Category: Bruce Gregory’s Resource List

Sean Aday. The Real War Will Never Get on Television: An Analysis of Casualty Imagery in Television Coverage of the Iraq War. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Montreal, March 17, 2004. A team led by GW Professor and Public Diplomacy Institute board member Sean Aday analyzed 200 hours of television coverage from March 20 – April 9, 2003. The paper concludes the media presented an almost entirely bloodless war to viewers emphasizing “video game” aspects of military technology rather than human aspects of U.S. military power.

Cheryl Benard. Civil Democratic Islam: Partners, Resources, and Strategies. Rand Corporation, 2003. In this 88-page study, Benard examines Islam’s internal and external struggle over values, identity, and place in the world. She distinguishes four groups — fundamentalists, traditionalists, modernists, and secularists — and offers a strategy to encourage change compatible with greater democracy, modernity, and world order.

Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit. Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies, The Penguin Press, 2004, and “Seeds of Revolution,” The New York Review of Books, March 11, 2004. Buruma and Margalit examine the impact of Western ideas in revolts against imperialism and links between religious zealotry and modern ideology. They suggest fault lines in the struggle of ideas do not “coincide with national, ethnic, or religious borders,” but between those in all societies and religions who favor civil liberties and freedom of thought and those who do not.

Anthony H. Cordesman. Hostages, Murders, and Desecrated Corpses: Iraqi Political and Psychological Warfare, Center for Strategic and International Studies, April 11, 2004. In this brief paper (11 pages), Cordesman analyzes how factions in and out of Iraq are using asymmetric armed force, terrorism, psychological warfare, and global media platforms to achieve political goals.

Barry Fulton. Taking the Pulse of American Public Diplomacy in a Post-9/11 World, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Montreal, March 18, 2004. Public Diplomacy Institute Director Barry Fulton summarizes common themes in recent studies of public diplomacy and causes of anti-Americanism. He finds consensus that American public diplomacy lacks strategic direction, adequate resources, and proper coordination. The paper offers seven propositions for transforming the conduct of public diplomacy.

Barry Fulton. “Communications Researchers and Policy-Making,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 48(1), 2004, pp. 151-154. In his review of Sandra Braman, ed., Communication Researchers and Policy-Making (MIT Press Sourcebooks, 2003), Fulton examines essays by academicians and policy analysts linked by Braman’s introduction and transitional chapters. He looks at how the U.S. government’s support for communications research during World War II led to its development as field of study, issues that have kept research and public policy communities apart in the decades since, the “Djerejian report’s” focus on a nexus between research and public policy, and the need to reestablish trust and collaboration between academe and government.

William P. Kiehl. “Speaking Out: The Weakest Link in our Foreign Policy Arsenal,” Foreign Service Journal, April 2004, pp. 15-17. Public Diplomacy Council Executive Director Bill Kiehl analyzes problems that have weakened public diplomacy and calls for “basic reform and restructuring of the public diplomacy function of the State Department.”

Samuel P. Huntington. “Dead Souls: The Denationalization of the American Elite,” The National Interest, Spring, 2004, pp. 5-18. Huntington argues “the central distinction between the public and elites is not isolation versus internationalism but nationalism versus cosmopolitanism.” Elite concerns increasingly include participating in the global economy, supporting trade and migration, building international institutions, promoting American values abroad, and encouraging minority identification and cultures at home. He contends the public overall is concerned with physical security and sustaining “existing patterns of language, culture, association, and national identity.” Excerpt online. Go to Spring 2004 issue.

Samuel P. Huntington. “Letters,” Foreign Policy, May-June, 2004, pp. 4-13 and 84-91. In an extended exchange, Roberto Suro, Fouad Ajami, Minxin Pei, and others challenge Huntington’s “The Hispanic Challenge” (Foreign Policy, March-April, 2004). Huntington replies. The letters are not yet online. His article is posted at the website below.

