Niestrath’s Expressionist Hungry Girl (1925), emaciated, streamlined, proud. Sculpture seems to have mattered more than painting to the Nazis because it could be large, outdoors, and lent itself to the glorification of the Reich and the cult of the body. But one still senses a fuzzy, almost arbitrary line that often divided banned from accepted art. Sometimes there’s hardly any difference at all. At the same time, the Nazis borrowed modernist graphics to vilify modernism. Peters has told me that he believes that the big public misconception is that there was, from National Socialism’s early days, a cultural master plan, an aesthetic agenda.

But there wasn’t. Culture’s role for the Reich was improvised, ad hoc. Here the catalog makes fascinating reading for its accounts of the organization of both theGDK and “Entartete Kunst.” Ines Schlenker, an art historian, in an essay about the GDK, writes how, when fire destroyed Munich’s traditional exhibition hall, a new building was commissioned for which Hitler laid the cornerstone. The Haus der Deutschen Kunst was one of the early Nazi monuments, a neoclassical temple of marble and light with a grand colonnade and a skylit nave, built to showcase the art Hitler liked. Its first big exhibition was to be the 1937 “Grosse Deutsche Kunstaustellung.” Some 554,759 people attended the GDK, fewer than the two million who saw “Entartete Kunst,” but as Schlenker writes, the Nazis inflated the degenerate figure by mass visits of party organizations, enacting rituals of derision.

The GDK number exceeded attendance at all other contemporary art events in Germany that year. In subsequent years, attendance for the annual GDKshows rose, peaking at 846,674 in 1942. Hundreds of works were sold out of these exhibitions to buyers seeking favor with the regime. The Nazis touted the sales as proof that Germans loved Nazi art.

But what was Nazi art? It was, from the start, whatever Hitler felt at the moment. For a while there was a chance it was going to be a kind of Nordic Expressionism, until the Führer decided it wasn’t. Beckmann, Kirchner, and Oskar Schlemmer imagined working with the state as late as June 1937, when Hitler ordered thousands of their works and others impounded from German collections. The Bauhaus had had hopes, too, until it didn’t. Organizers of the first GDK sent invitations to Nolde, Ernst Barlach, and Rudolf Belling, all of whom would simultaneously end up in “Entartete Kunst.”

Nolde, who had participated in an exhibition of young National Socialists in Munich, was infuriated. Along with Barlach and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, he had signed a loyalty oath to Hitler after Hindenburg died. More than one thousand of his pictures were confiscated from German museums, and twenty-seven included in the degenerate display. As for Belling, the Nazis were so confused and disorganized that a bronze sculpture he did of the boxer Max Schmeling made it into the first GDK while two other works of his simultaneously landed in “Entartete Kunst.” An open call to contribute to the GDK had been issued to German artists months earlier with the empty promise “to neither favor specific art trends nor exclude others in the selection of the works.” This elicited 15,000 submissions, whittled down by a jury for inspection by Hitler, whom Goebbels recorded in his diaries as “wild with rage” at the results.

“The sculptures are passable, but the paintings are in some cases outright catastrophic,” Goebbels noted. Hitler fired the jury and enlisted a friend, Heinrich Hoffmann, who shared his taste for nineteenth-century Bavarian kitsch: genre paintings, classical nudes, portrait busts, animal pictures. The exhibition opened on July 18, 1937, with nearly nine hundred works by more than five hundred artists. It was a mess.

Peters writes that “Entartete Kunst” was devised by Goebbels in part to obscure the failings of Nazi-approved art. An admirer of Expressionism before Hitler condemned it, Goebbels recorded the idea for an Entartete Kunst exhibition in his diary on June 4, 1937, just weeks before the show opened. He imagined an exhibition (at first in Berlin) of “works from the era of decay. So the people can see and understand.” The era was Weimar Germany, with its cultural prologue in the fin de siècle. Peters believes that Goebbels cooked up the degenerate display because he felt threatened by Hoffmann and fearful when two of his allies were among the jurors dismissed from the GDK. This was how he wanted to get back into Hitler’s favor.

The show was hurriedly crammed into the galleries used for the plaster cast collection at Munich’s Archaeological Institute, not far from the Haus der Deutschen Kunst. Walls were painted with mocking texts, to silence skeptical visitors. A crucifixion by Ludwig Gies was hung at the entrance, a provocation to devout Christians who couldn’t recognize the work’s clear Gothic debts, mobilizing what Peters calls “Catholic-tinged anti-Semitic resentment” against modernism—notwithstanding that the Nazis had risen to power on an anticlerical platform.

Much was made in the exhibition of modernist contortions of the human body, of antiwar art by figures like Grosz. Carl Linfert, reviewing the show inDie Frankfurter Zeitung in November 1937, could not fail to see “Entartete Kunst” as a diversionary tactic. “Goebbels and Hitler sought refuge in revenge and radicalization,” as Peters sums up Linfert’s argument. “If they could not establish anything significant themselves, they could at least manage to destroy the hated counterimage.”

It would be a few more years before modern art was used directly to justify mass murder, in propaganda films and literature, with Himmler pushing a concept of culture infecting the masses like a plague “against the healthy body.” Works by Otto Freundlich, who would be murdered at Majdanek, were juxtaposed with nudes by Josef Thorack in SS brochures. Degenerate art, Himmler wrote, spread through the culture; it had the same effect as the “mixing of blood.” From 1937 to the early 1940s, the notion of degenerate art underwent “a deadly transformation,” as Peters writes.

That transformation now seems inevitable, but clearly art had remained a moving target for the Nazis, an existential threat, which haunted Germany’s fate and still does. Sebald described in The Emigrants a forgotten Alpine climber whose bones suddenly turn up in a glacier decades after he had disappeared. “And so they are ever returning to us, the dead,” he wrote. A few years ago, workers digging a new subway station near City Hall in Berlin unearthed a rusted bronze bust of a woman, a portrait, as it turned out, by Edwin Scharff, one of those forgotten German modernists. Soon more banned sculptures emerged at the construction site, eleven in all; a couple of them had been exploited in one of the more notorious Nazi propaganda films. They were known to have been stored in the depot of the Reichspropagandaministerium, which organized “Entartete Kunst.” German authorities concluded that they ended up near City Hall because they came from a former building across the street. During the war, a tax lawyer and escrow agent, Erhard Oewerdieck, kept an apartment at 50 Königstrasse. He is history’s answer to Gurlitt, the Munich hoarder.

Oewerdieck is remembered at Yad Vashem. He helped the historian Eugen Taübler and his wife flee to America, preserving part of Taübler’s library. He and his wife gave money to another Jewish family to escape to Shanghai. He hid an employee in his apartment. German investigators today guess that, having somehow got hold of the sculptures from “Entartete Kunst,” he hid them in his office before fire from Allied raids in 1944 consumed the building, which collapsed, burying the office’s contents.

So the art remained for all these years until the workers digging for the subway turned up, like the police and customs agents at Gurlitt’s door, like the bones of Sebald’s Alpine climber.

As is quite well known (see, item one) "engagement" is (or at least was, for several years) the Obama administration's favorite buzzword to describe what the USA should to interact effectively with foreign audiences, replacing the arguably outdated 1960s-, Cold-War American-produced term -- further infected by the Bush II administration's "why do they hate us war on terror" -- "public diplomacy."

So, quite interesting how "engagement" is defined in a business-oriented article that just appeared in the New York Times on "Why You Hate Work":

Engagement — variously defined as “involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, focused effort and energy” — has now been widely correlated with higher corporate performance. In a 2012 meta-analysis of 263 research studies across 192 companies, Gallup found that companies in the top quartile for engaged employees, compared with the bottom quartile, had 22 percent higher profitability, 10 percent higher customer ratings, 28 percent less theft and 48 percent fewer safety incidents.

A 2012 global work force study of 32,000 employees by the consulting company Towers Watson found that the traditional definition of engagement — the willingness of employees to voluntarily expend extra effort — is no longer sufficient to fuel the highest levels of performance. Willing, it turns out, does not guarantee able. Companies in the Towers Watson study with high engagement scores measured in the traditional way had an operating margin of 14 percent. By contrast, companies with the highest number of “sustainably engaged” employees had an operating margin of 27 percent, nearly three times those with the lowest traditional engagement scores.

JB: Incidentally, when I hear the word passion mentioned above -- a favorite six-letter expression in essays of college applicants -- I take out my whiteout (no, don't worry -- I don't have a revolver).

Passion, dear college applicants, is between lovers, not for getting into college or
landing upon a "great-paying" job upon graduation.

Image from

L.A. drones: LAPD gets new UAVs to combat crime - Kellan Howel, The Washington Times [ca. 1:00 pm, 5/31/2014]: The Los Angeles Police Department announced Friday it had added two “unmanned aerial vehicles” to it’s [sic] arsenal on Friday.



Image from

As I compile, for my sins (which are many), the Public Diplomacy Review, I become more and whore aware of buzzwords. Here's a recent public-diplomacy related item, containing words that are, in government announcements and the semi-official press, repeated over and over again, repeated to the point of meaning nothing. They are highlighted in the below:

Workshop on Generation Change Entrepreneurial Skills ends - businessghana.com

News Date: 30th May 2014

A select group of public workers, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and students have undergone a two-day Generation Change Entrepreneurial Skills Training Workshop to harness their skills to manage businesses.

The workshop, which ended in Tamale on Wednesday, formed part of the Global Management Challenge facilitated by Sankofa Worldwide Limited with sponsorship from the United States Embassy in Accra with the aim to empower participants to start their own businesses and manage them (businesses) effectively for success.

It was facilitated using the Generation Simulation Training module, which allowed participants to make immediate management decisions under given scenarios to maximise profit or increase their companies' share price.

Mr Anani Yao Kuwornu, Public Diplomacy Officer at the U.S Embassy in Accra, said the training was to empower participants with entrepreneurial and managerial skills to enable them to take critical management decisions to sustain and improve the profitability of their companies in the current highly competitive business environment.

This is, I'd venture to say, the "generic," official model explaining how people got money from the USG to meet other people and (let's hope) have a good time ... Of course, nothing wrong with that.

I must say, at the risk of sounding linguistically pretentious that, of the words highlighted above, the ones I am most inclined to despise are:


BTW, one of my favorite songs is, "WDIANA ROSS and THE SUPREMES what the world needs now (is love sweet love)

"we need to untether our employees from their desks"

--Heather Higginbottom, Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. State Department; image from

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

Teachers and the Transatlantic Relationship - blog.gmfus.org: "Historically speaking, the transatlantic relationship has been centered on two main components: security and economics. In the wake of recent events in Ukraine and the tentative Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, those two components are vital to the transatlantic renaissance. If we want to strengthen the relationship even more, however, we need to consider the role of public diplomacy at a more local level, and in particular, teacher exchanges. ... Based on my experiences as a teacher, I propose that one of the best ways to maintain and strengthen the transatlantic relationship is to increase the amount of teacher exchanges. Security and economics are definitely integral to our relations, but the people involved in these conversations are usually high-ranking political officials and diplomats. This means that 'ordinary' citizens on both sides of the Atlantic do not get the chance to connect and learn about each other. Having teachers go abroad, however, can exponentially increase our understanding of transatlantic history and culture. Let’s say the average teacher has 100 students per year.


