IPDGC – Page 3 – IPDGC Smart Power

Futbol Diplomacy

April 5, 2019April 5, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC

By Melody Magly, GWU student (B.A Political Communication, SMPA 2020)

Caption: U.S. Soccer star Alex Morgan with young footballers in Tanzania.

As an undergraduate student studying abroad through the GW Madrid program, I was ready for a real culture change — especially in how I absorbed sports.

The soccer (futbol) team Real Madrid was everywhere once I got there: on scarves, on jerseys, on bumper stickers, and on hats. My favorite spot to study was right next to their stadium (Estadio Santiago Bernabeu) in a coffee shop with green bowls. My time studying abroad also happened to coincide with the Copa Libertadores Final game, which took place in Madrid and not El Salvador last year.

According to El Pais, the original November 2018 match of River Plate vs. Boca Junior was rescheduled when the original game in San Salvador broke down in violence. Restaging the match in Madrid cost $726,000 in extra security. There were about 4,000 police officers on patrol at Santiago Bernabeu at the time of the match, but it was expected to bring $42 million in revenue. Though huge sports events like this don’t happen very often, it made me interested in how sports play a role in policy relationships between countries.

I recently spoke to Matt Ferner, a Program Officer in the Sports Diplomacy section of the U.S. State Department, about how programmatic sports exchanges can play a role in international relations. The U.S. Sports Diplomacy office is under the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (exchanges) umbrella, and through its programs, bring foreign sports teams and coaches to the U.S. and sends American athletes and coaches abroad to learn about only sports techniques, and also U.S. culture.

“Sports are an avenue to promote certain life skills or values that we hold and it’s a way to bring in people, including women, girls, people with disabilities, and other people who wouldn’t have such opportunities,” said Ferner.

The Sports Diplomacy section is a small office of about six to seven employees who act as the chief liaisons between foreign diplomats and the U.S. State Department in the planning and execution of all U.S. sports programs abroad. Their work varies from bringing a group of Tanzanian soccer coaches to the United States, to bringing American soccer players to Europe.

“Sports is an avenue that diplomats can use even when the overall relationship with a country isn’t great. It can be used in many more situations,” Ferner said.

Global sports events, like the FIFA Women’s World Cup, are also an incredible opportunity to highlight these relations. Ferner spoke about using the FIFA WWC as an opportunity to expose girls abroad to American women’s soccer superstars like Alex Morgan, while also showcasing how more American girls play soccer at their schools and recreationally.

Ferner highlighted that women coming to the U.S. on sports exchanges also learn more about Title IX, and use that an inspiration to bring empowerment programs like that back to their home countries.

“We think by bringing folks to the U.S, people in other countries will gain a different perspective about Americans. We can break down stereotypes about what the U.S. and Americans are like and help them take greater charge of their own lives, too.”

From high-profile sports events like the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Copa Libertadores to small high school exchanges, sports diplomacy helps participants and countries score many goals.

Closing soon: Opportunity for GW students of Public Diplomacy

March 27, 2019April 5, 2019IPDGC, public diplomacy

Applications close on April 15, 2019

The Walter Roberts Endowment, the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication (IPDGC) is offering a grant of up to $5,000 to a promising student for a project in public diplomacy. The purpose of this grant is to work with an institution (client) on a Public Diplomacy project that would advance the institution’s work.

All projects must be coordinated with a faculty mentor who will provide guidance until its completion. Example of clients to work with include the U.S. State Department, a foreign embassy, a cultural center, or a non-profit on:

· an arts exchange program/event in theater, music, film, or other art forms that culminate in performance or exhibit.

· a public diplomacy campaign in support of a specific issue the organization believes is important.

· a video for use in either traditional or social media that builds public support for a particular public diplomacy program.

· an analysis of the organization’s current use of social media, with recommendations for improvement.

· an analysis of the effectiveness of an exchange or cultural program, with recommendations for improvement.

Eligibility

Applicants must be enrolled as full-time juniors, seniors, or graduate students at the George Washington University. Applications must include the following:

a. A cover letter describing the project

b. A letter of support from a GW faculty mentor

c. A signed endorsement from the collaborating institution

d. A detailed budget describing how funds will be used (eg. travel, materials, payment for services, etc.)

e. An unofficial transcript obtained from Colonial Central

Completed applications should be emailed to ipdgc@gwu.edu by April 15, 2019.

Description of the award

Student awardees will receive a $3,500 grant (and up to $1,500 in operational expenses). $2000 will be paid upon notice of the award; the remaining $1500, along with up to $1500 in reimbursed expenses, will be paid upon receipt of the final report.

Faculty will receive $500 per student supervised upon notice of the award.

Deadline

Applicants will be accepted in the spring semester of each academic year for an award to be completed by December 31.

