Christiane Amanpour. “A Global Perspective,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Summer/Fall, 2004. CNN’s Chief International Correspondent responds to interview questions on the future of democratic growth, the US approach to Iran, satellite networks in the Middle East, anti-Americanism, and the use of military power to promote values.
Kenneth Bacon. “Hiding Death in Darfur: Why the Press Was So Late,” Columbia Journalism Review, September/October, 2004. The President of Refugees International and former Pentagon Spokesman Ken Bacon analyzes Sudan President Omar al Bashir’s media strategy and delays in press coverage of genocide in Dafur.
Benjamin Barber. Fear’s Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy, W.W. Norton, 2003. The author of Jihad and McWorld challenges core assumptions of current strategic doctrine, military force as an instrument of democratization, and policies that confuse the spread of McWorld with the spread of democracy. Barber urges a strategy of “preventive democracy” — an America that promotes “cooperation, multilateralism, international law, and pooled sovereignty.”
John Brown. Changing Minds, Winning Peace: Reconsidering the Djerejian Report. The creator and editor of Public Diplomacy Press Review offers a critique of the report by the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World a year after its release. Brown finds seven serious drawbacks in the report and provides four recommendations to improve America’s cultural and informational programs.
Thomas Carothers. Critical Mission: Essays on Democracy Promotion. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004. A collection of Corothers’ best essays organized around four themes: democracy promotion in US foreign policy, democracy assistance, the state of democracy in the world, and US efforts to promote democracy in the Middle East. The director of Carnegie’s Democracy and Rule of Law project also includes a comprehensive general bibliography on democratization with separate sections on civil military relations, civil society, decentralization, elections, legislatures, media, the Middle East, political parties, rule of law, and trade unions.
Center for Arts and Culture, Cultural Diplomacy: Recommendations and Research, July 2004. The Center’s 32-page report examines general principles of cultural diplomacy and makes recommendations on government policies, the need to increase federal funding and strengthen existing programs, and best practices in cultural diplomacy. The report summarizes five research papers previously published by the Center and contains a timeline of public and cultural diplomacy events.
The Fog of War. Errol Morris’s Academy Award winning documentary film on former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara’s reflections on his life and work is available in DVD. A Teachers Guide with eight lesson plans and links to primary sources are available online.
Google’s Public Diplomacy Images. Google’s image website contains approximately 500 .jpg and .gif images linked to the term public diplomacy. The site includes images of several Public Diplomacy Council members.
Gary Hart. A Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-first Century, Oxford University Press, 2004. The former Senator and co-chair of the Hart-Rudman Commission advances a strategy based on democratic principles to replace containment. Hart contends America’s purposes are best achieved through principles and persuasion — “America’s fourth power” — including representative government, Constitutional liberties, press freedom, new collective security structures, and forms of collaborative sovereignty.
House International Relations Committee. Chairman Hyde addresses specific legislative provisions outlined by the 9-11 Commission. The following relate to the State Department’s conduct of public diplomacy:
— Require State to develop an annual public diplomacy strategy in coordination with appropriate agencies.
— Enhance public diplomacy recruitment and training.
— Require a public diplomacy assignment as a condition for promotion to Senior Foreign Service.
— Provide grants to American-sponsored schools in Arab and other predominantly Muslim countries.
— Include promotion of press freedom and professional journalism in the US public diplomacy strategy.
— Increase exchanges in Muslim countries (sense of Congress).
Chairman Hyde’s proposals are included in H.R. 10, 9/11 Implementations Act, Sections 4021 – 4024.
Thomas Kean and Jamie Gorelick. Testimony Before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations (Rep. Christopher Shays, Chair), August 23, 2004. Two 9/11 Commission members focus on the Commission’s findings relating to public diplomacy as a neglected element of national power and its recommendations on “the struggle of ideas.”
The Shays Subcommittee also heard from Patricia Harrison, Acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs; Kenneth Tomlinson, Chair, Broadcasting Board of Governors; Charlotte Beers, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs; Haves Al-Mirazi, Washington Bureau Chief, Al Jazeera; Tre Evers, member, US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy; R.S. Zaharna, American University; and Jess T. Ford, Director, International Affairs and Trade, US General Accountability Office. Each of their prepared statements is available.