Dirk Kinnane. “Winning Over the Muslim Mind,” The National Interest, Spring, 2004, pp. 93-99. Kinnane argues U.S. international broadcasting’s Radio Sawa and Al Hurra lack influence and credibility, and the “Djerejian report’s” public diplomacy recommendations are insufficient to address root political problems of powerlessness and humiliation in the Muslim world. The “only really effective approach,” he contends, is to “provide an international platform for those Muslims who seek to reconcile Islam and the modern world.” Kinnane cites the Congress of Cultural Freedom as precedent and makes a case for covert funding as “the cost of doing business.”

Susan Moeller. Media Coverage of Weapons of Mass Destruction, Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM), March 9, 2004 and “Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Failure of the Media,” YaleGlobal, April 14, 2004. In her 101-page CISSM study, Moeller reviews U.S. media coverage of weapons of mass destruction in May 2003 (Iraq), October 2002 (Iraq and North Korea) and May 1998 (South Asia). She asserts that U.S. media (1) accept the political formulation of WMD as a single category of threat, (2) inaccurately associate mass destruction with terrorism, and (3) operate in ways that permit incumbent Presidents to dominate news coverage by setting the terms of public discussion. In her short YaleGlobal article, Moeller contends that U.S. media, caught in patriotic fervor, did not adequately cover the government’s claims before the war in Iraq.

NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. “A New Voice {Al Hurra},” April, 15, 2004. The NewHour’s Terrence Smith looks at the U.S. government’s Arabic language satellite television station. Interviews include Broadcasting Board of Governors members Ken Tomlinson and Norman Pattis, Al Hurra’s Mouafac Harb, and Ambassador Edward Djerejian. Available in text, streaming video, and streaming audio.

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. “The Decline of America’s Soft Power: Why Washington Should Worry,” Foreign Affairs, May/June, 2004, pp. 16-20. Nye applies discusses his soft power concepts in the context of the struggle against Islamist terrorism, increased funds for public diplomacy, greater support from the White House, and development of short, medium, and long term public diplomacy strategies. Excerpt online.

Joseph S. Nye, Jr. “Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics,” Council on Foreign Relations, April 12, 2004. Nye discusses his recent book on Soft Power and related issues with Joseph Lelyveld, former executive editor of The New York Times. Transcript (15 pp.) available online.

Pippa Norris, Montague Kern, and Marion Just, eds. Framing Terrorism: The News Media, the Government, and the Public, Routledge, 2003. This collection of essays looks at theories and cases of media framing. Chapters by Doris Graber, Robin Brown, Brigitte Nacos, and others focus on perceptions of terrorism, how governments and dissident groups seek to manage the media, ways in which journalists construct news, and how citizens respond to news coverage of terrorist events.

Susan Raines. “Evaluating Cross-Cultural Exchanges for Peace Building: How Much Bang for the Buck?” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Montreal, March 17, 2003. Kennesaw State University Professor Raines summarizes attempts to evaluate exchanges and measure benefits to individuals and societies in such programs as Seeds of Peace, Global Children’s Organization, and Search for Common Ground. She pesents tentative findings from current exchange evaluation efforts.

Glenn Reynolds. “The Blogs of War: How the Internet is Reshaping Foreign Policy,” The National Interest, Spring, 2004, pp. 59-64. Reynolds, a University of Tennessee professor of law and Instapundit.com blogger, looks at ways the Internet is undermining the role of news organizations as gatekeepers and the role of free lance writers with laptops in the Iraq War.

Walter R. Roberts and Barry Fulton. “Rebuilding Public Diplomacy,” National Strategy Forum Review, Spring 2004. In this 3-page paper, Roberts and Fulton discuss challenges facing public diplomacy, lessons from history, and offer proposals for change.