In my case, that means 1,200 students have passed through my classroom, learning about the transatlantic relationship—including the European Union, NATO, Cold War foreign policy—and carrying that information with them into the future. If teachers come back from exchanges and share information with their colleagues, then we could reach even more students, thereby increasing interest in the transatlantic relationship and strengthening the transatlantic community. Official diplomacy measures are vital to the transatlantic relationship. We must do more, however, to increase opportunities for public diplomacy. Doing so will strengthen our historical bond, deepen our understanding and appreciation of each other, and lead to more cooperation across a variety of sectors."Uncaptioned image from entry

Tory McPhail of Commander's Palace to spend Fourth of July Down Under - nola.com: “Tory McPhail, executive chef at Commander's Palace, will celebrate Independence Day in Australia. He's traveling down under in late June as a ‘culinary ambassador’ of the U.S. Department of State. ‘Australia has a big fever for Cajun and Creole food these days,’ McPhail said. ‘It's the most regional food in America.’ McPhail received a call from the Department of State earlier this year, after cooking a dinner in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.


‘The dinner went really, really well,’ McPhail said of the event in D.C. Not long afterward, he received a call from a State Department employee, who told McPhail: ‘For the last couple of years, we've been doing culinary diplomacy around the world, and we've selected you to be among five American chefs to represent the country around the world.’  The program is a part of American Chef Corps, a partnership between the State Department and the James Beard Foundation. According to a State Department press release, ‘As part of this endeavor, chefs from across the country will serve as resources to the Department in preparing meals for foreign leaders, and will participate in public diplomacy programs that engage foreign audiences abroad as well as those visiting the United States.’"Image from entry, with caption: Chef Tory McPhail of Commander's Palace in New Orleans, Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Workshop on Generation Change Entrepreneurial Skills ends - businessghana.com: "A select group of public workers, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and students have undergone a two-day Generation Change Entrepreneurial Skills Training Workshop to harness their skills to manage businesses. The workshop, which ended in Tamale on Wednesday, formed part of the Global Management Challenge facilitated by Sankofa Worldwide Limited with sponsorship from the United States Embassy in Accra with the aim to empower participants to start their own businesses and manage them (businesses) effectively for success. It was facilitated using the Generation Simulation Training module, which allowed participants to make immediate management decisions under given scenarios to maximise profit or increase their companies' share price."See also.

Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina: Who Is Maureen Cormack? -
allgov.com: "On January 6, 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Maureen Cormack, a career Foreign Service officer, as ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina. On March 6, 2014, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing to consider her nomination. ... Much of her career in the Foreign Service has been spent in public and cultural affairs. ... Cormack … was named

Hillary Clinton’s Youth Office Gets New Home, But Will It Get Lost?- 630wpro.com: "A State Department office created by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that she touted as a direct channel to young people around the world is undergoing bureaucratic changes that could lead to the elevation of its mission -- or, one veteran of government red tape warned, its eventual demise. Founded in 2011 under the leadership of Special Adviser Ronan Farrow, now an MSNBC host, the Office of Global Youth Issues was established to change the way America engages with people under 30 around the world, Farrow said in an email to ABC News. As special advisers, Farrow and his successor Zeenat Rahman reported directly to the Secretary of State, first Clinton and then John Kerry -- unlike the structure of more permanent bureaus at the State Department, which are led by undersecretaries who focus on a particular issue or part of the world. But beginning in mid-summer, the Global Youth Issues office will become part of the Bureau of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, headed by newly sworn-in Undersecretary Richard Stengel. ... That’s despite the heavy praise Clinton levied on the office while she was Secretary, dispatching Farrow to speak with young


people around the world and praising him as 'a young 24-year-old activist…who is our adviser on global youth issues,' as she did in February 2012 at a town hall in Tunisia. ... Gordon Adams, who from 1994 to 1997 was the senior White House official for national security and foreign policy budgets, warned that such bureaucratic shuffles sometimes lead to a small office becoming obsolete. ... Adams also predicted that the Office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, founded by the late diplomat Richard Holbrooke, would eventually get folded back into the Near Eastern Affairs bureau. ... Adams acknowledged that even though sometimes offices get strangled by red tape when they enter a State Department bureau, it’s ultimately that bureau’s leader who has the final say in a new office’s prominence, or lack thereof. 'If the transfer was designed to make that topic more central as party of public diplomacy, [i.e.,] integrate it with social media, it could be a ‘promotion,’ rather than death, he said."Uncaptioned image from entry

Blaming the video for Benghazi highlights Hillary Clinton's weak defense of American values - Charles Hoskinson, washingtonexaminer.com: "Clinton … risks revisiting the biggest public diplomacy mistake of her career. It's all about the video -- specifically, a promotional trailer for a planned film called ‘The Innocence of Muslims,’ which Islamist extremists fished from YouTube obscurity and used to fire up mobs across the Middle East and South Asia to facilitate planned terrorist attacks against U.S. interests.


By repeating -- and defending -- the now-debunked claim that the video was to blame for the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Clinton risks a renewed focus on the shameful manner in which she and President Obama handled the Benghazi disaster."Image from entry, with caption: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will need the help. Based on the excerpts from the leaked chapter published in Politico, she risks revisiting the biggest public diplomacy mistake of her career.

"Engagement" and public diplomacy - John Brown, Notes and Essays: "As is quite well known (see, item one) 'engagement' is (or at least was, for several years) the Obama administration's favorite buzzword to describe what the USA should to interact effectively with foreign audiences, replacing the arguably outdated 1960s-, Cold-War American-produced term -- further infected by the Bush II administration's 'why do they hate us war on terror' -- 'public diplomacy.' So, quite interesting how 'engagement' is defined in a business-oriented article that just appeared in the New York Times on "Why You Hate Work":


'A 2012 global work force study of 32,000 employees by the consulting company Towers Watson found that the traditional definition of engagement — the willingness of employees to voluntarily expend extra effort — is no longer sufficient to fuel the highest levels of performance. Willing, it turns out, does not guarantee able. '"

Taiwan's overtures toward Turkey - en.chihan.com: "The ultimate aim for Taiwan is a free trade agreement (FTA) with Turkey to better link the two economically and commercially. As World Trade Organization (WTO) talks to liberalize worldwide trade have failed, paving the way for the launching of a number of regional free trade agreements, Taiwanese officials have scrambled to catch up in order not to be isolated and prevent its exporters from becoming less competitive. They have signed an FTA with New Zealand and Singapore as they continue to negotiate with mainland China on follow-up treaties to the 2010 Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). It is very clear that the Taipei government has recalibrated its public diplomacy campaign to become more visible in international organizations."

The prospects for Indonesian foreign policy - Hadianto Wirajuda, thejakartapost.com: "Prabowo Subianto and Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, the two presidential candidates, have published their programs for government. While the manifestos cover a wide range of issues, I am particularly interested in interpreting the foreign-policy sections by assessing the prospects for Indonesia’s foreign


affairs vis-à-vis their foreign policy agendas. ... Jokowi’s manifesto ... indicates his reliance on the Foreign Ministry in foreign policy-making by having it restructured, emphasizing 'internal capacity building with regards to, inter alia, economic diplomacy and public diplomacy to include public participation in the decision-making process.'” Widodo image from

Ezell named director of interfaith action at Claremont Lincoln University - dailybulletin.com: "Claremont Lincoln University has appointed Darrell Ezell, an expert in interreligious affairs, conflict resolution and diplomacy, to oversee curriculum development and implementation as the inaugural program director for interfaith action. ... He is the author of 'Beyond Cairo: U.S. Engagement with the Muslim World' (2013), in which he explores the roles and impacts of U.S. public diplomacy in the Middle East during the Arab Spring. He has served in several capacities from working at the U.S. Department of State (Bureau of International Organization Affairs) to conducting research at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas, to understand better the communication process associated with interfaith dialogue and religion-based peacemaking."

RELATED ITEMS

The Wrong Afghan Friends - Anand Gopal, New York Times: The most effective weapon against the Taliban would be a strong centralized state, responsive to citizens’ needs. This would require Americans to sever unilateral patronage relationships with rural power brokers and militias, and direct all funding to the state. (To deter corruption, international donors and Kabul could manage disbursement jointly, through trust funds.)


The Afghan government should then absorb these forces into its ranks; with the strongmen stripped of American protection and independent revenue sources, integration should be easier. Image from entry, with caption: In September 2012, Afghans gathered around the bodies of people reported to have been killed during clashes with an anti-Taliban militia that attacked civilians in Kunduz Province.

Why Obama has changed his mind on Syria - Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times: esident Obama's foreign policy speech at West Point last week was in large part a list of all the things he doesn't want to do. He doesn't want to withdraw from the world. At the same time, he doesn't want to use military force to solve every problem. Above all, he doesn't want to get stuck in another war in the Middle East, or anywhere else, for that matter. But there's an exception to the Obama Doctrine of restraint: terrorism. Obama is ready and willing to use U.S. military power — indirectly if possible, directly if needed — against terrorists who pose a threat to the United States. [President Obama] has approved a gradual but significant escalation of U.S. action on the most complicated and dangerous battlefield of all: Syria. That's why, even as he has withdrawn troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, the president has sent military advisors to Africa. And that's why, almost unnoticed, he has approved a gradual but significant escalation of U.S. action on the most complicated and dangerous battlefield of all: Syria. Tt's the alarming growth and reach of extremist Islamist groups in Syria — some allied with Al Qaeda — that is driving Obama's decisions. It's just possible, incongruous though it sounds, that Al Qaeda — by drawing the United States into the fight — might yet save Syria's democratic opposition from utter defeat.

Obama’s Afghanistan pullout may end domination of drones: Counterterror officials worry about revival of al Qaeda - President Obama’s call to cut the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to 5,000 troops in 18 months will end an era of American drone superiority over the region and jeopardize hard-fought gains against al Qaeda just as the terrorist movement’s original core is rising again, former senior defense officials and national security sources say.
One U.S. official told The Washington Times that Mr. Obama’s plan has prompted frustration in the administration’s national security and intelligence circles and triggered a heated fight inside the Pentagon over what specific units will remain inside Afghanistan, as well as the extent to which they can remain at all “counterterrorism-relevant.”

The prudent commander: Obama can end a war but still can't silence his critics [subscription] - Colbert I. King, Washington Post

Libya's general in his labyrinth - Frederic Wehrey, Los Angeles Times: The ultimate solution for Libya's security woes resides in the political realm — specifically, the drafting of a constitution, reform of the congress, and a broad-based national reconciliation under the auspices of the ongoing "national dialogue" process.


