Other Resources of Interest
W. Lance Bennett. “Operation Perfect Storm: The Press and the Iraq War,” Political Communication Report, International Communication Association & American Political Science Association, Vol. 13 No. 3, Fall 2003. Bennett analyzes press cooperation in implementing government communications strategies in the run up to the 2003 Iraq war. (Courtesy of Donna Oglesby)
Andrew Collier. “Devil You Know.” Letter to the Editor, Foreign Affairs, January/February 2004, pp. 190-192. The Beijing correspondent for the South China Morning Post makes a case for established news organizations in differing with John Maxwell Hamilton’s and Eric Jenner’s analysis of new web-based media in international news. (“The New Foreign Correspndence,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2003).
Simone Chambers. “Discourse and Democratic Practices,” in Stephen K. White, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Habermas, (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 233-259. Chambers examines Jurgen Habermas’ communicative action theory in the context of what it means to be a discursive rather than a strategic actor. Discourse, she argues, is essentially open ended deliberation in which the goal is mutual understanding. Decision rules place constraints on dialogue leading to closure. A careful balance must be struck between deliberation and decision-making.
Barbara Crossette. “Media and Foreign Policy,” Great Decisions 2004, Foreign Policy Association, January 2004. In the FPA’s forthcoming annual publication, Crossette asserts that despite a flood of new sources of information, most Americans pay little attention to foreign policy, making it easier for the government and the media to manipulate public opinion. Excerpts from the article and purchase information available online.
Jeffrey Gedmin and Craig Kennedy. “Selling America — Short,” The National Interest, Winter, 2003/04, pp. 71-75. Gedmin, Director of the Aspen Institute Berlin, and Kennedy, President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, examine a “U.S. public diplomacy crisis” in the heart of Europe. The authors call for a “serious campaign to open European minds” drawing on the Congress of Cultural Freedom and other “lessons from the Cold War.”
Bill Katovsky and Timothy Carlson. Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq, The Lyons Press, 2003. In this collection of 60 interviews, embedded correspondents and photographers provide assessments of their work and personal accounts of their coverage of the Iraq war. Includes an interview with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Bryan Whitman. (Courtesy of Steve Livingston)
Jerrold Keilson. “Public Diplomacy and U.S. Foreign Policy,” Great Decisions 2004, Foreign Policy Association, January 2004. The next edition of FPA’s annual publication on key foreign policy issues includes a look at public diplomacy by Jerrold Keilson. Excerpts from the article and purchase information available online.
William P. Kiehl. “Can Humpty Dumpty be Saved,” American Diplomacy.org. Bill Kiehl looks at “the failure of United States public diplomacy” and offers recommendations for organizational change in the Department of State.
A. Michael Noll, ed. Crisis Communications: Lessons from September 11, Roman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003. Sixteen contributors look at traditional mass media (radio, TV, print), newer media (Internet, email), conventional telecommunications (telephones, cell phones) and interpersonal communication in emergency situations.
Project for Excellence in Journalism. “Media and Iraq.” An online archive of links to over 500 stories collected by PEJ on press performance from January to May 2003. Links arranged by topic.
Pew Case Study Center, Georgetown University, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. George Washington University’s Public Diplomacy Institute hosted a case study workshop on December 10, 2003 organized by the Public Diplomacy Council’s Juliet Antunes Sablosky and Charles Dolgas, Director of the GUISD Pew Case Study program. Teachers of public diplomacy and related subjects attended from George Washington University, Georgetown University, American University, and the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. The workshop focussed on case teaching and writing — and the need for case studies on public diplomacy.
Scholars and practitioners interested in writing public diplomacy case studies should contact Charles Dolgas, Director of Publications, at 202-965-5735, x204 or dolgasc@georgetown.edu
Lori Robertson. “The British Invasion,” American Journalism Review, December/January 2004. AJR’s managing editor Lori Robertson looks at the BBC’s Iraq war coverage and whether “the BBC offers a more aggressive and complete approach to the news, or a tilt to the left’? or both?” Includes views of former BBC World Service managing director John Tusa.