Paul Starr. The Creation of the Media: Political Origins of Modern Communications, Basic Books, 2004. This sweeping history by Princeton sociologist Paul Starr shows how political choices have shaped modern communications as much as technology. Starr compares the American experience with sharply different patterns in Europe. In a narrative that ends in 1941, he demonstrates how communications structures in the United States have become a source of economic growth, cultural influence, and military advantage — and how the power of the media has challenged traditional views of the press in a democracy.

Gabriel Weimann. “www.terror.net: How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet,” United States Institute of Peace, Special Report 116, March 2004. USIP Senior Fellow Weimann examines eight ways that terrorists use the Internet “ranging from psychological warfare and propaganda to highly instrumental uses such as fundraising, recruitment, data mining, and coordination of actions.”

Alan Wolf. “Native Son: Samuel Huntington Defends the Homeland,” Foreign Affairs, May/June, 2004, pp. 120-125. In his lengthy review of Huntington’s new book, Who Are We? The Challenge to America’s National Identity, (Simon & Schuster, 2004), Wolf contends that Huntington in his study of the challenges of immigration has abandoned the “clear eyed realism” of earlier writings in favor of “moralistic passion” and a “nativist hysteria.”

Useful Tools and Research Projects

Newseum: Today’s Front Pages. An online version of the Newseum’s daily collection of front pages from more than 250 newspapers around the world. (Courtesy of Steve Chaplin)

John Brown is preparing a bibliographical essay on public diplomacy and an article on public diplomacy as carried out by countries other than the United States. John also puts out a daily public diplomacy press review, which is available on request. He was in the foreign service from 1981 to 2003 and served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev, Belgrade and Moscow. He has given courses on public diplomacy at Georgetown University and is the author of “The Purposes and Cross-Purposes of American Public Diplomacy.” He can be reached at johnhbrown30@hotmail.com.

Pamela Smith has prepared a bibliography on public diplomacy, broadly defined, for her spring 2004 graduate course on public diplomacy at Georgetown University. Her bibliography draws on her own research, her examination of syllabi for courses taught by Public Diplomacy Council members, and other sources. Now on a two-year assignment at Georgetown, she previously served as U.S. Ambassador to Modlva, Minister-Counselor for Public Affairs in London, Press Attache in Jakarta, and Cultural Attache in Belgrade. She can be reached at phs5@georgetown.edu.

Hady Amr. The Need to Communicate: How to Improve U.S. Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World, Analysis Paper #6, The Brookings Institution, January 2004. This 66-page report looks at deficiencies and opportunities in U.S. public diplomacy. Its findings and recommendations track other recent reports on public diplomacy.

John Brown.Is the High Noon Over: Reflections on the Declining Influence of American Popular Culture. Brown, a retired Foreign Service Officer and Public Diplomacy Council member, reflects on the reasons American popular culture is losing its global influence. He is editor of a daily “Public Diplomacy Press Review” available on request at:johnhbrown30@hotmail.com.

Bill Clinton. Closing Address at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum, Doha, Qatar, January 12, 2004. The former President talks about economic, technological, and cultural interdependence and offers observations on mutual understanding, improved capacity for self-criticism, identification of common interests, and ending the habit of demonizing those who are different. (Courtesy of Donna Oglesby)

Stephen P. Cohen. Statement to the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations. February 10, 2004. The President of the Middle East Peace and Development Institute and a member of the “Djerejian Advisory Group” looks at the need for both media and intensive exchange programs with emphasis on young people in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

David Dadge.Casualty of War: The Bush Administration’s Assault on a Free Press, Prometheus Books, 2004. Dadge, editor at The International Press Institute, examines goverrnment-press relations from the perspective of challenges to press freedom. Contains accounts of VOA’s relations with the State Department, VOA’s Wei Jingsheng and Mullah Omar broadcasts, U.S. government relations with Al Jazeera, Hill & Knowlton’s Citizens for a Free Kuwait campaign, and the Defense Department’s short-lived Office of Strategic Influence.