This is an area where the United States and other outside actors can lend advice and measured assistance, but where the ultimate burden must be borne by Libyans themselves. Most important, Washington must not turn a blind eye to the country's authoritarian drift. Image from entry, with caption: A Libyan man is seen last week carrying a portrait of Khalifa Haftar during a rally in Benghazi in support of the rogue former general whose forces have launched a "dignity" campaign to crush jihadist militias.

The Opinion-Makers: How Russia Is Winning the Propaganda War - Moritz Gathmann, Christian Neef, Matthias Schepp and Holger Stark: The Kremlin invests around €100 million ($136 million) a year in Russian media abroad in order to influence public opinion in the West. This effort also helps explain why Putin addressed Germans directly in his speech on the annexation of Crimea. Putin's greatest propaganda success is the fact that the majority of Russians now believe that Kiev is ruled by fascists. The Kremlin also deftly exploits the anti-American sentiment of many Western Europeans, by claiming, for example, that American mercenaries and consultants have been deployed in eastern Ukraine.


Even today, there is still no evidence to back any of these allegations. But America's credibility isn't helped by the fact that Washington also disseminates its own anti-Russian propaganda. Image from entry, with caption: With the help of news services like RT and Ruptly, the Kremlin is seeking to reshape the way the world thinks about Russia. And it has been highly successful: Vladimir Putin has won the propaganda war over Ukraine and the West is divided. Image from entry

Why Putin Says Russia Is Exceptional: Such claims have often heralded aggression abroad and harsh crackdowns at home - Leon Aron, Wall Street Journal: To Mr. Putin, in short, Russia was exceptional because it was emphatically not like the modern West.


There is ample precedent for this sort of rhetoric about Russian exceptionalism, which has been a staple of Kremlin propaganda since 2012. In Russian history, the assertion of cultural uniqueness and civilizational mission has often served the cause of political, cultural and social reaction—for war and imperial expansion, as a diversion from economic hardship and as a cover for the venality and incompetence of officials. Image from entry

The Ghosts of Europe: Why fascism is back in fashion from Athens to Paris - Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal: A decade ago it was


conventional wisdom to observe that Europe had become a zone of perpetual peace, an agent of soft power and international law, Venus to America's Mars. But history is coming back to Europe, and not just at the far margin in places like Donetsk. The European Parliament may be mostly toothless as a political institution. But now there's no blinking at the fact that fascism is no longer just a piece of Europe's past but also a realistic possibility for its future. Image from entry, with caption: National Front leader Marine Le Pen and her father, Jean-Marie, in 2012

AMERICANA

Hugging presidential style [video] - buzzfeed.com

AMERICAN MASS MEDIA

"The NYT seems to be making a lot of mistakes recently Today Correction: May 31, 2014 This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: An earlier version of this article misstated Chuck Hagel’s title. He is secretary of defense, not secretary of state."

-Via a respected Facebook friend

OVERHEARD (via Facebook)



ONE MORE QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"fornication (bad) or football (good)"

--The warning that sermons, heard in Texas by Christian Wiman, who teaches at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, tended to give as part of moral imperatives

IMAGE


Image from, with caption: Jacques Tati as Monsieur Hulot arriving at the office in Playtime, 1967

A NOTE TO KIND READERS OF THE PUBLIC DIPLOMACY PRESS AND BLOG REVIEW

Articles in the Washington Post have become near-inaccesible on the Internet except through paid subscription, a financial obligation I can't assume for this non-funded blog. So I regret to say that I cannot provide summaries of such articles on the PDPBR.

As then U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul [see] often faced hostile treatment at the hands of Mr. Putin's government. One day in 2012, he says, he was surprised to get a call from Mrs. Clinton on an unsecure telephone line. He answered and listened as she praised him for the job he was doing and told him she was "100% behind you," Mr. McFaul recalls.


He later saw her in person and asked why she had called him on a phone that could have been tapped by the Russian government.

"She said, 'I wanted everybody to hear,'" Mr. McFaul says. "It was done on purpose."

Text from; image from

America dumbs down: The U.S. is being overrun by a wave of anti-science, anti-intellectual thinking. Has the most powerful nation on Earth lost its mind? - Jonathon Gatehouse, macleans.ca, May 15, 2014. Via RB on Facebook

South Carolina’s state beverage is milk. Its insect is the praying mantis. There’s a designated dance—the shag—as well a sanctioned tartan, game bird, dog, flower, gem and snack food (boiled peanuts). But what Olivia McConnell noticed was missing from among her home’s 50 official symbols was a fossil. So last year, the eight-year-old science enthusiast wrote to the governor and her representatives to nominate the Columbian mammoth. Teeth from the woolly proboscidean, dug up by slaves on a local plantation in 1725, were among the first remains of an ancient species ever discovered in North America. Forty-three other states had already laid claim to various dinosaurs, trilobites, primitive whales and even petrified wood. It seemed like a no-brainer. “Fossils tell us about our past,” the Grade 2 student wrote.

And, as it turns out, the present, too. The bill that Olivia inspired has become the subject of considerable angst at the legislature in the state capital of Columbia. First, an objecting state senator attached three verses from Genesis to the act, outlining God’s creation of all living creatures. Then, after other lawmakers spiked the amendment as out of order for its introduction of the divinity, he took another crack, specifying that the Columbian mammoth “was created on the sixth day with the other beasts of the field.” That version passed in the senate in early April. But now the bill is back in committee as the lower house squabbles over the new language, and it’s seemingly destined for the same fate as its honouree—extinction.

What has doomed Olivia’s dream is a raging battle in South Carolina over the teaching of evolution in schools. Last week, the state’s education oversight committee approved a new set of science standards that, if adopted, would see students learn both the case for, and against, natural selection.

Charles Darwin’s signature discovery—first published 155 years ago and validated a million different ways since—long ago ceased to be a matter for serious debate in most of the world. But in the United States, reconciling science and religious belief remains oddly difficult. A national poll, conducted in March for the Associated Press, found that 42 per cent of Americans are “not too” or “not at all” confident that all life on Earth is the product of evolution. Similarly, 51 per cent of people expressed skepticism that the universe started with a “big bang” 13.8 billion years ago, and 36 per cent doubted the Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years.

The American public’s bias against established science doesn’t stop where the Bible leaves off, however. The same poll found that just 53 per cent of respondents were “extremely” or “very confident” that childhood vaccines are safe and effective. (Worldwide, the measles killed 120,000 people in 2012. In the United States, where a vaccine has been available since 1963, the last recorded measles death was in 2003.) When it comes to global warming, only 33 per cent expressed a high degree of confidence that it is “man made,” something the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has declared is all but certain. (The good news, such as it was in the AP poll, was that 69 per cent actually believe in DNA, and 82 per cent now agree that smoking causes cancer.)

If the rise in uninformed opinion was limited to impenetrable subjects that would be one thing, but the scourge seems to be spreading. Everywhere you look these days, America is in a rush to embrace the stupid. Hell-bent on a path that’s not just irrational, but often self-destructive. Common-sense solutions to pressing problems are eschewed in favour of bumper-sticker simplicities and blind faith.

In a country bedevilled by mass shootings—Aurora, Colo.; Fort Hood, Texas; Virginia Tech—efforts at gun control have given way to ever-laxer standards. Georgia recently passed a law allowing people to pack weapons in state and local buildings, airports, churches and bars. Florida is debating legislation that will waive all firearm restrictions during state emergencies like riots or hurricanes. (One opponent has moved to rename it “an Act Relating to the Zombie Apocalypse.”) And since the December 2012 massacre of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Conn., 12 states have passed laws allowing guns to be carried in schools, and 20 more are considering such measures.

Since 2001, the U.S. government has been engaged in an ever-widening program of spying on its own—and foreign—citizens, tapping phones, intercepting emails and texts, and monitoring social media to track the movements, activities and connections of millions. Still, many Americans seem less concerned with the massive violations of their privacy in the name of the War on Terror, than imposing Taliban-like standards on the lives of others. Last month, the school board in Meridian, Idaho voted to remove The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie from its Grade 10 supplemental reading list following parental complaints about its uncouth language and depictions of sex and drug use. When 17-year-old student Brady Kissel teamed up with staff from a local store to give away copies at a park as a protest, a concerned citizen called police. It was the evening of April 23, which was also World Book Night, an event dedicated to “spreading the love of reading.”

If ignorance is contagious, it’s high time to put the United States in quarantine.

Americans have long worried that their education system is leaving their children behind. With good reason: national exams consistently reveal how little the kids actually know. In the last set, administered in 2010 (more are scheduled for this spring), most fourth graders were unable to explain why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure, and only half were able to order North America, the U.S., California and Los Angeles by size. Results in civics were similarly dismal. While math and reading scores have improved over the years, economics remains the “best” subject, with 42 per cent of high school seniors deemed “proficient.”

They don’t appear to be getting much smarter as they age. A 2013 survey of 166,000 adults across 20 countries that tested math, reading and technological problem-solving found Americans to be below the international average in every category. (Japan, Finland, Canada, South Korea and Slovakia were among the 11 nations that scored significantly higher.)

The trends are not encouraging. In 1978, 42 per cent of Americans reported that they had read 11 or more books in the past year. In 2014, just 28 per cent can say the same, while 23 per cent proudly admit to not having read even one, up from eight per cent in 1978. Newspaper and magazine circulation continues to decline sharply, as does viewership for cable news. The three big network supper-hour shows drew a combined average audience of 22.6 million in 2013, down from 52 million in 1980. While 82 per cent of Americans now say they seek out news digitally, the quality of the information they’re getting is suspect. Among current affairs websites, Buzzfeed logs almost as many monthly hits as the Washington Post.

The advance of ignorance and irrationalism in the U.S. has hardly gone unnoticed. The late Columbia University historian Richard Hofstadter won the Pulitzer prize back in 1964 for his book Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, which cast the nation’s tendency to embrace stupidity as a periodic by-product of its founding urge to democratize everything. By 2008, journalist Susan Jacoby was warning that the denseness—“a virulent mixture of anti-rationalism and low expectations”—was more of a permanent state. In her book, The Age of American Unreason, she posited that it trickled down from the top, fuelled by faux-populist politicians striving to make themselves sound approachable rather than smart. Their creeping tendency to refer to everyone—voters, experts, government officials—as “folks” is “symptomatic of a debasement of public speech inseparable from a more general erosion of American cultural standards,” she wrote. “Casual, colloquial language also conveys an implicit denial of the seriousness of whatever issue is being debated: talking about folks going off to war is the equivalent of describing rape victims as girls.”

That inarticulate legacy didn’t end with George W. Bush and Sarah Palin. Barack Obama, the most cerebral and eloquent American leader in a generation, regularly plays the same card, droppin’ his Gs and dialling down his vocabulary to Hee Haw standards. His ability to convincingly play a hayseed was instrumental in his 2012 campaign against the patrician Mitt Romney; in one of their televised debates the President referenced “folks” 17 times.

