Carnegie Endowment Arabic Language Website. The Carnegie Endowment has launched an Arabic-language web portal “designed to reach new audiences and broaden access to Carnegie’s growing volume of Arabic publications.” It features an Arabic version of Carnegie’s Arab Reform Bulletin. Also included are translations of Carnegie papers and commentaries on the Middle East and related subjects, as well as writings published originally in Arabic.
“Design, Culture, Identity: The Wolfsonian Collection”, The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, Issue 24, Published by The Wolfsonian – Florida International University, 2002. Edited by Joel Hoffman, vice director for education and program development at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, this extensive catalog (283 pages) examines European decorative arts, design, and architecture in the late 20th century as reflected in holdings collected by Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Essays (with numerous color images) explore aspects of design, cultural context, the work of individual artists, and “the meaning of objects as agents and reflections of social, political, and technological change.” Includes essays on Soviet Socialist Realism in the decorative arts, Hungarian design in the early 20th century, the development of “propagandistic images” in Italian material culture during World War I, and assessments of the relationship between art and politics in American art in the 1920s and 1930s. Available through Amazon.com. (Courtesy of Ann Grasso)
Kathy Fitzpatrick and Carolyn Bronstein, Eds. “Ethics in Public Relations: Responsible Advocacy, Sage Publications,” 2006. Essays in Fitzpatrick and Bronstein’s new book address ethical issues in public relations and the importance of ethical guidelines in “professional advocacy” — “individual accountability, informed decision-making, multicultural understanding, relationship building, open communication, dialogue, truth and transparency, and integrity.” Public diplomacy scholars and practitioners will find the following especially useful:
– Kathy Fitzpatrick (DePaul University), “Baselines for Ethical Advocacy in the ‘Marketplace of Ideas”
– Linda Hon (University of Florida), “Negotiating Relationships with Activist Publics”
– Kirk Hallahan (Colorado State University), “Responsible Online Communication”
– Philip Seib (Marquette University), “The Ethics of Public Diplomacy”
– Donald K. Wright (University of South Alabama), “Advocacy Across Borders”
Jami Fullerton and Alice Kendrick. Advertising’s War on Terrorism: The Story of the U.S. State Department’s Shared Values Campaign, Marquette Books, 2006. Fullerton (Oklahoma State University) and Kendrick (Southern Methodist University) have written a case study of the controversial Shared Values television ads developed by Charlotte Beers, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, and the advertising agency McCann-Erickson. The authors base their study on extensive documentary research; interviews with Beers, retired diplomats Chris Ross and Joe Johnson, and others involved with the project; and results of their own research based on showing the ads to Muslim and other international students (they argue the ads could have been successful). They are open to the use of advertising and other marketing tools in public diplomacy and urge more research by scholars and practitioners. The Shared Values ads can be viewed on their website.
Peter W. Galbraith. The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created a War Without End, Simon & Schuster, 2006. The former U.S. ambassador to Croatia and Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff member draws on his knowledge of Iraq, the aspirations of Iraq’s Kurds, Washington politics, and national security process to analyze strategic miscalculations in America’s war and nation-building policies. Galbraith questions the viability of an Iraqi state and makes his case for a three-state solution. Contains references to the Voice of America, CNN, and other media influences.
Philip Fiske de Gouveia. “European Infopolitik: Developing EU Public Diplomacy”, London, The Foreign Policy Centre, November 2005. De Gouveia, director of the Centre’s Public Diplomacy Programme, contends the EU’s needed and unrealized “enormous public diplomacy potential” is rooted in disjointed strategy and implementation. Overcoming political and administrative obstacles to an integrated EU public diplomacy “has much to offer the Union in its approach to a host of issues including relations with the USA and China, accession negotiations with Turkey, and the effective management of migration into the EU.” Contains strategic, policy, and organizational recommendations. Can be downloaded from the Centre’s website as a pdf file.
Peter A Furia and Russell E. Lucas. “Determinants of Arab Public Opinion on Foreign Relations,” International Studies Quarterly, 50, September 2006, 585-605. Furia (Wake Forest University) and Lucas (Florida International University) analyze Zogby polling data from seven Arab states and determinants of Arab public opinion toward 13 non-Arab states. Their quantitative analysis finds “few statistically significant relationships” based on traditional “realist,” “liberal,” “Marxist,” and “cultural” variables in international relations literature. Instead, “Arab publics evaluate non-Arab countries based in large part on their relatively recent foreign policy actions throughout the Middle East.” Furia and Lucas also examine competing identity frames such as “Arab nationalism, country-centered nationalisms, and Islamist identifications.”
S. E. Graham. “The (Real)politiks of Culture: U.S. Cultural Diplomacy in UNESCO, 1946-1954,” Diplomatic History, 30, April, 2006, 231-251. Graham (Australian National University) examines “the politicization of culture,” ” U.S. efforts to generate an anti-Communist consensus” within UNESCO, and the effect of U.S. policies on Western allies during the organization’s early years. She argues that “political pragmatism and the pursuit of cultural prestige” soon overshadowed the global humanism objectives of UNESCO’s cosmopolitan founders – and that U.S. policies and financial dominance were leading factors in the “politicization of culture” within UNESCO as the Cold War emerged.