Richard Rorty. “Humiliation or Solidarity?” Dissent, Fall 2003, pp. 23-26. Stanford philosopher Richard Rorty questions the tone and substance of U.S. foreign policy and argues that “public opinion must force politicians to be more idealistic.” His article is cast as an American reaction to a joint statement by Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida (published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 31, 2003 and in English in the September 2003 issue of Constellations) urging a common European response to America’s “hegemonic unilateralism.”
Schneider, Cynthia. Diplomacy that Works: ‘Best Practices’ in Cultural Diplomacy, Center for Arts and Culture, 2003. Schneider, Associate Professor of Art History at Georgetown University and former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, examines the role and value of cultural diplomacy and provides illustrative examples of successful initiatives. Online at the Center’s Cultural Diplomacy Initiative website. (Courtesy of Juliet Antunes Sablosky)
Sean O Siochru. Global Governance of Information and Communications Technologies: Implications for Transnational Civil Society Networking, Social Science Research Council, November 2003. This report finds freedom for many transnational civil society organizations to engage in networking and serious constraints attributable to governance processes and institutions.
Jeffrey Stout. Democracy Tradition, Princeton University Press, 2004. Princeton professor Jeffrey Stout, a leading voice in the tradition of John Dewey and American pragmatism, examines critical issues at the intersection of religious thought, political theory, and philosophy. Teachers of public diplomacy will find useful his discussion of democratic norms and terrorism, the public role of religious arguments in a post 9/11 world, and political discourse across cultural boundaries.
Mark Surnam and Katherine Reilly.[www.ssrc.org/programs/itic Appropriating the Internet for Social Change,] Social Science Research Council, November 2003. This SSRC study looks at use of networked technologies by transnational civil society organizations. The authors cite innovative civil society applications but conclude most organizations have not moved much beyond e-mail and basic websites to “strategic use” of the Internet and other emerging network technologies.
Andres Szente. A New Mandate for Philanthropy: U.S. Foundation Support for International Arts Exchanges, Center for Arts and Culture, 2003. Columbia University’s Andres Szente analyzes data on grants for cultural exchange by leading American foundations. Online at the Center’s Cultural Diplomacy Initiative website. (Courtesy of Juliet Antunes Sablosky)
U.S. Institute of Peace, Grant Solicitation, Public Diplomacy. “What role does public diplomacy plays including statements of public policy, professional and educational exchanges, international visitors programs, and media strategies targeted at the “other” populations play in bridging or expanding religious divides? What tools are available to evaluate the impact of public diplomacy?”
Application deadline: March 1, 2004. Notification: September 30, 2004.
“Most awards fall in the range of $25,000 to $45,000, although somewhat larger grants are also awarded. The amount of any grant is based on the proposed budget and on negotiations with successful applicants. When applicants are employed by an eligible institution, such as a college or university, the Institute prefers that grants be made to the institution rather than to the individual.” Additional information is on the USIP website.
“In on the take-offs and not just the crash landings”
Scholars and practitioners of public diplomacy often attribute this phrase to former USIA Director Edward R. Murrow, who indeed used it to make the case for putting USIA at the policymaking table during the Kennedy Administration. The phrase was used earlier by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg in calling for bipartisanship during the Truman Administration. Vandenberg attributed the phrase to Harold Stassen.
“As Murrow saw it, the important thing was not that the USIA Director, as a member (sic) of the National Security Council, should argue for or against policy on psychological grounds. It was that he should be informed in advance of policies in the making, and take part in their formulation. As he frequently stated it, the USIA should be “in on the take-offs, and not just the crash landings,” like that of the U-2 spy plane shot down in Siberia.” Alexander Kendrick, Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow, 1969, p. 456.
“. . . I don’t care to be involved in the crash-landing unless I can be in on the take-off. Harold Stassen, comment on bipartisanship, attributed to him by Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg.” Suzy Platt, ed. Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations Requested from the Congressional Research Service, 1989, pp. 260-261.
“Once again, it was the procedure of a hurried call to senators and a last-minute meeting to inform them of an impending development or of the execution of a policy, and not to consult on the formation of policy. Vandenberg then and thereafter insisted that real bipartisanship meant consultation in advance and not a perfunctory reading to legislators of an impending press announcement or policy statement . . . Stassen’s comment, the Senator used to say, was such a good statement of the Republican case that he wished it were his.” Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr., ed. The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg, 1952, p. 230.