Gilles Kepel. The War for Muslim Minds: Islam and the West, Belknap Press/Harvard University Press, 2004. Kepel examines the impact of global terrorism, the breakdown of Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the “neoconservative revolution in Washington,” military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and radical Islamist doctrines of Bin Laden and Zawahiri. He concludes the most important battle in the war for Muslim minds during the next decade will be fought not in Palestine or Iraq but among second-generation Muslim immigrants in London, Paris, and other European cities who have experienced personal freedom, liberal education, and economic opportunity in democratic societies.
Michael Liedtke. “Google Conforms to Chinese Censorship,” AP, September 25, 2004. AP business writer Liedtke reports that Google’s recently launched Chinese language news service does not display information from websites blocked by Chinese authorities, including such websites as VOANews.com. Google acknowledges and defends its decision. [Courtesy of US Institute of Peace Virtual Diplomacy listserv]
J.D. Lasica. “Transparency Begets Trust in the Ever-Expanding Blogosphere,” USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review, Posted August 12, 2004. The author discusses niche expertise, transparency in motives and process, adjacent posting of corrected information and other reasons why many find Weblogs more credible than traditional media.
Jarol B. Manheim. Biz-War and the Out-of-Power Elite, Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Inc., 2004. George Washington University’s media and strategic communications professor examines the emergence of a new American “Progressive Movement” founded on a network of foundations and advocacy groups. Chapter 9. “From Networks to Netwar” is a useful overview of power in the information age and tactical uses of networking.
{Manheim’s 1994 book, Strategic Public Diplomacy and American Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press) remains useful for teachers, especially its case studies on public diplomacy strategies of other countries.}
Colin Powell. “The Craft of Diplomacy,'” The Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2004, pp. 60-67. The Secretary of State provides a thoughtful assessment of diplomacy as a craft (not a science or an art) based on three core principles: “persuasion in the shadow of power,” coalitions as diplomacy multipliers, and allowing adversaries honorable means of retreat. The Secretary’s article makes no reference to public diplomacy.
Sherri Riccardi. “Missed Signals,” American Journalism Review, August/September. Riccardi examines failures in news gathering, the “administration’s skill at information management, and other reasons for the media’s delay in reporting on the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse story.
The article has a link to AJR’s Abu Ghraib Time Line.
Lori Robertson. “Images of War,” American Journalism Review, August/September 2004. AJR’s managing editor examines news organization standards and issues relating to cultural sensitivities in the use of graphic images.
US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. 2004 Report, September 28, 2004. The Commission’s readable and well-designed 40-page report reinforces broad themes central to its reporting for decades and makes numerous tactical recommendations in areas it defines as “short term communication,” “long term communication,” and “broadcasting.” The Commission does not adequately address strategic issues: whether and how public diplomacy can be effective when global attitudes toward US policies are overwhelmingly negative; leveraging private sector skills and imagination; estimates of funding requirements and program priorities; and achieving strong public diplomacy leadership, direction, tasking, and evaluation.
US General Accountability Office. State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors Expand Post-9/11 Efforts, Testimony Before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, August 23, 2004. GAO’s 16-page statement summarizes its previous studies of State Department public diplomacy and the BBG’s Middle East and Central Asian broadcasting services in the context of the 9/11 Commission’s report. GAO finds “there is no interagency strategy to guide State’s. BBG’s, and other federal agencies communication efforts. The absence of such a strategy complicates the task of conveying consistent messages to overseas audiences.”
{GAO is currently working on a report on developing an interagency strategy for public diplomacy expected in February 2005.}
YaleGlobalOnLine. “Bush Administration Launches Latin Outreach Program,” September 28, 2004. YaleGlobal posts Pablo Bachelet’s 9/28 Miami Herald article on State Department efforts to brief Central American community organizations in the United States on US policies toward their home countries in an effort to address negative views of the United States. YaleGlobal puts the effort in a domestic political campaign context, stating that “In addition to warming the voters to the current presidency, government officials say this project is at heart a ‘public diplomacy strategy to improve the image of the United States.'”
R.S. Zarhana. Testimony Before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, August 23, 2004. American University communications scholar Zarhana argues the US is pursuing an inappropriate, rather than nonexistent, public diplomacy strategy. America needs to switch strategies from fighting an information battle to building communication bridges.
Zogby International. Impressions of America 2004: How Arabs View America; How Arabs Learn About America, July 2004. In this second six nation study, Zogby measures changes in attitudes since a previous study in 2002. Favorable ratings toward the US have declined sharply. Attitudes toward US policy are extremely low. Attitudes toward American “science and technology,” “freedom and democracy” “movies and TV,” “products,” and “education” remain higher.