Amy Hawthorne. Middle Eastern Democracy: Is Civil Society the Answer? Democracy and Rule of Law Project, Carnegie Endowment, March 2004. Carnegie Associate Hawthorne calls for clearer understanding of civil society in Arab countries, effective ways to help civil society organizations contribute to democratic change, and awareness of the limits of U.S. influence in seeking to transform the Middle East into a zone of liberal democracies.

House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations. Hearing on Public Diplomacy in the Middle East, February 10, 2004. Online statements by Subcommittee Chair Christopher Shays; Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs Margaret Tutwiler; Broadcasting Board of Governors Chair Kenneth Tomlinson; Harold Pachios, member and former Chair, U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy; Jess T. Ford, Director, International Affairs and Trade, U.S. General Accounting Office; David Morey, President and CEO, DMG, Inc.; Stephen P. Cohen, President, Institute for Middle East Peace and Development; and Stephen C. Johnson, The Heritage Foundation.

A.T.Kearny. a href=”http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2493” rel=”nofollow” class=”external exitstitial”>Foreign Policy Globalization Index.Foreign Policy, March/April, 2004, pp. 54-69. This fourth annual ranking of political, economic, personal, and technological factors in 62 countries finds that as the world economy slowed, Internet growth in poor countries and increased cross-border travel deepened global links. Ireland, Singapore, and Switzerland lead the combined category list. A surge in Internet access in developing countries is narrowing the digital divide. Internet use in the Middle East, the least connected region, grew by 116%. Worldwide, mobile phones per capita moved ahead of telephone lines for the first time. The U.S. ranked first in number of secure servers and Internet hosts per capita. The index finds women tend to be better off in more globally integrated countries.

Chris Mooney. “The Editorial Pages and the Case for War,” Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 2004, pp. 28-34. Mooney looks at how editorial support for Secretary of State Powell’s UN speech on February 5, 2003 in six major U.S. newspapers helped frame the case for war in Iraq: The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal. His analysis examines the strength of the combined power of elite media and the administration’s messages to shape public opinion and whether leading news organizations set the bar too low in reaching judgment on a preemptive war.

David Morey. Statement to the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations. February 10, 2004. Morey, a co-chair of the Council on Foreign Relations Independent Task Force on Public Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy Council member, discusses the Council’s report, “insurgent communications” in today’s communications environment, and ways to leverage private sector support for government public diplomacy.

George Packer, ed.The Fight is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World, HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. Packer, a staff writer for The New Yorker, edits this collection of nine views on America’s democratic ideals and the importance of ideas in the war against terrorism. Includes essays by Paul Berman, Todd Gitlin, Michael Tomasky, William Finnegan, Susie Linfield, Laura Secor, Vijay Seshadri, Kanan Makiya, and Jeff Madrick. (Courtesy of Donna Oglesby)

The Pew Research Center.A Global Gap,February 24, 2004. Pew finds older Americans and West Europeans are more likely to have reservations about globalization, to feel their culture is superior, and to support immigration restrictions. This generation gap is less pronounced in Eastern Europe and virtually non-existent in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Majorities in all regions agree on the importance of children learning English. Majorities in the U.S. and the United Kingdom support children learning languages other than English.

Adam Clayton Powell, III. Statement to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, February 26, 2004. Powell, Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Southern California’s Public Diplomacy Center and Public Diplomacy Council member, discusses independent media, civil society and transparency in emerging democracies.

Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Hearing on Public Diplomacy and International Free Press. February 26, 2004. Online statements by Senators Richard Lugar, Chairman; Joseph Biden, Ranking Member; Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy & Public Affairs Margaret Tutwiler; Gene Mater, The Freedom Forum; Adam Clayton Powell III, Visiting Professor, University of Southern California; and Kurt A. Wimmer, Covington & Burling.

John F. Stack. “Hard Times for Hard News: A Clinical Look at U.S. Foreign Coverage,” World Policy Journal, Winter, 2003/04, pp. 12-21. Stack, a former Time Magazine deputy managing editor and recent biographer of James Reston, examines trends in television, print, and web-based coverage of foreign news.

