This 28-page report defines cultural diplomacy, advocates its value at a time when the U.S. has “lost the goodwill of the world,” synthesizes findings of expert studies, and summarizes insights from the Committee’s inquiries. Recommendations include increased funding, staffing, and training for cultural and public diplomacy; creation of an independent clearing house similar to the British Council; streamlined visa issues; implementation of the recommendations of the Center for Arts and Culture’s report on Cultural Diplomacy: Recommendations and Research; and revamped Al Hurra programming. The Committee is chaired by former Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia Harrison and includes members from the academic, corporate and public affairs communities, and the Department of State.
William R. Cook. Tocqueville and the American Experiment. The Teaching Company, 2004. Cook, a professor of history at the State University of New York, Geneso, examines themes in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America in 24 lectures. His lectures focus on the American democratic experience and Tocqueville’s relevance to democratization and nation-building efforts abroad. Orders can be placed online.
Anthony H. Cordesman. Strategic Realism in the Middle East and US and Arab Relations, Center for Strategic and International Studies, September 16, 2005. Cordesman offers “unpopular” strategies for dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict, the future of Iraq, the future of Iran, and the problems of terrorism and Islamic extremism. He argues that evolutionary reforms in the Arab and Muslim worlds can only come from within. They cannot be imposed from outside and “cannot be driven by U.S. public diplomacy.” The US and Europe need patience, strong country missions capable of quietly encouraging local governments, and “a very different strategy based on persuasion, partnership, and cooperation rather than pressure and conversion.” (Courtesy of Mary Ann Gamble)
Council on Foreign Relations Website. The CFR’s new homepage, updated daily, features clusters of material tied to high profile international issues and analysis of headline news. Includes links to:
- (1) Interviews with experts, foreign policy blogs, “explainers’? reported and written by the editorial staff of cfr.org; and reports from the Council, other institutions, and government agencies;
- (2) News coverage from media sources around the world.
(3) Primary documents: treaties, UN resolutions, speeches, communiques, etc.
Kim Cragin and Scott Gerwehr. Dissuading Terror: Strategic Influence and the Struggle Against Terrorism, Rand Corporation, 2005. In this study, funded by the Department of Defense, the authors discuss theoretical concepts in strategic influence and the potential and limits of strategic influence campaigns. Lessons are drawn from three historical case studies: Germany, post-World War II; Vietnam, 1963-1972; and the 1980s Polish Underground. From these cases — and from examination of Muslim communities and Islamic terrorist groups in Yemen, Germany, and Indonesia — the study provides judgments on how and in what circumstances influence campaigns can be used in the struggle against terrorism. (Courtesy of Linda Johnson)
Robert Dunn. Setting the People Free, (London: Atlantic Books, 2005). Cambridge University professor of political theory and the author of The Coming of Unreason: Making Sense of Politics seeks to explain why democracy “has come quite recently to dominate the world’s political imagination.” His central questions: Why should a single cosmopolitan standard for legitimacy — and the word democracy that expresses it — hold such sway over modern political speech? What is the core of the political form that has come to dominate during the past 75 years. Is this new dominance illusory, a fraud, or an index of confusion? Or does it signify “a huge moral and political advance”?
Victoria de Grazia. Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance Through 20th-Century Europe, (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005). Columbia University history professor de Grazia provides a detailed account of the impact of America’s market empire and way of life on European societies during the last century. Characteristics of this empire include viewing other nations as having limited sovereignty over public space, export of civil society and voluntary associations, the power of norms and best practices, a democratic ethos, and the empire’s “apparent peaceableness.” de Grazia argues it “made soft power seem a distant alternative to hard power, and thereby it largely absoved itself from accusations of committing another kind of violence.” Her narrative raises questions about democracy, the influence of consumer culture, and the implications of a Europe that “needed to be united” to resist.