For 2019, the deadline for applications is April 15, 2019.

Follow Up

Upon completion of the project: Grantees must submit (a) a 600-word blog post to IPDGC’s “Smart Power” blog, and (b) a report, in either written or video form. to their faculty mentor. The faculty member will forward the report to the Advisory Committee of the Walter Roberts Endowment.

What is Islamic Journalism?

March 27, 2019July 9, 2020Asia, Global Communication, IPDGC

Western policy makers and diplomats need to understand more about Islam when engaging with journalists in Muslim Southeast Asia.

IPDGC Director Janet Steele at the Sydney Southeast Asia Center in Sydney, Australia.

Over spring break, IPDGC Director Janet traveled to Australia to give talks at the University of Sydney, Australian National University and Monash University, on the topic of “The journalisms of Islam: contending views in Muslim Southeast Asia”. She was also interviewed by Natalie Pearson at the Sydney Southeast Asia Center while at the University of Sydney.

The interview can be heard here: listen

IPDGC honors Sen. Patrick Leahy for commitment to Public Diplomacy

March 13, 2019July 9, 2020IPDGC, public diplomacy

I couldn’t be more delighted for the opportunity to thank Sen. Leahy for his steadfast support to efforts for telling America’s story to the world.”

– Janet Steele, Director, IPDGC

On March 5, 2019, the Vermont senator was awarded the Walter Roberts Award for Congressional Leadership in Public Diplomacy during a Capitol Hill ceremony.

IPDGC Director Janet Steele noted that because of Sen. Leahy’s unwavering support for public diplomacy, he played a key role in saving funding for educational and cultural exchange programs, especially the English language programs were under threat of being terminated.

Together with the Congressional Leadership Award, the Walter Roberts Endowment gave a grant to the Vermont Council on World Affairs to enhance international youth leadership exchanges.

Read more about the event in GW Today: link here

Listen Up! New PDx interview: Jonathan Hollander

February 14, 2019February 18, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC

Jonathan Hollander, Battery Dance Company

Here’s the latest interview on PDx with Jonathan Hollander, President and Artistic Director of the Battery Dance Company in Manhattan, New York City. A trailblazer in the field of dance beginning with his founding of Battery Dance, Jonathan has also been recognized as a outstanding choreographer, a festival organizer, and all-round supporter of global outreach and promotion of U.S. dance through his work in cultural diplomacy.

Listen to his interview here: PDx Explained

IPDGC hosts careers in Public Diplomacy panel

February 11, 2019July 9, 2020IPDGC, public diplomacy

If you want to get into this opportunity and space, you must bring that passion.

This was the message at the panel talk arranged by the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication (IPDGC) with the Elliott School’s Graduate Student Services (GSS) last Thursday, February 7.

The very experienced panel of public diplomacy practitioners shared personal experiences about opportunities and career paths, and the impact of PD work.

The event was also to announce the new Walter Roberts Public Diplomacy Grant. IPDGC’s director Janet Steele described the grant as a great opportunity for a student to lead a PD project for an organization. More information about the Walter Roberts Public Diplomacy Grant here.

In welcoming the panel, GSS senior career coach Tara Sonenshine spoke about her own experience when she was U.S. Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy at the State Department. Person-to-person communication was so critical to establishing that connection, she shared.

The panel comprised of Susan Crystal, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. State Department; Monica Enqvist, Head of Public Diplomacy and Press, Embassy of Sweden; Holger Mahnicke, Head of Communication, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany; and Roger-Mark deSouza, President and CEO of Sister Cities International.

Susan Crystal talked about how the State Department welcomed everyone who was interested in a U.S Foreign Service career. She explained that with five career tracks, there were options for those with different talents; it was not a “one size fits all” career.

Two senior diplomats from Germany and Sweden both talked with pride about how they helped their respective countries communicate successfully with the rest of the world.

Monica Enqvist from the Embassy of Sweden recounted how every job change for her was a way to learn the different facets of communication and public diplomacy.

Holger Mahnicke talked about his excitement at being in the field and working on solutions to crises during his posting in central Africa.

Just as enthused, Roger-Mark deSouza described how he built on what he learned as a graduate student with three jobs, and then applied this knowledge to his different non-profit roles. He told the audience not to discount their experiences and always work to improve people skills as these would always serve them well. Roger-Mark deSouza

What is Smart Power?

February 4, 2019February 4, 2019Global Communication, IPDGC, public diplomacy, Uncategorized

Writing in the Atlantic Monthly in 1990, Harvard Professor Joseph S. Nye, Jr., stated that “the richest country in the world could afford both better education at home and the international influence that comes from an effective aid and information program abroad. What is needed is increased investment in soft power, the complex machinery of interdependence.” He added in 2003 that neither hard power (coercion and payment) nor soft power (attraction) can produce effective foreign policy — what is needed in the modern world is a strategy the combines the tools of both into smart power.