Philip Taylor. Munitions of the Mind: A History of Propaganda, Third Edition, Manchester University Press, 2004. University of Leeds Professor of Communications Philip Taylor has revised and expanded his well known text on the history of political communication to include a new preface, new chapters on the 1991 Gulf War, information age conflict after the Cold War, and the terrorist attacks of September 11, and bibliographical essay.

Philip Taylor’s Website. Professor Taylor also manages a comprehensive international communications website, a rich source of articles, papers, lectures, slides, and other materials on propaganda, military-media relations, public diplomacy, psychological operations, information warfare and information operations. His frequently updated collection has been reorganized and has a new look.

Daya Thussu and Des Freeman, eds. War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7, Sage Publications, 2003. The editors bring together 19 contributions from scholars and war journalists from three continents offering critical perspectives on the media’s treatment of war. Articles discuss humanitarian interventions, high-tech warfare, Al Jazeera, psychological operations in Afghanistan, the impact of round-the-clock news coverage, the “war on terrorism,” and changing cultures of journalism.

Lester Thurow. Fortune Favors the Bold, HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. MIT economist Lester Thurow’s latest examination of globalization’s challenges includes two discussions relevant to public diplomacy: (1) a brief analysis of a decline in the export of American TV programming and the U.S. as an importer and modifier of culture and a “re-exporter of a new global culture,” and (2) the case for Chief Knowledge Officers (CKOs) in business and government.

U.S. General Accounting Office.U.S. International Broadcasting: Enhanced Measure of Local Media Conditions Would Facilitate Decisions to Terminate Language Services, Report to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, February 2004. GAO’s third report on public diplomacy in the past year looks at the BBG’s criteria for developing broadcast language priorities.

U.S. General Accounting Office. U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors Expand Efforts in the Middle East but Face Significant Challenges, Statement of Jess T. Ford, Director of International Affairs and Trade, U.S. General Accounting Office, February 10, 2004. GAO’s testimony before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations updates findings and recommendations in GAO’s 2003 reports on U.S. public diplomacy and international broadcasting.

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.

Coming Events:

Friday, September 12, 7:00 – 9:00 pm — “Clash of Civilizations or Common Ground: A Town Hall on U.S.-Islamic World Relations.” The George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs, 1957 E Street, NW, Room 213.

Speakers:
Hafez Al-Mirazi, Washington Bureau Chief, Al-Jazeera Television
Husain Haqqani, Visiting Scholar, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Karl Inderfurth, Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Elliott School
William Nash, John Vessey Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Sponsors: The Elliott School of International Affairs, GWU; The Institute for International Mediation and Conflict Resolution; Dialogues: Islamic World~US~The West; and Americans for Informed Democracy.

No RSVP Required

Friday, September 19, 9:30 – 4:00, “The Military and the Media — Ready for Prime Time in the Next Conflict.” National Defense University, Marshall Hall, Fort McNair, Washington, DC.

Visit NDU’s website for information on panelists and topics. Registration fee: $30

Friday, September 19, 6:00 – 7:30 — Voice of America Exhibit Opening at George Washington University. School of Media and Public Affairs, 805 21st Street, NW. (H and 21st St., NW)

Voice of America and the Radio History Society have collaborated to install a VOA exhibit at the entrance to The George Washington University’s Jack Morton Auditorium (home of CNN’s Crossfire).

RSVP by Sept. 17 at use@gwu.edu or by phone at (202) 994-0779.

Public Diplomacy Council members in print and online:

John H. Brown. “The Tangled Tale of 1,000 Iraqi Schools,” The Washington Post, August 31, 2003. John looks at contrasting official announcements on improving Iraq’s schools.

John compiles a daily “Public Diplomacy Press Review” available free of charge via e-mail. He can be reached at johnhbrown30@hotmail.com.