Susan Epstein and Lisa Mages. Public Diplomacy: A Review of Past Recommendations, Congressional Reference Service, September 2, 2005. CRS researchers Epstein and Mages organize and discuss recommendations in 29 articles and studies identified by the Department of State. The review includes a matrix of key recommendations for public diplomacy reform and for international broadcasting (treated separately).
Richard Florida. The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent, (New York: HarperCollins Books, 2005). George Mason University’s professor of public policy argues the terms of global competition will turn on the movement of human capital — the ability “to mobilize, attract, and retain human creative talent” — rather than natural resources, industrial strength, military dominance, and scientific/technological advancement. Florida contends the U.S. faces threats to its economic hegemony due to increasing ability of other countries to compete for global talent, America’s increasing inability to compete for talent, and U.S. failure to harness the full creative abilities of its own people. (Courtesy of Sherry Mueller)
David Glenn. “Unfinished Wars,“ Columbia Journalism Review, September/October, pp. 56-61. Glenn, a writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, assesses George Packer’s forthcoming book, The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2005). Glenn looks at Packer’s intellectual journey as a liberal who supported military interventions and his book, which “weaves together thickly detailed stories of Americans and Iraqis . . . in the pre- and post-Saddam landscape.”
Jeffrey B. Jones. “Strategic Communication: A Mandate for the United States,” Joint Forces Quarterly, Issue 39, October 2005. Jones, a retired U.S. Army colonel and former Director for Strategic Communications on the National Security Council staff, calls for a national communications strategy linked to regional and transnational issues and a mechanism to coordinate interagency informational elements at the national level. The article examines today’s information environment and offers a definition of strategic communication. (Courtesy of Dan Kuehl)
Robert D. Kaplan. Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground, (Random House, 2005). Kaplan, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly and author of Balkan Ghosts, writes of his conversations with mid-level military officers in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia, Yemen, and the Philippines. Admiring of their linguistic skills and cultural expertise — and their ability to connect with elites and non-elites in dangerous places — his book is a positive account of the role played by soldiers in cross-cultural communication.
Marc Lynch. “Watching al-Jazeera,” Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2005, pp. 36-45. Williams College professor Lynch argues that al-Jazeera’s “incendiary segments tell only half the story.” The Arab satellite TV station’s news and especially its political talk shows are at the forefront of a revolution that is creating a new Arab public and building a pluralist political culture. He contends that actively engaging with al-Jazeera and other Arab satellite networks is a better American response than the U.S. government’s al-Hurra TV network.
Bernard Manin. Deliberation: Why We Should Focus on Debate Rather Than Discussion, Paper delivered at the Program in Ethics and Public Affairs Seminar, Princeton University, October 13, 2005. New York University professor Manin offers a definition of collective deliberation and examines conditions under which it is likely to produce benefits. He urges a shift from a “conversational model” of deliberation to an “oratory model” and the active promotion of adversarial debates on issues of public concern decoupled from (but supplementary to) interactive discourse. (Courtesy of Eric Gregory)
Jonathen Monten. “The Roots of the Bush Doctrine: Power, Nationalism, and Democracy Promotion in U.S. Strategy,” International Security, Spring, 2005, pp. 112-156. Monten, a Ph.D candidate at Georgetown, argues that U.S. democracy promotion is grounded in U.S. nationalism and political identity characterized as liberal exceptionalism. Two approaches — force of example (exemplarism) and active measures taken to spread political values (vindicationism) — have coexisted and occurred at different times throughout American history. Monten argues today’s activist democracy promotion reflects power capabilities and “subtle but significant shifts in the doctrine of liberal exceptionalism.”
Robert A. Pape. “Soft Balancing Against the United States,” International Security, Summer 2005, pp. 7-45. University of Chicago professor Pape argues the most consequential effect of current U.S. national security strategy is “a fundamental transformation in how major states perceive the United States and how they react to future uses of U.S. power.” Major powers are adopting “soft balancing” — strategies that do not directly challenge U.S. military strength, but “use international institutions, economic statecraft, and diplomatic arrangements to delay, frustrate, and undermine U.S. policies.” To counter this, the U.S. should “renounce the systematic use of preventive war,” vigorously participate in multilateral solutions to important national security issues, and engage in meaningful actions in lieu of “cheap talk.”