An aversion to complexity—at least when communicating with the public—can also be seen in the types of answers politicians now provide the media. The average length of a sound bite by a presidential candidate in 1968 was 42.3 seconds. Two decades later, it was 9.8 seconds. Today, it’s just a touch over seven seconds and well on its way to being supplanted by 140-character Twitter bursts.

Little wonder then that distrust—of leaders, institutions, experts, and those who report on them—is rampant. A YouGov poll conducted last December found that three-quarters of Americans agreed that science is a force for good in the world. Yet when asked if they truly believe what scientists tell them, only 36 per cent of respondents said yes. Just 12 per cent expressed strong confidence in the press to accurately report scientific findings. (Although according to a 2012 paper by Gordon Gauchat, a University of North Carolina sociologist, the erosion of trust in science over the past 40 years has been almost exclusively confined to two groups: conservatives and regular churchgoers. Counterintuitively, it is the most highly educated among them—with post-secondary education—who harbour the strongest doubts.)

The term “elitist” has become one of the most used, and feared, insults in American life. Even in the country’s halls of higher learning, there is now an ingrained bias that favours the accessible over the exacting.

“There’s a pervasive suspicion of rights, privileges, knowledge and specialization,” says Catherine Liu, the author of American Idyll: Academic Antielitism as Cultural Critique and a film and media studies professor at University of California at Irvine. Both ends of the political spectrum have come to reject the conspicuously clever, she says, if for very different reasons; the left because of worries about inclusiveness, the right because they equate objections with obstruction. As a result, the very mission of universities has changed, argues Liu. “We don’t educate people anymore. We train them to get jobs.” (Boomers, she says, deserve most of the blame. “They were so triumphalist in promoting pop culture and demoting the canon.”)

The digital revolution, which has brought boundless access to information and entertainment choices, has somehow only enhanced the lowest common denominators—LOL cat videos and the Kardashians. Instead of educating themselves via the Internet, most people simply use it to validate what they already suspect, wish or believe to be true. It creates an online environment where Jenny McCarthy, a former Playboy model with a high school education, can become a worldwide leader of the anti-vaccination movement, naysaying the advice of medical professionals.

Most perplexing, however, is where the stupid is flowing from. As conservative pundit David Frum recently noted, where it was once the least informed who were most vulnerable to inaccuracies, it now seems to be the exact opposite. “More sophisticated news consumers turn out to use this sophistication to do a better job of filtering out what they don’t want to hear,” he blogged.

But are things actually getting worse? There’s a long and not-so-proud history of American electors lashing out irrationally, or voting against their own interests. Political scientists have been tracking, since the early 1950s, just how poorly those who cast ballots seem to comprehend the policies of the parties and people they are endorsing. A wealth of research now suggests that at the most optimistic, only 70 per cent actually select the party that accurately represents their views—and there are only two choices.


Larry Bartels, the co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University, says he doubts that the spreading ignorance is a uniquely American phenomenon. Facing complex choices, uncertain about the consequences of the alternatives, and tasked with balancing the demands of jobs, family and the things that truly interest them with boring policy debates, people either cast their ballots reflexively, or not at all. The larger question might be whether engagement really matters. “If your vision of democracy is one in which elections provide solemn opportunities for voters to set the course of public policy and hold leaders accountable, yes,” Bartels wrote in an email to Maclean’s. “If you take the less ambitious view that elections provide a convenient, non-violent way for a society to agree on who is in charge at any given time, perhaps not.”

A study by two Princeton University researchers, Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, released last month, tracked 1,800 U.S. policy changes between 1981 and 2002, and compared the outcome with the expressed preferences of median-income Americans, the affluent, business interests and powerful lobbies. They concluded that average citizens “have little or no independent influence” on policy in the U.S., while the rich and their hired mouthpieces routinely get their way. “The majority does not rule,” they wrote.

Smart money versus dumb voters is hardly a fair fight. But it does offer compelling evidence that the survival of the fittest remains an unshakable truth even in American life. A sad sort of proof of evolution.

Image from entry

p. 12: "the fossil record tells us that climate change is the planet's 'normal' state."

p. 12 "More than 99 percent of the species that have ever lived are extinct."

p. 14: "The next time you walk past a poplar or black gum tree, think twice before taking a long, deep breath. Although these trees produce oxygen, they also release compounds that can react in the air to create lung-damaging ozone."

p. 26. "Bowerbirds love discarded plastic. The males use colorful pieces to woo mates in an elaborate courtyard outside their nests. New Research shows that another animal is putting our plastic waste to good use: two species of city-living bee have started building bits of plastic into their nests."

p. 30: "For the 35 percent of American adults who do daily battle with obesity, the main causes are perhaps all too familiar: an unhealthy diet, a sedentary lifestyle and perhaps some unlucky genes. In recent years, however, researchers have become increasingly convinced that important hidden players literally lurk in human bowels: billions on billions of gut microbes."

p. 86. "In this plot of the 50 migration flows, few of the poorest people leave home, and when they do they go to middle-income nations. Research suggests that is because they do not have the resources or education to survive in the richest countries."

Business School, Disrupted
By JERRY USEEM MAY 31, 2014
The New York Times

If any institution is equipped to handle questions of strategy, it is Harvard Business School, whose professors have coined so much of the strategic lexicon used in classrooms and boardrooms that it’s hard to discuss the topic without recourse to their concepts: Competitive advantage. Disruptive innovation. The value chain.

But when its dean, Nitin Nohria, faced the school’s biggest strategic decision since 1924 — the year it planned its campus and adopted the case-study method as its pedagogical cornerstone — he ran into an issue. Those professors, and those concepts, disagreed.

The question: Should Harvard Business School enter the business of online education, and, if so, how?

Universities across the country are wrestling with the same question — call it the educator’s quandary — of whether to plunge into the rapidly growing realm of online teaching, at the risk of devaluing the on-campus education for which students pay tens of thousands of dollars, or to stand pat at the risk of being left behind.

At Harvard Business School, the pros and cons of the argument were personified by two of its most famous faculty members. For Michael Porter, widely considered the father of modern business strategy, the answer is yes — create online courses, but not in a way that undermines the school’s existing strategy. “A company must stay the course,” Professor Porter has written, “even in times of upheaval, while constantly improving and extending its distinctive positioning.”

For Clayton Christensen, whose 1997 book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” propelled him to academic stardom, the only way that market leaders like Harvard Business School survive “disruptive innovation” is by disrupting their existing businesses themselves. This is arguably what rival business schools like Stanford and the Wharton School have been doing by having professors stand in front of cameras and teach MOOCs, or massive open online courses, free of charge to anyone, anywhere in the world. For a modest investment by the school — about $20,000 to $30,000 a course — a professor can reach a million students, says Karl Ulrich, vice dean for innovation at Wharton, part of the University of Pennsylvania.

“Do it cheap and simple,” Professor Christensen says. “Get it out there.”

But Harvard Business School’s online education program is not cheap, simple, or open. It could be said that the school opted for the Porter theory. Called HBX, the program will make its debut on June 11 and has its own admissions office. Instead of attacking the school’s traditional M.B.A. and executive education programs — which produced revenue of $108 million and $146 million in 2013 — it aims to create an entirely new segment of business education: the pre-M.B.A. “Instead of having two big product lines, we may be on the verge of inventing a third,” said Prof. Jay W. Lorsch, who has taught at Harvard Business School since 1964.

Starting last month, HBX has been quietly admitting several hundred students, mostly undergraduate sophomores, juniors and seniors, into a program called Credential of Readiness, or CORe. The program includes three online courses — accounting, analytics and economics for managers — that are intended to give liberal arts students fluency in what it calls “the language of business.” Students have nine weeks to complete all three courses, and tuition is $1,500. Only those with a high level of class participation will be invited to take a three-hour final exam at a testing center.

“We don’t want tourists,” said Jana Kierstead, executive director of HBX, alluding to the high dropout rates among MOOCs. “Our goal is to be very credible to employers.” To that end, graduates will receive a paper credential with a grade: high honors, honors, pass.

“Harvard is going to make a lot of money,” Mr. Ulrich predicted. “They will sell a lot of seats at those courses. But those seats are very carefully designed to be off to the side. It’s designed to be not at all threatening to what they’re doing at the core of the business school.”

Exactly, warned Professor Christensen, who said he was not consulted about the project. “What they’re doing is, in my language, a sustaining innovation,” akin to Kodak introducing better film, circa 2005. “It’s not truly disruptive.”

‘Very Different Places’

Professor Christensen did something “truly disruptive” in 2011, when he found himself in a room with a panoramic view of Boston Harbor. About to begin his lecture, he noticed something about the students before him. They were beautiful, he later recalled. Really beautiful.

“Oh, we’re not students,” one of them explained. “We’re models.”

They were there to look as if they were learning: to appear slightly puzzled when Professor Christensen introduced a complex concept, to nod when he clarified it, or to look fascinated if he grew a tad boring. The cameras in the classroom — actually, a rented space downtown — would capture it all for the real audience: roughly 130,000 business students at the University of Phoenix, which hired Professor Christensen to deliver lectures online.

Why had his boss, Mr. Nohria, given him permission to moonlight? “Because we didn’t have an alternative of our own” online, Mr. Nohria explained.

The dean had taken a wait-and-see approach — until 18 months ago, when his own university announced the formation of edX, an open-courseware platform that would hitch the overall university firmly to the MOOC bandwagon.

He said he remembered listening to an edX presentation at an all-university meeting. “I must confess I was unsure what we’d be really hoping to gain from it,” he said. “My own early imagination was: ‘This is for people who do lectures. We don’t do lectures, so this is not for us.’ ” In the case method, concepts aren’t taught directly, but induced through student discussion of real-world business problems that professors guide with carefully chosen questions.

“Nitin and I are close friends, and we’ve talked about this repeatedly,” Professor Porter said. “I think the big risk in any new technology is to believe the technology is the strategy. Just because 200,000 people sign up doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.” Though Professor Porter published “Strategy and the Internet” in the Harvard Business Review in 2001, before the advent of MOOCs, the article makes his sternest warning about the perils of online recklessness: “A destructive, zero-sum form of competition has been set in motion that confuses the acquisition of customers with the building of profitability.”

Mr. Nohria ultimately chose for the business school to opt out of edX. But this decision forced a question: What should the school do instead? “People came out in very different places,” Mr. Nohria said. “Very different places.”

One morning, he sat down for one of his regular breakfasts with students. “Three of them had just been in Clay’s course,” which had included a case study on the future of Harvard Business School, Mr. Nohria said. “So I asked them, ‘What was the debate like, and how would you think about this?’ They, too, split very deeply.”