This blog is an attempt to highlight the most thought-provoking articles, commentary, and graphics related to smart power – the world of public diplomacy and global communication. We welcome your suggestions of links and your own contributions and comments. There are many sites on the world wide web that look at public diplomacy, public affairs, and foreign policy. Our vision is that this site serves as a gathering place that helps inform and educate you about the opportunities and issues every modern nation faces, and how smart power can help them pursue their goals and overcome their challenges.

As Nye wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine in July 2009, “Despite its numerous errors, the United States’ Cold War strategy involved a smart combination of hard and soft power. When the Berlin Wall finally collapsed, it was destroyed not by an artillery barrage, but by hammers and bulldozers wielded by those who had themselves lost faith in communism. In today’s information age, success is the result not merely of whose army wins, but also of whose story wins.”

We hope this blog will help you follow that amazing story.

Meet IPDGC’s current Public Diplomacy Fellow

December 19, 2018January 16, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC, public diplomacyLeave a Comment

Karl Stoltz is the GW Visiting State Department Public Diplomacy Fellow for the 2018 – 2019 academic year. He joined the Foreign Service in 1986 and has served in Washington, D.C., Europe, Africa, East Asia and the Pacific.

Before joining GW’s Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication,Karl served as director of the State Department Office of Citizen Exchanges, located in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs from 2016 to 2018. He led a 50-person team overseeing the State Department’s cultural and artistic, sports, professional fellow and high school youth exchanges worldwide, including major exchanges of young entrepreneurs from Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.

Karl also served in Washington, D.C. as director for public diplomacy in the State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2008 to 2010 and as regional exchanges coordinator in the same region from 1995 to 1997.

Overseas, Karl was deputy chief of mission, the second-ranked position, at two U.S. embassies — in Copenhagen, Denmark from 2013 to 2016 and in Yangon, Myanmar from 2005 to 2008. In the former, he was also responsible for U.S. relations with Greenland and the Faroe Islands, two regions closely linked to global climate change issues today. In the latter, he helped guide the U.S. through a time of severe regime repression and fostered the democratic forces that are playing a greater role in the country today.

Karl served overseas as minister-counselor for public affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa from 2010 – 2013 and the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 2001 to 2005. In South Africa, he helped establish the African Regional Media Hub, engaging journalists across the continent, and several Young African Leaders programs. In Malaysia, he launched six American Corners in provincial centers and a new Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program that has brought hundreds of American college graduates to Malaysian schools to teach students in remote locations.

Karl was also cultural attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia from 1998 to 2001, during that country’s transition to democracy. He was a public affairs officer in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea from 1992 to 1995, where he helped manage U.S. relations with the nations of Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and in Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand from 1987 to 1989, where among other duties he served as the spokesperson for the U.S. Antarctic Program.

His first appointment as a Foreign Service officer was as an assistant press attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia from 1990 to 1992, working primarily with Russian media during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Karl will return to Moscow in summer 2019 to serve as minister-counselor for public affairs, working closely with the U.S. ambassador to Russia to manage media, educational and cultural relations with the government and people of Russia.

Karl has a B.A. in Russian Studies and History from the University of Virginia and has done graduate study at Middlebury University and the National Foreign Affairs Training Center. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Karl worked for Capital-Gazette Newspapers in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

He is married to Tania Garry, originally of Wellington, New Zealand. They have one son, Ryan, who is an undergraduate at Wake Forest University, and a 15-year-old cat who has a Ph.D. in human psychology and a M.Sc. in litter box management.

Listen here for a conversation with the 2018-19 Public Diplomacy Fellow at the Institute for Public Diplomacy and Global Communication: https://go.gwu.edu/5cc

Facebook Meets Global Agitprop

June 22, 2018January 11, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, Disinformation, Global Communication, IPDGC, public diplomacyLeave a Comment

By Rob Cline and Olivia Dupree

Facebook has come under fire by Washington lawmakers and the American public in recent months for their apparent involvement in the 2016 election. It has been discovered that Russian disinformation operations paid for targeted Facebook ads that promoted Donald Trump and sowed divisions in the electorate by touching on cultural wedge issues.

Facebook’s leadership failed to identify and curve these propaganda operations on their site, raising questions about the company’s ability to independently maintain a truthful and fair media platform for Americans to get information.

While this problem seems uniquely American, we need to point out that Facebook is a global website. Nations across the world have experienced Russian disinformation campaigns through Facebook over the past two years. It has been discovered that the Brexit campaign in the UK was plagued by Russian social media influence, as well as the French presidential campaign.