Steven Livingston. “Diplomacy in the New Information Environment,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Summer/Fall 2003, pp 111-116. Steve analyzes challenges to diplomats and policymakers from two principal sources: (1) new information technologies that create a more transparent information environment and (2) political advocacy organizations that use these technologies, often in collaboration with media, to advocate policy positions.

Dell Pendergrast. “Letters to the Editor,” The Atlantic Monthly, September, 2003. Dell’s letter applauds much of Robert Kaplan’s July cover story, “Supremacy by Stealth,” takes issue with Kaplan’s assertion about USIA’s demise, and discusses the value and neglect of public diplomacy.

Available now in print and soon at AtlanticOnline. 

Other materials of interest:

Al Jazeera.net. Al Jazeera’s English language website is now online.

Giovanna Barradori. Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jurgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003). Vassar College philosopher Barradori interviewed Habermas and Derrida in New York shortly after 9/11. These interviews, accompanied by her lucid critical essays, address key questions for public diplomacy. “Is the political and philosophical notion of dialogue, so crucial to every diplomatic strategy, a universal tool of communication? Or is dialogue a culturally specific practice?” “. . . [U]nder what circumstances is dialogue a feasible option?” “What are we to do with the question of tolerance?” “As more avenues of global participation are opening up, why does the threshold of tolerance seem to recede?” “Is the affluent First World honest in presenting and promoting itself as tolerant?”

Manuel Castells. “Manuel Castells to Join USC Annenberg Faculty.” Renowned communications scholar Castells, author of the landmark trilogy The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture, joins USC Annenberg this fall. In an email interview Castells discusses his recent research and looks ahead at information age trends.

Maia Jachimowicz. “Foreign Students and Exchange Visitors,” Migration Policy Institute, September 1, 2003. Describes the foreign student and exchange visitor population in the U.S. and recent policy developments affecting them. (Courtesy of Ellen Frost)

John Maxwell Hamilton and Eric Jenner. “The New Foreign Correspondence,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2003, pp. 131-138. Hamilton and Jenner discuss ways in which the Internet has opened the international news market to a broader, more active audience, how technologies are changing the production and consumption of news, and changes in the traditional model of foreign correspondence. (Courtesy of Dan Kuehl)

Charles Layton. “Miller Brouhaha,” American Journalism Review, August/September 2003. AJR contributing editor Layton takes a long look at New York TImes journalist Judith Miller’s reporting on the search for WMD in Iraq, critical coverage of Miller’s reporting by other journalists and news organizations, Miller’s defense of her reporting, uses of her stories by Bush Administration officials in making the public case for war, Miller’s experiences as an embedded reporter in Iraq, and deficiencies in overall media coverage of the WMD issue.

Mark Lynch. “Taking Arabs Seriously,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2003, pp. 81-94. Williams College professor Mark Lynch argues the Bush Administration’s “tone deaf” approach to the Middle East “reflects a dangerous misreading of Arab public opinion.” Contains thoughtful assessments of the independent media outlets that are transforming the region and and how U.S. public diplomacy should engage the”new Arab public sphere.”

Dana Milbank and Claudia Deans. “Hussein Link to 9/11 Lingers in Many Minds,” The Washington Post, September 6, 2003. Examines U.S. public opinion, the deep distrust of Saddam Hussein, and what some observers see as exploitation by the Bush Administration communicators of an implied a link between Hussein and the events of 9/11.

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Online. “Blair Government’s Row with the BBC,” Terence Smith interviews New York Times London Bureau Chief Warren Hoge, August 28, 2003.

To receive e-mail notices of Terence Smith media pieces scheduled to appear on the NewsHour, send a message to listserv@pbs.org <mailto:listserv@pbs.org> with the following line in the body of the message: subscribe mediawatch-d

Jay Rosen. “Terms of Authority,”Columbia Journalism Review, September/October, 2003. Rosen, chair of the journalism department at NYU and author of What Are Journalists For? examines changes in relationships between publics and the authority of elite journalism resulting from increased global interactivity.

