John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review

www.cgai.ca Kevin O’Shea who recently retired from the Canadian public service after nearly 35 years of service focuses his current advisory work and research on borders, Canada-US relations and public diplomacy [JB emphasis]. His public service career included assignments as an Assistant Secretary, Beyond the Border Implementation Team, in the Privy Council Office, and assignments in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa, the Canadian Embassy in Washington, the Canadian Consulate in New York, the Canadian Mission to the EU in Brussels, the Canadian Mission to the OECD in Paris and the Canadian High Commission in Ghana. He sits on the International Advisory Board of Borders in Globalization, a multi-country research consortium on borders, and has recently become a Canadian Global Affairs Institute Fellow.RECENT PUBLICATIONS BY KEVIN O'SHEARevitalizing Canadian Public Diplomacy Canada's Foreign Policy - A Review: Episode Six - Press Freedom and P..

meridian.org; on Meridian, see Image from, with caption:Amb. Martin Dahinden with his wife Anita at the 2nd American Portrait Gala at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington Date: January 30, 2019 Location: The Residence of the Ambassador of Switzerland, Washington, D.C. Entrée to Dialogue is a series of intimate, curated salon dinners designed to spark dialogue among different perspectives and promote the exchange of ideas over a shared meal. This salon will focus on culinary diplomacy. image (not from entry) from

Joshua Arnold, juicyecumenism.com, January 30 Image (not from entry) Wikipedia Islam has become a common tool of foreign policy, said Peter Mandaville and Shadi Hamid in an event hosted last week by the Brookings Institution. This reality presents new challenges to U.S. foreign policy efforts to promote democracy and religious liberty in areas of world where Islam is the dominant religion. Their full discussion with other panelists can be found here.Mandaville and Hamid recently co-authored a report titled, “Islam as Statecraft: How Governments Use Religion in Foreign Policy.” Back in September, Hamid argued that Western governments need to do a better job understanding Islamic culture in an interview with Providence: A Journal of Christianity and Foreign Policy.At the recent Brookings event, they said that governments in Muslim-majority countries have been forced to engage in religious dialogue as a matter of survival. Religion used to be less important to governments in Islamic count..

fundsforngos.org U.S. Embassy in New Delhi image from Deadline: 31 December 2019The U.S. Embassy New Delhi Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Department of State, is currently inviting applicants for its Public Diplomacy Small Grants Program. PAS India invites proposals for programs that strengthen cultural ties between the U.S. and India through cultural and exchange programming that highlights shared values and promotes bilateral cooperation. All programs must include an American cultural element, or connection with American expert/s, organization/s, or institution/s in a specific field that will promote increased understanding of U.S. policy and perspectives. Examples of PAS Small Grants Program include, but are not limited to:U.S. experts conducting speaking tours/public talks, roundtable discussions, workshops, etc.;Academic and professional lectures and seminars;Cultural and arts programs/workshops/ performances and exhibitions;Development of initiatives aimed at maintainin..

state.gov ***THE DAILY PUBLIC SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE***DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLIC SCHEDULE JANUARY 30, 2019Kennedy center image (not from entry) from, with caption: The 41st annual Kennedy Center Honors will recognize the lifetime achievements of Cher, Reba McEntire, Philip Glass and Wayne Shorter, as well as the co-creators of Hamilton. Excerpt:ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL AFFAIRS MARIE ROYCE11:00 a.m. Assistant Secretary Royce attends a board meeting at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C. (CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

Sarah Wolfson, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Jan 29, 2019Image from article, with caption: Austin Maddox, a M.S. journalism graduate student and a fellow in the USC Center for Public Diplomacy (CPD) attended the first major soft power conference in New Delhi, India. Photo courtesy of: Austin Maddox. “How do students, who are bombarded with information and always on their phones, remain present and mindful?” Austin Maddox asked. The USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD) fellow posed that question to Gopi Kallayil, Google’s chief evangelist of brand marketing at the Conference on Soft Power, a three-day event hosted by the India Foundation in New Delhi, India. Kallayil is known for blending technology with spirituality and mindfulness, including establishing a yoga program for Google employees. “Technology can either be used as a tool for great benefit or it can be a weapon of mass distraction,” Kallayil replied. “The choice is up to us as human beings; we have t..

image from PHILADELPHIA, United States, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese musicians teamed up with their U.S. counterparts on Tuesday at a special New Year concert in Philadelphia, the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, to mark the 40th anniversary of China-U.S. diplomatic relations. About 100 musicians from the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) and The Philadelphia Orchestra performed in the first side-by-side Chinese New Year Concert in Philadelphia. Walter Douglas [JB - see], deputy assistant secretary of state for public affairs and public diplomacy [JB emphasis] in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the U.S. Department of State , said that it is important to have people-to-people ties. The joint concert by the two orchestras is a good sign of people-to-people cooperation, which dates back to 1973, he said at a reception before the concert. To mark the unique event, the two orchestras jointly proposed a distinctive east-meets-west program featuring the world premiere of the new..

South China Morning Post, 29/01/2019 Twitter share buttonuncaptioned image from articlee detail With the US dominating in the soft power stakes, China should focus on young Americans who take a more positive view of the country to improve cultural ties, according to scholars and officials. That was the consensus at a seminar in Beijing last week to mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of relations between China and the United States, where a key discussion was why American culture shown in such products as Hollywood films have been so well received elsewhere. They said the success of these cultural exports had helped the US to spread its values around the world, while China's efforts to use its soft power abroad were often met with scepticism and even resistance. One official said the difference was a failure to "tell the China story well" - something President Xi Jinping has instructed the ruling Communist Party's cadres to do. Since he took office in 2012, Xi has ..

Stephan Haggard, nknews.org From sanctions relief to liaison offices, here's how Washington can keep diplomatic momentum going uncaptioned image from article Excerpt: Thinking outside the box A variety of other ideas have been vetted, but one might address the question of normalization: setting up liaison offices. For a number of reasons, this is pure symbolic politics. Nothing significant is likely to transpire through a small U.S. delegation sitting in Pyongyang beyond some limited intelligence gathering, monitoring the humanitarian situation, and some public diplomacy [JB emphasis]. But measures of this sort could also contribute to the win-win feel of a summit, even if the real action has to take place through a more enduring negotiation channel. ...

Paul Rockower, levantine18.blogspot.com This Quixote has some good news to share on my return to the Good Fight: I have a new position as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Phoenix. I will be in-charge of advocacy, interfaith outreach and community bridge-building. I will be working to fight anti-Semitism, racism and Islamophobia in the fifth-largest city in America. It is a different kind of public diplomacy [JB emphasis], but one that I will enjoy. I'm finally getting off the Road, and headed out shortly to the desert. Time to get back to work fighting windmills!