While it’s majorly important that Russian intelligence is interfering in the elections of Western democracies, there are places in the world where groups utilize Facebook for much more dangerous outcomes. In Myanmar, the militant government in power is engaging in ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslims. This brutal violence against the Rohingya has been fueled, in part, by misinformation and anti-Rohingya propaganda spread on Facebook.

In countries like Myanmar, social and governmental instability means that traditional news outlets like newspapers and cable TV have much less sway with the public, something both Patricia Kabra and Louisa Williams spoke to when visiting our class. Without these forms of media, the public forum moves to open social media platforms like Facebook. Facebook has become the primary news source for most citizens of Myanmar.

This sets up a huge problem: Facebook creates a massive, open public sphere and leaves everyone else to deal with the consequences. As the New York Times put it: “Correcting misinformation is a thorny philosophical problem for Facebook, which imagines itself as a neutral platform that avoids making editorial decisions.” Unfortunately, like we saw with fake news in the US presidential election, people seem to have a willingness to accept what they see on Facebook as true. This means the government of Myanmar has been extremely successful in alienating the Rohingya through misinformation campaigns.

For PD practitioners, this represents an information crisis. On one hand, Facebook is an essential tool in the modern age to reaching broad audiences that you would normally not reach with traditional media. On the other hand, Facebook is an untrimmed landscape ripe for misinformation and deceit by those who want to manipulate public opinion.

Battling social media disinformation will likely become a common practice of public diplomats around the globe. US envoys who want to maintain the US’s image abroad will most likely have to deal with Russian backed anti-American propaganda campaigns. Additionally PD practitioners will have to learn how to deal with the social and political upheaval that comes when disinformation campaigns are successful in their host countries.

Resource: Facebook as a Tool of Global Propaganda
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/business/facebook-misinformation-
abroad.html?_r=0&referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author(s). They do not necessarily express the views of either The Institute of Public Diplomacy and Global Communication or The George Washington University.

The Peace Corps and Public Diplomacy Connection

June 19, 2018January 11, 2019Cultural Diplomacy, IPDGC, public diplomacyLeave a Comment

by Samantha Cookinham and Meredith Hessel

Washington Post Contributor Bren Flanigan feels that the importance of the Peace Corps’ role in public diplomacy is forgotten with the budget cuts that President Trump proposed in the spring.*

Flanigan finds he, along with others in the Peace Corps are cultural ambassadors for the country showing interest in other cultures, showing the truth about American culture and showing a memorable impression of America.

While in Benin, he found that food was key to sharing culture. He cooked pizza for his host family and celebrated the Fourth of July with A1 steak sauce and the Whitney Houston version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

These interactions helped with cultural diplomacy by “addressing questions like these gives Peace Corps volunteers the opportunity to shatter the stereotypes about the United States portrayed in television and movies.” Flanigan wants to influence societies not solely through intimidation or economic isolation, but through integrated cultural exchange because this will “endure through political administrations and fluctuating diplomatic relations.”

Our thoughts:
Soft power may be difficult to measure, but it is effective because it is memorable and able to shatter stereotypes about America. These cultural exchanges are necessary to share diplomatic relations through experience and genuine interest in cultures and traditions. People in the Peace Corps are cultural ambassadors.* Flanigan’s reflection that Peace Corps volunteers are “for many communities… the real American ambassadors, the only ones they will ever meet, and the only ones they will remember.” This is similar to how Flanigan was welcomed by his host family in Benin with questions about the 2016 election. Their questions showed that they were looking for a refreshing first-hand account of what Americans think and if they agree with the rhetoric of the
election.

Further, this emphasizes the importance of face-to-face or person-to-person public
diplomacy, as Peace Corps volunteers represent America and are “direct extensions of American values and principles.” In all, Peace Corps volunteers strengthen an understanding of people and cultural values between the U.S. and the country they are volunteering in.

* The Peace Corps “is a service opportunity for motivated changemakers to immerse themselves in a community abroad, working side by side with local leaders to tackle the most pressing challenges of generation[s].” As an independent agency within the executive branch that was established by President John F. Kennedy through an Executive Order in 1961, the Peace Corps’ mission is to promote global world peace and friendship. The President appoints the Peace Corps’ director and deputy director and the appointments must be confirmed by the Senate. As an agency, it has bipartisan support in Congress, as both Democrats and Republicans and even representatives and senators have served as volunteers. The Peace Corps’ budget is 1% of the foreign operations budget and the annual budget is determined each year by the congressional budget and appropriations process.

You can learn more about the Peace Corps’ leadership and initiatives at https://www.peacecorps.gov.

*Bren Flanigan contributed to the Washington Post’s Global Opinions section on August 31, 2017.

(https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/08/31/the-forgotten-role-of-the-peace-corps-in-u-s-foreign-policy/?utm_term=.df698d912f8f) with his insights from serving as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Benin.