U.S. General Accounting Office, U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Expands Efforts but Faces Significant Challenges, September 2003. Two years in the making, this 74-page report contains findings and recommendations on (1) State’s PD resources and programs, (2) whether State has an overall strategy for its PD programs, (3) how State measures PD effectiveness, and (4) other significant challenges in executing PD programs.

U.S. General Accounting Office. U.S. International Broadcasting: New Strategic Approach Focuses on Reaching Large Audiences but Lacks Measurable Program Objectives, July 2003. This 54-page study examines: (1) the Broadcasting Board of Governors’ marketing strategy and program objectives, (2) recent initiatives (Radio Sawa, Radio Farda, and Afghanistan Radio Network), (3) whether BBG has adequately addressed how many language services it can carry effectively, and (4) levels of overlap and duplication in VOA and surrogate services.

Matt Welch. “Blog World and its Gravity” and “Media Go Blogging,” Columbia Journalism Review, September, 2003. CJR’s cover story assesses the emerging world of weblogs, compares them with traditional “alternative” media, and looks at how some big media, broadcast and print, see openings and opportunities in blogs.

David Zarefsky. Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning. Northwestern University professor Zarefsky offers 24 lectures on “communication that seeks to persuade others through reasoned judgment.” Available for purchase or rent (audio and/or video) from [www.teach12.com The Teaching Company]. Tel: 1-800-832-2412

Public Diplomacy Council Members in Print and on the Web

Wilson Dizard, Jr. “Telling America’s Story,” American Heritage, August/September, 2003. With anecdotes, pictures, and the perspective of 30 years in USIA, Wilson looks at the Agency’s mission and continuing influence.

Wilson Dizard, Jr. “Remembering USIA,” Foreign Service Journal, July/August, 2003. A retrospective on the occasion of the Agency’s 50th anniversary. Available online in pdf format.

Princeton Lyman. Interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, online consulting editor for the Council on Foreign Relations, cfr.org, July 14, 2003. Lyman, the Council’s Ralph Bunche senior fellow for Africa policy studies, discusses President Bush’s July 8-12 trip to Africa, Liberia, and requests from U.N. and African leaders for American peacekeepers.

Sherry Mueller and William Rugh. Panelists at the Heritage Foundation Forum, “Regaining America’s Voice Overseas,” July 10, 2003. Other participants included Seth Cropsey, Edwin J. Feulner Jr., Alan Heil, Mark Helmke, and Steve Johnson. Available on Real Audio/Real Video at the Heritage website.

A print version of Sherry’s remarks on exchanges, the International Visitor program, and the April 16 PD Forum Sustaining Exchanges While Securing Borders is available on request in MS Word.

Other Books, Articles, and Websites

Anne Applebaum. “Parallel Universes,” The Washington Post, July 23, 2003. Looking at coverage of Tony Blair’s speech to Congress, Applebaum argues media in different cultures reflect “alternative versions of reality” not just different opinions on the news — with consequences for how we think about globalized information and “real time” information.

Council on Foreign Relations. “Embedded Journalists in Iraq: Reality TV or Desert Mirage?” July 29, 2003. Moderated by New York Times Pentagon correspondent Thomas Shanker. Panelists: Lt. Col. Richard Long, Coordinator of embedded journalists for the U.S. Marine Corps. William Branigin, Washington Post correspondent, embedded journalist, and John Donvan, ABC News Nightline correspondent, non-embedded journalist.

Robert Dodaro. “Eloquent Lies, Just War and the Politics of Persuasion: Reading Augustine’s City of God in a ‘Postmodern World,'” Augustinian Studies, 25, 1994, pp. 77-138. Dodaro puts Augustine’s critique of deception for political and military ends in the context of his “often missed” critique of Roman religious and social institutions as carriers of ruling class ideology. Contains an analysis of Augustine’s views on Rome’s use of “mass media” in the context of ethical writing on the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Dodaro atypically casts Augustine in politically progressive tones and situates Noam Chomsky in the Augustinian tradition.