Nicolas Guilhot. The Democracy Makers: Human Rights and the Politics of Global Order, Columbia University Press, 2005. Guilhot, a research associate at the Centre de Sociologie Europeenne, provides a comprehensive analysis of intellectual, political, and institutional developments in U.S. democratization and human rights policies since the 1950s. He examines the tangled relations of scholars, universities, think tanks, international organizations, and activist NGOs that have collaborated with U.S. agencies to export democracy. His book includes lengthy sections on the Congress for Cultural Freedom, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Ford Foundation, the US Agency for International Development and the Department of State. Guilot raises central questions at the intersections of democratization policies and scholarship, government and civil society, and power and values.
David Halpern. Social Capital, Polity Press, 2005. Halpern, a senior advisor to British PM Tony Blair and Lecturer at the University of Cambridge, provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to “everyday networks,” the social customs and bonds that keep them together and facilitate individual and collective action. Influenced by Harvard’s Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone, 2000), Halpern’s study contains insights into a growing academic literature from a range of disciplines, contributing factors in the construction and decline of social networks, governance and policy implications, and the capacity of social capital to harm and exclude.
“The Islamic Imagery Project: Visual Motifs in Jihadi Internet Propaganda”, Combating Terrorism Center, United States Military Academy. West Point’s Combating Terrorism Center has created an open source catalog of graphics, photographs, and symbols used by jihadist groups on the Internet. Includes analysis of imagery used to characterize enemies, communicate strategy and objectives, and recruit adherents. Available for viewing online or in pdf format. (Courtesy of Tom Bayoumi)
Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track, Oxford University Press, 2006. U.S. public diplomacy no longer lacks attention or advice. Congressional oversight and durable institutional reforms, however, are in short supply. Seasoned Congress watchers Mann (Brookings) and Ornstein (American Enterprise Institute) provide some of the underlying reasons in their sweeping critique of a legislative branch that is “dysfunctional,” “unnecessarily partisan,” and unable “to do meaningful oversight. “The “decline in deliberation” has compromised the system of checks and balances and contributed to “shoddy and questionable” domestic and international policies.
Shushama Rajapakasa and Lauren Dundes. “Can Humanitarianism Instill Good Will? American Tsunami Aid and Sri Lankan Reactions,” International Studies Perspectives, 7, August 2006, 231-238. Rajapakasa (Westat, Inc.) and Dundes (McDaniel College) surveyed 478 English speaking Sri Lankans on attitudes toward the U.S. government, the American people, and U.S. policy initiatives unrelated to Tsunami aid. Acknowledging the survey’s limitations (the small sample was limited to generally well educated Sri Lankans who had not lost friends or family to the Tsunami, convenience sampling, and implementation during the initial euphoria over aid pledged), the authors nevertheless conclude their data suggest humanitarian aid has the potential to increase goodwill toward Americans and may result in broadened support for unrelated policies. Available online from the International Studies Association through Blackwell Publishing.
Sherry Ricchiardi. “The Forgotten War”, American Journalism Review, August/September 2006, 48-55. AJR’s Ricchiardi continues her writing on foreign media coverage with an in-depth look at reasons behind the relative disinterest in reporting the war in Afghanistan. Her article examines contrasting approaches to coverage by American news organizations and calls for a stronger commitment to the story in view of the stakes and potential consequences of underreporting.
Walter R. Roberts. “The Evolution of Diplomacy,” Mediterranean Quarterly, 17, Summer 2006, 55-64. Roberts, a diplomat and scholar who has practiced and thought deeply about diplomacy, examines its evolution during the past 60 years – from what was primarily a government-to-government relationship to today’s broader concept that includes government-to-people diplomacy, or public diplomacy. Contains insights from Roberts’ diplomatic career, his association with Ambassador George Kennan in the former Yugoslavia, and his analysis of public diplomacy in the context of international treaties relating to diplomatic practice. His article is particularly useful for its discussion of the Vienna Convention of 1961 and the less well known 1927 Havana Convention.
Ole Jacob Sending and Iver B. Neuman. “Governance to Governmentality: Analyzing NGOs, States, and Power,” International Studies Quarterly, 50, September 2006, 651-672. In this important article, Sending and Neuman, scholars at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, challenge central claims in global governance literature (e.g., Rosenau, Nye, Sikkink) regarding the devolution of power from states to nonstate actors and consequent transfers of political authority to transnational networks. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, Sending and Neuman argue instead that the role of nonstate actors “is an expression of a changing logic or rationality of government” and that “the self-association and political will formation of the civil society and nonstate actors . . . is a most central feature of how power operates in late modern society.” Their article contains a critical review of the literature on governance and focuses on two case studies: the campaign to ban landmines and transnational advocacy in public health and population policies.