Some took Professor Christensen’s view that the school was a potential Blockbuster Video: a high-cost incumbent — students put the total cost of the two-year M.B.A. at around $100,0000 — that would be upended by cheaper technology if it didn’t act quickly to make its own model obsolete. At least one suggested putting the entire first-year curriculum online.

On the topic of online instruction, Prof. Clayton Christensen said: ‘Do it cheap and simple. Get it out there.”

Others weren’t so sure. “ ‘This disruption is going to happen,’ ” is how Mr. Nohria described their thinking, “ ‘but it’s going to happen to a very different segment of business education, not to us.’ ” The power of Harvard’s brand, networking opportunities and classroom experience would protect it from the fate of second- and third-tier schools, a view that even Professor Christensen endorses — up to a point.

“We’re at the very high end of the market, and disruption always hits the high end last,” said Professor Christensen, who recently predicted that half of the United States’ universities could face bankruptcy within 15 years.

Mr. Nohria states flatly, “I do not believe our M.B.A. program is at risk.” He concluded that disruption is not always “all or nothing,” and cited the businesses of music and retailing as examples. “In the music business, all record stores are gone,” he said, while in retailing, “it’s not like Amazon has eliminated everything; after those debates, my feeling was that we’re going to be more in that category.”

Still, Mr. Nohria said, he wanted some insurance. “Our beliefs can always turn out to be wrong,” he said. Harvard Business School could not afford to stand on the sidelines. So last summer, he said, he asked the business school’s administrative director, “What would you say if we started a little skunk works around this technology?”

‘Hollywood’ at Harvard

That skunk works, in a low-slung building 300 yards from campus, is not little. It buzzes with 35 full-time staff members — Wharton’s online efforts, by comparison, employ one-half of one staffer, Mr. Ulrich said — who are scrambling to complete a proprietary platform that, after this summer’s limited go-round, could support much larger enrollments.

“Here’s Hollywood,” Ms. Kierstead said on a recent tour, passing an array of video equipment that’s hauled around to film business case-study protagonists on location. Nearby, two digital animators worked on graphics for Professor Christensen’s forthcoming course. Another staff member handled financial aid.

To run HBX with Ms. Kierstead, Mr. Nohria tapped Bharat Anand, 48, a strategy professor who had been researching how traditional media companies have coped, or haven’t, with digital disruption. “I think about those cases a lot,” said Professor Anand, who is also Mr. Nohria’s brother-in-law.

The dean handed him a sheet of six guiding principles, including these: HBX should be economically self-sustaining. It should not substitute for the M.B.A. program. It should seek to replicate the Harvard Business School discussion-based style of learning. This was no easy assignment, Professor Anand conceded.

“What is competitive advantage?” he asked, invoking Professor Porter’s signature theory. “It comes from being fundamentally different. We teach this all the time. But saying it is one thing. Putting it into practice is hard. When everyone is going free, everyone is going with a similar type of platform, it takes courage to do your own thing.”

On campus, Harvard business students face one another in five horseshoe-shaped tiers with oversized name cards. They fight for “airtime” while the professor orchestrates discussion from a central “pit.”

“We don’t do lectures,” Mr. Nohria said. “Part of what had already convinced me that MOOCs are not for us is that for a hundred years our education has been social.”

The challenge was to invent a digital architecture that simulated the Harvard Business School classroom dynamic without looking like a classroom. In a demonstration of a course called economics for managers, the first thing the student sees is the name, background and location — represented by glowing dots on a map — of other students in the course.

A video clip begins. It’s Jim Holzman, chief executive of the ticket reseller Ace Ticket, estimating the supply of tickets for a New England Patriots playoff game: “Where I have a really hard time is trying to figure out what the demand is. We just don’t know how many people are on the sidelines saying, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about going.’ ”

It’s a complex situation meant to get students thinking about a key concept — “the distinction between willingness to pay and price,” Professor Anand said. “Just because something costs zero doesn’t mean people aren’t willing to pay something.” A second case study, on the pay model of The New York Times, drives the point home.

Then a box pops up on the screen with the words “Cold Call.” The student has 30 seconds to a few minutes to type a response to a question and is then prodded to assess comments made by other students. Eventually there is a multiple-choice quiz to gauge mastery of the concept. (This was surprisingly time-consuming to develop, Professor Anand said, because the business school does not give multiple-choice tests.)

At a faculty meeting in April, Professor Anand demonstrated the other two elements of HBX: continuing education for executives and a live forum. He unveiled the existence of a studio, built in collaboration with Boston’s public television station, that allows a professor to stand in a pit before a horseshoe of 60 digital “tiles,” or high-definition screens with the live images and voices of geographically dispersed participants. “I’m proud of our team, and how carefully they’ve thought about it even before they’ve done it,” Professor Porter said.

The Clashing Models

Not everyone was so impressed. Professor Christensen, for one, worried that Harvard was falling into the very trap he had laid out in “The Innovator’s Dilemma.” “I think that we’ve way overshot the needs of customers,” he said. “I worry that we’re a little too technologically ambitious.”

He also feared that HBX was tied too closely to the business school.

“There have been a few companies that have survived disruption, but in every case they set up an independent business unit that let people learn how to play ball in the new game,” he said. IBM survived the transition from mainframe computers to minicomputers, and then from minicomputers to personal computers, by setting up autonomous teams in Minnesota and then in Florida. “We haven’t got the separation required.”

Professor Porter has expressed the opposite view. Companies that set up stand-alone Internet units, he wrote in 2001, “fail to integrate the Internet into their proven strategies and thus never harness their most important advantages.” Barnes & Noble’s decision to set up a separate online unit is one of his cautionary tales. “It deterred the online store from capitalizing on the many advantages provided by the network of physical stores,” he said, “thus playing into the hands of Amazon.”

Here is where the two professors’ differences come to a head. In the Porter model, all of a company’s activities should be mutually reinforcing. By integrating everything into one, cohesive fortification, “any competitor wishing to imitate a strategy must replicate a whole system,” Professor Porter wrote.

In the Christensen model, these very fortifications become a liability. In the steel industry, which was blindsided by new technology in smaller and cheaper minimills, heavily integrated companies couldn’t move quickly and ended up entombed inside their elaborately constructed defenses.

“If Clay and I differ, it’s that Clay sees disruption everywhere, in every business, whereas I see it as something that happens every once in a while,” Professor Porter said. “And what looks like disruption is in fact an incumbent firm not embracing innovation” at all.

In other words, it’s not that U.S. Steel was destined to be undone by minimills. It’s that its managers let it happen.

“The disrupter doesn’t always win,” argued Professor Porter, who nonetheless called Professor Christensen “phenomenal” and “one of the great management thinkers.”

Who will win the coming business school shakeout? Professor Porter acknowledged that it’s a multidimensional question.

Most schools offering MOOCs do so through outside distribution channels like Coursera, a for-profit company that has Duke, Wharton, Yale, the University of Michigan and several dozen other schools in its stable. EdX, of which Harvard was a co-founder with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, counts Dartmouth and Georgetown among its charter members.

“These will come to have considerable power,” predicted Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He pointed to the aircraft industry: “In order to get into China, Boeing transferred its technology to parts manufacturers there. Pretty soon there’s going to be Chinese firms building airplanes. Boeing created their own competition.” Business schools, he said, “are doing it again; we are creating our own demise.”

Professors as Online Stars

The worry is all the more acute at midtier schools, which fear that elite business schools will move to gobble up a larger share of a shrinking pie.

“Would you rather watch Kenneth Branagh do ‘Henry V,’ or see it at a community theater?” asked Mr. Ulrich at Wharton. “There are going to be some instructors who become more valuable in this new world because they master the new medium. We’d rather be those guys than the people left behind.”

This raises a still more radical case, in which the winners are not any institution, new or old, but a handful of star professors. One of Professor Porter’s generic observations — that the Internet increases the “bargaining power of suppliers” — suggests just that. “It’s potentially very divisive in a way,” he acknowledged. “We’re all partners; we all get paid roughly the same. Anything that starts to fracture the enterprise is a sobering prospect.”

François Ortalo-Magné, dean of the University of Wisconsin’s business school, says fissures have already appeared. Recently, a rival school offered one of his faculty members not just a job, but also shares in an online learning start-up created especially for him. “We’re talking about millions of dollars,” Mr. Ortalo-Magné said. “My best teachers are going to find platforms so they can teach to the world for free. The market is finding a way to unbundle us. My job is to hold this platform together.”

To that end, he has changed his school’s incentive structure, which, as in most of academia, was based primarily on the number of research articles published in elite journals. Now professors who can’t crack those journals but “have a gift for inspiring learning,” he said, in person or online, are being paid as top performers, too. “We are now rewarding people who have tenure to give up on research,” Mr. Ortalo-Magné said.

Mr. Ortalo-Magné spins out the possibilities of disruption even further. “How many calculus professors do we need in the world?” he asked. “Maybe it’s nine. My colleague says it’s four. One to teach in English, one in French, one in Chinese, and one in the farm system in case one dies.”

What is to stop a Coursera from poaching Harvard Business School faculty members directly? “Nothing,” Mr. Nohria said. “The decision people will have to make is whether being on the platform of Harvard Business School, or any great university, is more important than the opportunity to build a brand elsewhere.

“Does Clay Christensen become Clay Christensen just by himself? Or does Clay Christensen become Clay Christensen because he was at Harvard Business School? He’ll have to make that determination.”

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Жизнь в Англии. Как они одеваются (32 фото)

"- Некоторые говорят, что и со стороны Запада идет пропаганда...
- В США это называется общественной дипломатией (public diplomacy). Мы не делаем ее в достаточном количестве, честно говоря."

"- Some say that [from] the West is propaganda ...
- In the U.S. it is called public diplomacy (public diplomacy). We do not do it in sufficient quantities, to be honest."

--David Kramer, head of the international non-governmental organization Freedom House (quotation translation from link); image from

SYMPOSIA

"Applied Cultural Diplomacy: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of Best Practices and Future Strategies" (Washington DC, Baltimore, NYC, Cetinje, Madrid, Berlin, London) (May - September 2014) - rabble.ca: "The International Symposia on Cultural Diplomacy is now 7 years old and has become the world's largest event series in the field of Cultural Diplomacy. The seventh Symposia will take place in 2014 and will include large-scale events that will take place in different major capital cities around the world in cooperation with governments, leading academic institutions and civil society organizations throughout the months of April - September 2014. The 2014 symposia will focus on and explore best practices and future strategies for applied cultural diplomacy; and thus strengthen relations between states and communities and contribute to more just and harmonic relations between societies."