Greta Morris. “Morris Confirmed as US Ambassador to Marshalls,” East-West Center, July 2, 2003. Greta moves from PAO Jakarta, where her work included the US/Indonesian Telecast “Common Values, Common Challenges” (co-sponsored by State and GWU’s Public Diplomacy Institute, February 2003) to arranging appointments for journalist Tom Friedman that led to good columns on public diplomacy.

John Gittings.“Beijing is Losing the People’s War in Cyberspace,” YaleGlobal Online, July 21, 2003. Gittings contends an emerging civil society is gaining more freedom and “the sheer volume of people taking to the Web to discuss taboo subjects is overwhelming the government.” YaleGlobal Online, a publication of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, is an excellent website for articles and papers on globalization issues.

Walter Isaacson. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, New York, Simon & Schuster, 2003. Isaacson’s biography follows Edmund S. Morgan’s Benjamin Franklin published in 2002. Both books discuss Franklin’s years as a public diplomat in London and Paris. Isaacson, former Chairman of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine, devotes attention to Franklin’s media relations, use of anonymous press items, association with philosophical and scientific organizations, “gambit of drawing power from American idealism” as a “public diplomacy strategy,” and role in the high culture and high politics of 18th century Europe. Morgan is useful for his chapter length analysis of Franklin’s thinking on “the importance of public opinion.”

Anthony Kuhn. “Chinese Learn True Scope of SARS From the Internet,” USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review, May 28, 2003. How the government-controlled media downplayed the extent of the epidemic and the number of fatalities. (Former VOA staffer Josh Fouts is co-founder and executive editor of the Online Journalism Review.)

Yale Richmond. Cultural Exchange and the Cold War: Raising the Iron Curtain, University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2003. Drawing on scholarly literature, Russian archives, interviews with Americans and Russians, and his years of foundation and Foreign Service experience, Yale provides a comprehensive, thoughtful, and penetrating analysis of the influence of exchanges on the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. (Courtesy of McKinney Russell)

U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The New Diplomacy: Utilizing Innovative Communication Concepts that Recognize Resource Constraints, July, 2003. This 6-page Commission report contains recommendations on American Presence Posts, American Corners, and Virtual Consulates. Online at the Commission’s website.

U.S. Department of State. State’s International Information Programs website has a new look. Intended for overseas audiences, this valuable website continues to be an excellent resource for U.S. students and journalists.

Students also use the periodic “Issue Focus” reports on State’s Foreign Media Reactionpage.

State’s Foreign Press Centers website is useful for its links to: briefing transcripts, Congressional Reference Service and other government reports, a new page on the 2004 elections, and weblinks for journalists,

U.S. Department of State. Outcome Assessment of the Institute for Representative Government (IRG) Program. Evaluation of programs “to enhance understanding of the US political system and the US Congress among foreign parliamentarians and government officials from developing or newly established democracies.” Study conducted by the American Institutes for Research of Washington, DC. Available online in pdf format. (Courtesy of Ted Knicker, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.)

— One page summary

— Executive summary (8 pages)

— Summaries for other program evaluations

R.S. Zaharna. “The Unintended Consequences of Crisis Public Diplomacy: American Public Diplomacy in the Arab World,” Foreign Policy in Focus, Interhemispheric Resource Center, June 2003. Zaharna argues that unless Washington officials address why initial public diplomacy efforts failed after 9/11, the same result may occur in future but with greater consequences.

R.S. Zaharna and Mark Heaphy. “Letters and Comments,” Progressive Response. Exchange on Zaharna’s article. Interesting conversation on cognitive styles, cultural differences, how Americans and others perceive and sequence facts — and grasp “truth.” (Courtesy of Ellen Frost)

— “Letters and Comments” [Scroll down page to “Analytical Shortcomings in Analysis of Public Diplomacy.”]