Amartya Sen. The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture, and Identity, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Grioux, 2005). In this rich collection of essays, Sen (winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, formerly Master of Trinity College, and now Lamont University Professor at Harvard) looks at the argumentative tradition in his country’s history and culture. Sen discusses India’s skepticism, reasoning, philosophies of governance, pluralism, secular politics, inequalities that “mar Indian life,” the nature of Indian identity, uses of dialogue in pursuit of social justice, and a Hinduism that values dissenting views.
Transnational Broadcasting Studies: Satellite Broadcasting in the Arab and Islamic Worlds, TBS Volume 1 (Published by The Adham Center for Television Journalism, The American University in Cairo, and The Middle East Centre, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, 2005). This first print edition of the online e-journal Transnational Broadcasting Studies focuses on “Culture Wars: The Arabic Music Video Controversy.” Among 25 articles on Al Jazeera, Al Hurra, and related topics are:
- — Marc Lynch, “Assessing the Democratizing Power of Arab Satellite TV”
- — Jon Alterman, “The Challenge for Al Jazeera International”
- — Lindsay Wise, “A Second Look at Al Hurra”
- — Hugh Miles, “What the World Thinks of Al Jazeera
- — Michael C. Hudson, “Washington vs. Al Jazeera: Competing Constructions of Middle East Realities”
(Courtesy of Steve Livingston)
U.S. Government Accountability Office. Information on U.S. Agencies’ Efforts to Address Islamic Extremism, GAO-05-852, September 2005. GAO’s study looks at efforts by intelligence agencies, the Defense and State Departments, and USAID to identify, monitor, and counter Islamic extremism through traditional diplomacy, counterterrorism, public diplomacy, and development programs. The study includes sections on the causes and manifestations of extremism with particular reference to support originating in Saudi Arabia. Contains references to USAID’s educational strategies in Muslim countries, the Djerejian report (p. 14) and the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations on public diplomacy.
U.S. Department of State. Internet Access and Training Program (IATP) Evaluation in Eurasia, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, September 2005. This evaluation, conducted by Aquirre International, surveyed 4,324 users of IATP Centers and resources from seven Eurasian countries. The study is based on an online survey, telephone interviews, and 39 focus groups. A summary of the evaluation is available online. (Courtesy of Ted Knicker)
U.S. Department of State. Visiting Fulbright Scholar Program Outcome Assessment, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, October, 2005. This evaluation, conducted by SRI International, is based on a 2003 survey conducted with 1,894 Fulbright alumni from 16 countries. (Courtesy of Ted Knicker)
Quintan Wiktorowicz. Radical Islam Rising: Muslim Extremism in the West, (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2005). Why do ordinary people engage in high cost/high risk activities despite constraints from law enforcement and rejection of violence and fanaticism by large segments of Muslim communities in the West? The author of Global Jihad and editor of Islamic Activism looks at the reasons many educated but alienated Western Muslims join radical Islamic groups. Wiktorowiz’s sociological study draws from a case study of al-Muhajiroun, a London based group that supports violent causes, and interviews with other sources.
Mark A. Wolfgram. Democracy and Propaganda: NATO’s War in Kosovo, Paper delivered at the American Political Science Association’s conference on International Communication and Conflict, August 31, 2005. Oklahoma State University political science professor Wolfgram argues the U.S. and German governments attempted to shape media frames and public perceptions, and thereby justify the Kosovo war, through “the construction of two illusions” — the illusion of multiple sources where planted information in the prestige press circulates and takes on the aura of truth, and the illusion of independent confirmation where planted information is cited as having been “independently confirmed in the free press.” Wolfgram uses newspaper and scholarly articles relating to Operation Horseshoe and events at Racak and Rugovo to make a case that these practices are harmful to democracy.