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

China Trades Barbs With U.S., Japan on Island Tensions at Forum - Sharon Chen, businessweek.com: "Rebuffing criticism from the U.S. and Japan, China sent a clear message at an international security meeting that it will press ahead with territorial claims that have caused friction with Japan and smaller neighbors.After U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel described China’s actions in the South China Sea as destabilizing and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan did not welcome dangerous encounters by jets or warships, Chinese Lieutenant General Wang Guanzhong broke from prepared remarks to call their speeches 'unacceptable.' The leaders were at the annual Shangri-La security dialogue in Singapore last weekend. ... 'China will seek to spin both Hagel’s and Abe’s remarks in a negative, provocative way,' said Rory Medcalf, Director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney. 'The public diplomacy of all the key stakeholders in Asian security has become starker in the past two years. In some instances, it is descending to the level of a propaganda war.'... Amid the tension, Hagel echoed President Barack Obama in calling for the U.S. and China to 'develop a new model


of relations – a model that builds cooperation, manages competition, and avoids rivalry.' The U.S. is increasing its military-to-military engagement with China, he said."Image from

Guest: Vladimir Putin may have overplayed his hand in Ukraine: Russian leader Vladimir Putin failed to adequately consider the long-term implications of his strategy, writes guest columnist Jack Devine- seattletimes.com: "America’s ability to outmaneuver the Russians in these subtler ways, from covert action against their forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s to winning the war of ideas through influence campaigns and public diplomacy, has proved effective in the past.


If Putin wants to put Russia back on the wrong side of history, the U.S. and Europe have all the tools to push him back, if we have the will to do so. Jack Devine, former head of the CIA’s Directorate of Operations and president of the Arkin Group in New York, is author of the new book 'Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story,' published by Sarah Crichton Books/FSG in June."Image from entry

The Growing Power of Putin’s Propaganda Machine - David Francis, thefiscaltimes.com: "During the Cold War, the United States used Radio Free Europe to provide objective news to those behind the Iron Curtain. But the importance of RFE has dwindled since the Berlin Wall fell, leaving the U.S. with few avenues to combat Putin’s propaganda. USAID has attempted to combat Russia’s constant stream of biased information with a $1.25 million grant to Ukrainian news organizations. George Soros’ International Renaissance Foundation has also worked to get objective news to Ukrainians. For its part, RT and Ruptly are unapologetic. They both contend that their news provides an alternative to news with a western bias. 'There's large demand for media that doesn't just parrot the uniform pulp from the Western press,' Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of RT, told German media. 'We're something along the lines of Russia's Information Defense Ministry.'"

Russian Understanding Of Color Revolutions And The Arab Spring -- Analysis - Selcuk Colakoglu, Eurasia Review: "The Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS-2014) which was held for the third time on May 23, 2014 by the Russian Ministry of Defense, provided its participants with the opportunity to listen to and assess up-to-date policy briefs first hand from Russian authorities on matters concerning the foreign and security policy of Russia. While both the participants and the content of the previous two conferences indicated an improvement in security cooperation between Russia and the West, the fact that neither military nor civilian officers from any NATO countries participated in MCIS-2014 can be seen as a sign of the escalated tensions in relations. Despite the fact that there were NATO members among the 45 countries from which people came to participate in the conference; all participants from member countries of NATO were experts from independent think-tanks. Nevertheless, both Western countries and Russia apparently have cognizance of the necessity to carry out public diplomacy in an effort to make their theses heard against the backdrop of escalating tensions due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, which could have interrupted all channels for dialogue. Therefore, allowing civil society to maintain dialogue regardless of the problems between the West and Russia is a step in the right direction for the establishment of healthy channels of mutual communication."

Artists as Ambassadors of Cultural Diplomacy - Jonathan Hollander,

Diaspora Artists and their Potential within a National Public Diplomacy Strategy - Jonathan Chait, uscpublidiplomacy.org: "While it is true that national artists have been instrumental in this approach towards the rest of the world, we see more and more artists from countries with a large population living outside its borders – as is the case of Mexicans in the United States – who become agents of change for that other image, promoters of a new dialogue that goes back and forth between the


country of origin and the host country, as well as between the society they come from and represent and the one that has received them. ... In terms of public diplomacy, considering the current context in which they are working, these artists show huge potential. Who better than them to speak about the idea of a supranational identity? Or serve as liaisons between their home country and their adoptive community abroad, or spokesmen for new ideas, values and traditions that emerge from their new geographic areas, or any other aspect of their cultural identity of their origins, now part of the everyday life of the society to which they belong?" Uncaptioned image from entry

The new state is still a state by Ahmet Erdi Öztürk* - todayszaman.com: "Turkey is suffering from a busy agenda which peaked with the Gezi Park protests, continued with the investigations of Dec. 17 and Dec. 25, the local elections and the extreme negative propaganda against the Hizmet movement and intensified with the unfortunate disaster in Soma. ... [A] proposition, purported by the pro-government intellectuals, suggests that there is a post-Kemalist grouping against the ruling party. That is, they maintain, a new group that emerged in the post-Kemalist era that is blocking


the ruling party's practices and undermining the ruling party's prestige in the international arena. This, they argue, hinders the ruling party's implementation of democratic reforms at a greater pace and makes the ruling party face a public diplomacy problem at an unprecedented level." Image from entry

Bayelsa State To Join Force With Israel For Rapid Development - "The Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Rear Admiral Gboribiogha John Jonah (rtd), has said that


the State Government was ready to collaborate with the Israeli Government in order to achieve rapid development in the State. He said this at the King Koko Square, Nembe when the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Uriel Palti paid a one-day visit to


Nembe City, in Nembe Local Govermment Area of the State. ... On the entourage of the Israeli ambassador were; Mr. Tony Obiechina, Senior Media/Political Officer, Mr. Chika Ajaegbu, Culture and Public Diplomacy Officer, both of the Embassy of Israel while top State Government functionaries include; Commissioners of Information and Orientation, Deacon Markson Fefegha." Above and below image from entry

Thinking about the state of PD research - Craig Hayden,  Intermap:  "In case you missed it back in December 2013, I wanted to direct attention back to apresentation given to the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy on Capitol Hill. There, the incisive Emily Metzgar and myself presented some preliminary observations about the state of public diplomacy research based on an expansive, meta-review of over 700 articles



related to public diplomacy research over the past few decades. We are currently nearing completion of the project, along with the help of rising public diplomacy scholar Efe Sevin, and will ideally present our findings to the International Studies Association next year. This preliminary testimony shouldn’t be surprising. Much of the research on public diplomacy is focused on the United States. Public diplomacy research is remarkably thin on theory. The dominant theory is soft power (which Nye himself argues is not really a theory, but an ‘analytical concept’). It is also largely normative or framed as policy prescription. What is clear to me at least is that there needs to be greater cross-disciplinary attention to public diplomacy research, where fields like political communication, cultural studies, social psychology, cyber-culture studies (to name a few) can and should see public diplomacy as a rich site of inquiry. Be Sociable, Share!” Image from

Scholars, politicians call for Asian trust - pakobserver.net: "Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard and other high-profile figures made opening addresses at the ninth Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, expressing concerns over escalating territorial disputes in the South China Sea and the unpredictable regime in Pyongyang. Under the theme 'Designing New Asia', the three-day conference brought together some 3,600 experts, government officials and politicians from more than 50 countries to discuss security, education, culture, the environment and other issues. ... The annual forum consists of some 60 sessions on an array of issues including the future role of women, regional security cooperation, education, the environment and public diplomacy."

RELATED ITEMS

Yes We Can Still Market: Why U.S. Brands Remain World’s Most Valuable - the dailybeast.com: American brands dominate the ranks of global consumers’ favorites.


Why? Because no one has our competition. In the long run, brands’ ultimate value lies in their ability to appeal to consumers outside their home market. Giants like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft derive anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of total revenue from outside the U.S. And that’s the true marker of the power of a brand—and of a country’s economy. Can you make it in a wide-open market in which consumers have loads of options? And, yes, America still can. Image from

Obama ‘doesn’t give himself enough credit’ on foreign policy: State Dept. - Ceryl K. Chumley, The Washington Times: The State Department’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, provided a bit of comic relief from reporters at a recent press conference after she quipped that the president ought really to give himself more back-pats for his successes with foreign policy. Her exact words, The Washington Free Beacon first reported: President Obama “doesn’t’ give himself enough credit for what he’s done around the world.” Some reporters laughed, The Blaze reported. Others followed up with questions aimed at drawing out some specific examples. Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked: “Jen, you would argue the president doesn’t give himself enough credit? How much credit would you give him? What, like, 200 percent credit?” Ms. Psaki’s reported response: “I would give him more than he has given himself. That’s what I just said.” Another reporter at the conference asked Ms. Psaki to name off some success stories. She said, The Blaze reported, “engagement initiatives like Iran, what we’ve done on Ukraine, efforts to dive in and engage around the world.” And one more followup from a third reporter: “Russia has still annexed Crimea,” the reporter said, adding that Iran diplomatic dealings have brought nothing in terms of U.S. gain, The Blaze said.

Obama's Foreign Policy Book - Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times: Obama has been on duty when the world has come unstuck in more ways than any recent president. George H.W. Bush dealt deftly with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Bill Clinton was the first president who had to fire cruise missiles at a person — Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan — in the first battle ever between a superpower and a superempowered angry man. When that superempowered angry man struck our homeland on 9/11, George W. Bush responded with two invasions.


Obama has had to confront the culmination of all these trends, and more: the blowback from both invasions; a weak, humiliated but still dangerous Russia; a drone war against many more superempowered angry men from Yemen to Pakistan; the simultaneous disintegration of traditional Arab states and the nuclearization of Iran; plus the decline of “spheres of influence” dictated by traditional powers from above and the rise of “people of influence” emerging from the squares and social networks below. These Square People have challenged everything from Russia’s sphere of influence in Ukraine to the right of the pro-U.S. Egyptian military to keep ruling Egypt. Dealing with all these at once has been a doctrinal and tactical challenge, especially when combined with an exhausted U.S. public and an economic recession sapping defense spending. There is no military solution to Syria — and Iran and Russia have to be part of any diplomatic one. Those are the kind of unpleasant, unromantic, totally long-shot foreign policy choices the real world throws up these days. A little humility, please. Image from

Confronting Who We Are - Serge Schmemann, New York Times: In the United States, President Obama went to West Point to respond to critics who accused him of eroding American leadership in the world and thereby encouraging evildoers like Bashar al-Assad. “Some of our most costly mistakes came not from our restraint, but from our willingness to rush into military adventures without thinking through the consequences,” he argued before graduating cadets. Mr. Obama’s attempt to draw a balance between isolationism and unilateralism seemed in sync with the sentiments of much of the American public, but critics on the right and on the left found more frustration than vision in the speech about what the United States should be doing with challenges like Syria, Ukraine or the South China Sea. But then the question arises whether a unifying rationale for muscular American action is simply no longer possible.

Egypt’s Latest Military Strongman - Editorial, New York Times: President Obama’s acquiescence in the Egyptian military coup and the subsequent crackdown has only given Mr. Sisi comfort. Mr. Obama has said America’s interests are rooted mainly in ensuring that Egypt adheres to the peace treaty with Israel and cooperates against terrorists.

How to keep Afghanistan on the right track - Rajiv Shah, Washington Post: "Rajiv Shah is the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). ... Like any responsible investor, the United States demands accountability from Afghanistan for its investment. The agency that I oversee, the U.S. Agency for International Development, has created an incentive


fund meant to hold the Afghan government accountable for meeting certain standards, such as advancing support for women and girls, fighting corruption and holding free and fair elections. While half of the targets were met in the first year, we have withheld at least $30 million in development assistance as a result of unmet commitments in governance and women’s rights." Image from

Was Hillary Clinton a good secretary of state? - -Walter Russell Mead, Washington Post: For some realists, “global meliorism” — the belief that U.S. foreign policy can and should try to make a better world — is a dirty word. For Clinton, it is a bedrock conviction. This combination makes Clinton an American exceptionalist: She believes that the United States has been called to a unique role in leading the world, and that the American state and the American people, at home and abroad, can be powerful instruments for good. Historians will probably consider Clinton significantly more successful than run-of-the-mill secretaries of state such as James G. Blaine or the long-serving Cordell Hull, but don’t expect to see her on a pedestal with Dean Acheson or John Quincy Adams anytime soon.


Clinton brought a clear vision of U.S. interests and power to the job, and future presidents and secretaries of state will find many of her ideas essential. Yet she struggled to bring together the different elements of her vision into a coherent set of policies. The tension between America’s role as a revolutionary power and its role as a status quo power predates Clinton; the struggle to reconcile those two opposed but equally indispensable aspects of American foreign policy has survived her tenure at the State Department. Image from entry; see also John Brown, "Hillary Clinton and Propaganda," Huffington Post (October 19, 2009)

Hillary Clinton's Legacy at State Dept.: A Hawk With Clipped Wings: As secretary of state, Clinton was more hawkish than the White House, and at key moments was ineffectual at swinging policy her way - Peter Nicholas, Adam Entous, Carol E. Lee, Wall Street Journal: Mrs. Clinton, if she runs for president, likely will lean heavily on her experience as the nation's top diplomat. Her memo, written in January 2013, illustrates two striking features of her four years in the post: She was often more hawkish than the White House she served, and at some key moments was ineffectual at swinging policy her way.

From Via ACP on Facebook

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Not your grandpa’s inequality

“(World War I) was the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth. Any writer who said otherwise lied. So the writers either wrote propaganda, shut up, or fought.”

―Ernest Hemingway; WWI image from

NEW ISSUE OF PUBLIC DIPLOMACY MAGAZINE

Introducing our Summer 2014 Issue: The Power of Non-State Actors - Public Diplomacy Magazine: "In recent decades, the emergence of the Internet and Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) has revolutionized the possibilities within the international political landscape. With expanded opportunities to cultivate networks over distances, Non-State Actors (NSAs) have emerged as significant players in the global system.


While the traditional definition of public diplomacy refers to governmental practices of informing and influencing foreign publics through intercultural communication, NSAs have rapidly adopted public diplomacy processes in their increased diplomatic relations with state actors. The 12th issue of Public Diplomacy Magazine, 'The Power of Non-State Actors,' enlists a wide range of expertise to illustrate the diversity of NSAs and the public diplomacy tools they employ." Image from entry

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY IN THE NEWS

A rationale and framework for responsible U.S. action in the Syrian crisis - Sanjay Gokhale, thehkscitizen.com: "Despite all the challenges at home and abroad, America must take a leadership role: It must take decisive steps toward the resolution of the Syrian crisis. ... All of these actions must be accompanied with a public diplomacy at a global scale. It is crucial that the governments and people around the world are aware of these actions, their successes and their failures. The best-case scenario is the aforementioned action levels the balance of power and brings the two parties to the table. But if it doesn’t and the death toll keeps rising, the public diplomacy would create significant pressure on Russia and China to not veto the UNSC Resolution for use of force. But what happens if – despite our actions, public diplomacy and growing pressure – Russia vetoes the UNSC Resolution [against Syria]?


Should the U.S. and its allies then use force without UNSCR approval as they did in Kosovo and Iraq? Not in my opinion. An action violating the norms and laws agreed upon by the international community is not responsible and ultimately defeats the very purpose of bringing peace and security. What we can and must do is to continue pushing on the legal levers and keep building the pressure. So does a responsible action guarantee a resolution to Syrian crisis? No. But nor would a unilateral and/or unlawful use of force. In fact, it may lead to more carnage and destruction as it did in Iraq. Responsible action is therefore a superior option over no action or unlawful action and one that would allow us a possibility of bringing end to the violence while also enhancing America’s reputation around the world."Uncaptioned image from entry


VOA Programming is Now Available in U.S. by Mobile Phone - insidevoa.com: "The Voice of America has signed a new agreement with the leading digital call-to-listen platform, AudioNow, to provide VOA programming inside the United States. The new agreement expands an on-going relationship between VOA and AudioNow, which already distributes programming from VOA in 34 languages by phone. ‘We are delighted that for the first time in its 72 year history VOA broadcasts will now be available inside the United States,” said VOA Director David Ensor. ‘There are so many people in diaspora communities in this country who want to hear news in their own language, and we can provide it.’ … The Voice of America’s agreement with AudioNow sets a new course for VOA, following the U.S. Congress’ amendment of legislation in January 2013 that had prohibited VOA from providing programs in the United States for most of the 72 years it has been on the air. The agreement also gives AudioNow the potential to offer a U.S. audience all 46 of the languages broadcast by VOA. ‘Our mission is to connect anyone, anywhere to the news that matters with just a simple telephone call,’ said Elan Blutinger, CEO of AudioNow. ‘We’re very proud of our long partnership with VOA, whose programs play a tremendous role in informing and engaging audiences around the world.’” Via ACP on Facebook; below image from


Voice of America gives Obama – Poroshenko meeting announcement two sentences - BBG Watcher, BBG Watch: Rudderless and floundering Voice of America (VOA) English News devoted only two sentences to the White House announcement late Friday afternoon that President Obama will meet with President-elect of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in Warsaw at the 25th anniversary celebrations marking the end of communist rule in Poland. While VOA English News failed to post a separate news report with its own headline on the White House announcement of the Obama – Poroshenko meeting, dozens of international and U.S. media offered full-length reports with headlines referring specifically to the planned meeting. See also.

The era of impact strength .. and not the effect of the force! [Google "translation'] - Abdullah Khalifa Al-Shayji, alittihad.ae: Assad and al-Maliki and 'Al-Qaeda' and 'Front victory' and 'Daash' losing battle effect. And before them lost Iran impact strength of the model when it suppressed the revolution radiation in the presidential election in 2009., As well as America lost the battle for hearts and minds when they developed what it calls 'diplomatic public relations'Public Diplomacy to influence and win hearts and minds, so today there are office informing regional U.S. headed by U.S. diplomats speak Arabic fluently .. and there are satellite 'free' Radio 'Sawa' funded by the U.S. government from the American taxpayers. Has proceeded all the other major countries to launch satellites in several languages, including Arabic, such as Britain, France, Russia and China, to bring their views to the recipient Arab or other .. and even Turkey and Iran have satellite Arabic language to promote the policy and culture and language, Turkish and Persian.


This is the power of today's media used by the major countries and strong, led by America. And if all of that does not work well in Washington win battles for hearts and minds because of the painful images and degrading treatment at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Bagram in Afghanistan, Valother downside to this was the strongest of all the propaganda positive that sought America with all its power to exploit, invested millions to polish image. I fell America in the exam credibility and trust, and lost its prestige and became a state such as China issued an annual report on breaches of America's human rights, and no longer Washington convincing in their annual reports, or when lecturing on the countries and peoples and societies of other world about human rights and respect for the law and good governance. In all, the era of leverage means that States have to deal with their people educated and smart in a different way consistent with the openness and intelligent and informed citizens .. and even states are convincing and regulations, by grasping the dimensions of the power of influence and the influence of power is not feasible. This applies to all states and all their ratings!"Image from

Envoys, Korea chart future ties on Africa Day: S. Korea and African partners to convene 4th Korea-Africa Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - koreaherald.com: African envoys, including Nigerian Ambassador to South Korea Desmond Akawor, Foreign Minister Yun and other African and South Korean diplomats and business leaders met at the Federation of Korean Industries in Yeouido, Seoul, for a seminar and networking session that focused on investment and trade promotion in Egypt, Algeria, Kenya and Nigeria. ... South Korea is focused on increasing development assistance and public diplomacy, too.


'We will strengthen public diplomacy toward Africa and enhance awareness that Africa and Korea are true partners in working out the success equation,' Yun said."Image from entry, with caption: From left) Nigerian Ambassador to South Korea Desmond Akawor, Federation of Korean Industries chairman Huh Chang-soo and Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se make a toast at a luncheon and networking reception at FKI‘s headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, Tuesday.

Zheng Manqing and the “Sick Man of Asia”: Strengthening Chinese Bodies and the Nation through the Martial Arts - Ben Judkins, Kung Fu Tea: Martial Arts History, Wing Chun and Chinese Martial Studies: "The modern Chinese martial arts seem to be a Janus headed phenomenon. On the one hand they have moved easily into the realm of global markets. Individuals from all areas of the world, and all walks of life, are studying these systems. Increasingly the Chinese state is harnessing this popularity by encouraging 'kung fu tourism' and making the martial arts part of its public diplomacy package.


Yet at the same time there remains a strong sense that these arts are distinctly 'national' and cultural in nature. Occasionally these two trends can even collide within a single organization, leading to feelings of confusion and raising important questions about the future development of the traditional arts."Image from entry, with caption: Zheng Manqing with sword, possibly on the campus of Columbia University in New York City

J.G. Herder, Nationalism and Cultural Relations - Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence: [T]he whole history of public diplomacy/cultural relations makes little sense without th[e] identification between civil society and country even if not always explicitly conceptualized as 'nation'."

RELATED ITEMS

No Point at West Point: A foreign policy of cliché and equivocation - James Taranto, Wall Street Journal: One could disagree contemporaneously with Reagan about the severity of the Soviet menace, or with Lincoln about the desirability of keeping the Union together.


But Obama states his "foreign policy" as a series of truisms, each balanced by an opposite truism. He ends up saying next to nothing in the course of covering every base. Image from

The Insiders: There is no ‘Obama Doctrine’ - Ed Rogers, Washington Post: No one thinks America is stronger today than it was five years ago. Period. There is no Obama Doctrine; there is only an Obama-centric gloss on world events, declaring success no matter the facts. His speech reminds one of an old mantra, “Tell me what happened and I will tell you what the plan was.”

Worldview: An Obama disconnect on foreign policy - Trudy Rubin, philly.com: Obama rightly says the odds of a direct attack from any foreign nation are minimal. But in a rapidly changing world, with China rising, Russia invading its neighbors, and terrorists multiplying, he failed to clarify how he would counter new threats.


It's fine to denounce war and call for strengthening international norms. But if Obama wants foreign leaders to take him seriously, he must clarify how he will handle those who ignore international rules and coalitions. The world is watching what he does, not what he says. Image from
Putin Did Americans a Favor: Ukraine is a wake-up call for what a post-American world would look like - Walter Russell Mead, Wall Street Journal: Putin's move on Ukraine sends a strong message: American values and interests are unlikely to thrive if American power is in eclipse. The Pax Americana and the hope of a liberal and humane global system still rest on the weary shoulders of Uncle Sam. Those who think American decline is inevitable must face a tragic truth: The eclipse of American power will be a disaster for our economic interests, for the values we cherish, and in the end for our security at home. What stability, peace and legality now exist in the international system are there because the U.S., with important help from allies and partners, made great sacrifices to build and secure them. The imposing edifice of the liberal world system would soon fall into ruin without that foundation.

The hard-line China of Tiananmen Square, on a global scale - Joe Renouard, Los Angeles Times: The U.S. is hardly without guilt in the human rights arena. Washington has supported its share of rogues and dictators in years past, and even today counts among its friends a number of illiberal, undemocratic regimes. The narrow defense of national interests has often forced Americans to compromise on democratic principles.


But Beijing's active undermining of international human rights is on another level altogether. For the foreseeable future, outsiders will have a limited ability to pressure China to expand civil and political liberties at home and accommodate democracy abroad. If and when lasting changes come to China, they will have to come from within. Image from

Chinese Communist propaganda in American public schools - Thomas Lifson, American Thinker: Is it really wise to allow a foreign state propaganda agency to control the content of education about that country in our public schools? That’s what is happening now, thanks to the Confucius Institute, and arm of the Chinese government, funding Chinese language instruction in American schools. Keep Chinese language instruction, but don’t keep foreign funding with propaganda strings attached.

Sisi and the Palestinians - Ali Jarbawi, New York Times: Egypt will not be able to rise to its former regional grandeur, the sort it enjoyed under Nasser, until it liberates itself from its absolute surrender to the United States, which has, since Sadat, transformed it into nothing more than a satellite in America’s political orbit — so much so that by the end of the Mubarak era, it appeared to be merely following America’s orders. It appears that Mr. Sisi will have different relations with the United States than his predecessors did. While continuing to maintain Egypt’s strong ties to America, there are signs that he plans to steer Egypt toward a more independent foreign policy; his recent trip to Russia is one indication.

Russian ambassador to Canada calls for end to ‘propaganda’ - Jason Magder, montrealgazette.com: Canada might talk tough against Russia, but it’s all propaganda aimed at creating artificial tension, that country’s ambassador said Thursday. In an interview with The Gazette’s editorial board, Georgiy Mamedov — set to retire next month after serving 11 years as Russia’s highest diplomat in this country — called the current state of affairs between the countries an aberration in otherwise exquisite diplomatic relations.


And he called on Canada to help negotiate an end to the crisis, rather than impose sanctions. “This isn’t a policy; it’s propaganda,” Mamedov said. “It reminds me of the Soviet Union. Lately in my discussions with your officials, I feel like I’m back in USSR, only this time it’s you who are listening to the central committee of the Communist party.” Mamedov said when the crisis erupted in Ukraine, it was Canada that cut off relations with Russia, and he’d like the two countries to continue to work together on issues that are of joint interest. Mamedov image from entry

Russia unleashing propaganda: Ukraine - Ukraine has accused Russia of unleashing a mass propaganda campaign to persuade global powers not to recognise an election that gave the presidency to a pro-Western tycoon. The United States for its part acknowledged a "fundamental disagreement" with Russia and said President Barack Obama would extend his support to Petro Poroshenko when he meets the winner of the May 25 presidential election in Warsaw on Wednesday.


The months-long fight for the future of the ex-Soviet nation - splintered between a more nationalist west and a heavily Russified southeast - has killed more than 300 people and resurrected the geopolitical barriers of the Cold War. Ukraine's acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsya, said Russia was now using every means at its disposal to unsettle the new Kiev leaders and regain control over its historic domain. Uncaptioned image from entry

Halya Coynash: The Kremlin's propaganda coup in Donetsk - kyivpost.com: Russian President Vladimir Putin must be feeling very pleased with himself. The EU has all but retreated behind calls for ‘frank and open dialogue’ while US expressions of concern about Chechen and other foreign fighters entering Ukraine from Russia for the moment remain just that, and no more.


In the meantime, the authoritative Levada Centre has reported that Putin’s confidence rating among Russians in April stood at 82%, 18% higher than in January 2014, and on May 29 the ‘Vostok’ [East] battalion pulled off the perfect propaganda coup in the centre of Donetsk. Image from entry, with caption: Pro-Russian rebels carry their belongings as they leave the regional administration offices in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on May 30, 2014, after having been evicted from the building by fighters from the Vostok battalion, comprising irregular soldiers from Chechnya and other Russian regions. On Thursday afternoon, armed men from the rebel Vostok Battalion stormed into the building, saying they were looking for supermarket looters. They reportedly demanded that activists from the People's Republic of Donetsk leave the building they had controlled.

How the Kremlin is killing off the last of Russia’s independent media - Masha Gessen, qz.com: As the media crackdown becomes more targeted—as it inevitably will—the number of available workarounds will surely decrease, making the editing more difficult and further shrinking the readership.

The BBC: Masters of Black Propaganda: 'Nation shall Speak Truth unto Nation' - The Ironic BBC motto - Dr. David Halpin, Global Research: The power and reach of ‘Aunty’ BBC is supreme. Its intentions remain ostensibly ‘to educate, inform and entertain.’ It can educate well and it entertains a lot. How could a broadcaster lie,and lie in every hour and on the other hand commission a series which was very well written and acted, and which had a very strong moral base.

Thailand Isn't Banning Social Media, It Needs It For Propaganda - Danielle Wiener-Bronner, thewire.com: In the days since the military quickly and efficiently staged a coup in Thailand, citizens' access to social media has been questionable. Facebook was briefly blocked in the country earlier this week, with a Thai official telling Reuters that "we have blocked Facebook temporarily and tomorrow we will call a meeting with other social media, like Twitter and Instagram, to ask for cooperation from them."
Image from entry, with caption: A passer-by poses in front of soldiers in central Bangkok on May 24, 2014.

Norwegian Students Fed Anti-Israel Propaganda in Exam: Discredited report from Gaza by Marxist Mads Gilbert presented to over 40,000 students as fact - israelnationalnews.com: A Norwegian-language test administered to over 40,000 high-school students across Norway, included blatant anti-Israel propaganda. One of the questions presented a photo of a graffiti drawing by a British street artist on Israel's security barrier and an SMS sent by Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert from Gaza during the Cast Lead counter-terror offensive in 2009, and asked to analyze the drawing and text.


Gilbert's SMS says: "They bombed the central vegetable market in Gaza city two hours ago. 80 injured, 20 killed. All came here to Shifa. We wade in death, blood and amputees... Many children. Pregnant woman. I have never experienced anything this horrible. Now we hear tanks. Tell it, pass it on, shout it. Anything. DO SOMETHING! DO MORE! We're living in the history books now, all of us!" The text next to the photo of the graffiti explains: "This graffiti is painted on the wall that the Israeli authorities built in the West Bank. The wall is 8 meters high and surrounds the city of Bethlehem, among other things." The Israel-based Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism claimed that the exam is biased against Israel. There is no explanation of why Israel felt it necessary to build a wall, it noted, or why it attacked Gaza. Image from entry, with caption: Israel Norway soccer game

State Department Enters 19th Century - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: Traditions are fun, and we all certainly enjoy dressing up at Halloween as Sexy Soccer Mom or Sexy Soccer Dad with Kids in Tow. Good times. When my kids were younger I had great fun dressing up as Santa Claus, sometimes even at Christmas. However, in the age of social media, images have assumed a greater significance. So, let’s ask ourselves what these images of State’s ambassadors presenting their credentials in Japan and the UK convey:



Book Review: Pomegranate Peace - Peter Van Buren, We Meant Well: Pomegranate Peace, a new novel by Rashmee Roshan Lall, is a funny, sad and all-too-true piece of fiction about the failure of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, and about the crippling isolation America’s diplomats impose on themselves in that misguided war. The author, Rashmee Roshan Lall, worked for the U.S. State Department in Kabul as a contractor. Though she is clear that her book is fiction, and that none of the characters and events are real, her descriptions of her colleagues, their surroundings and their attitudes toward their work are scary-spot on.


She reminds us that the Afghan’s referred to the flow of U.S. dollars as “irrigation,” and joked that those who worked alongside the Americans had been tamed. Her description of daily life inside the embassy is very accurate: …The odds were very good if you were an unaccompanied woman. The men– predatory or passionate or just passing through on what was called TDY or temporary duty – were decidedly odd. They were a mix-– military, diplomats, development workers, private contractors. It didn’t matter if they were married, unaccompanied and prowling, or unmarried and prowling – all of them suffered acutely from an affliction that Americans in the badlands of Afghanistan knew, dreaded and awaited with dreary expectation: an acute, aching loneliness. Being an American in Afghanistan was the loneliest you could get. The money was good; the levels of stress kept pace. It is curiously stirring in all sorts of ways to be constantly told-– and to believe-– that everyone is out to get you. Image from

'Darker Shades of Red' explores Soviet Russia through propaganda art at the Museum of Russian Icons - Sam Bonacci, masslive.com: The evocative propaganda art of Soviet Russia from the 1940s through 1990s will be on display at the Museum of Russian Icons'"Darker Shades of Red" exhibit beginning in June.  "My favorite part is how thought provoking in general the images are. They are very emotional and intense. You can understand them very easily," Laura Garrity-Arquitt, registrar of the museum, said recently. "The graphic designers had a single frame to elicit a strong emotional response and give a specific message."


The objects in Darker Shades come from the private collection of Gary Hollingsworth, a Florida art restorer who traveled extensively in the former Soviet Union. The exhibition includes 55 original Soviet posters (with translations) and other items, such as medals and orders, statuettes and factory banners. Some of the posters, an important form of communication and reinforcement of Soviet dogma, on display may be jarring at first, Garrity-Arquitt said, but they are all quite beautiful. Many of the pieces pull from religious icons, repurposing styles of images towards the goals of the government creating the posters. The items in the show display a particular facet of Russian culture that reached throughout the daily lives of those living in Soviet Russia. "It's one of the times where Russia and US relations were at their lowest and I think that is something that we need to understand," Garrity-Arquitt said. "Our overall goal is to bridge the culture gap, if we can, between America and Russia ... this show allows us to explore how Russia thought during the Cold War."Uncaptioned image from entry

IMAGE (This rainbow waterfall)


From: Priscilla Frank, "11 Mesmerizing 3D Chalk Art Masterpieces That Will Melt Your Brains," The Huffington Post