John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review

Galina Sidorova, moderndiplomacy.eu uncaptioned image from article The architect of the ‘soft power’ concept Joseph Nye focuses on ‘the ability to achieve the desired through voluntary cooperation, not by coercion or tricks’. The name of the theory and its interpretation are clearly in conflict because voluntary participation may not involve any force, even if it’s soft. Moreover, the author of the theory believes that the power of modern States consists of three parts: military force, economic power and ‘soft power’. However, the author himself claims it doesn’t seem to be simple to combine hard and soft powers in one strategy. The main idea of the concept of Joseph Nye is that it is ‘soft power’ that helps to achieve great results in world politics. A careful analysis of the techniques of ‘soft power’ used by various States in practice, can prove that it is only a kind of power impact, i.e. ‘hard power’. It’s just an ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’. “Soft power” is neologism in politic..

Andleeb Abbas, fp.brecorder.com image (not from article) from Pakistan is facing an economic crunch. Many analysts used the world ICU to describe the state of economy when the new government took over. A patient in an intensive care unit normally requires emergency life-saving treatment. Sometimes patients have to be put on ventilators to keep on breathing. With daily debt payment piling at the rate of Rs 6 billion a day the economy was strangulated with the dreaded 3 Ds - deficits, debt and defaults. The only way out was more borrowing and the normal borrowing channel is friends of Pakistan and the IMF. The friends of Pakistan included China, Saudi Arabia, the UAE. Then resort to the not-so-friendly IMF. The pattern may look the same for decades but the strategy looks different. There is a clear reluctance to go the IMF way in a hurry. Two countries, who had admittedly cooled off in the last few years towards Pakistan were chosen to seek support - Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These count..

Yaakov Katz, Herb Keinon, The Jerusalem Post, February 26, 2019 A senior Foreign Ministry official told the 'Post' that the Foreign Ministry set up a high-level channel with Twitter authorities in San Francisco to facilitate 'ongoing exchange of... data.' Image from article, with caption: A 3D-printed logo for Twitter is seen in this illustrative picture More than 400 Twitter accounts belonging to at least six different “foreign manipulation networks” trying to skew political opinion in Israel have been suspended since elections were called at the end of December, The Jerusalem Post learned on Monday. A senior Foreign Ministry official told the Post that the ministry set up a high-level channel with Twitter authorities in San Francisco led by Noam Katz, the ministry’s deputy director-general for public diplomacy [JB emphasis]. This channel has led to the suspension of more than 400 different Twitter accounts, the official said, since the April 9 election was announ..

www2.fundsforngos.org Image (not from entry) from, with headline: "New U.S. Embassy in Wassenaar" [...] The U.S. Embassy The Hague Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Department of State is pleased to announce funding is available through the Embassy’s public diplomacy [JB emphasis] grants program. Grants are intended for local representatives of civil society, including non-governmental organizations and universities. They support projects to:Enhance International Security, by funding proposals which: counter violent extremism, strengthen NATO and transatlantic security commitment, encourage participation in UN peacekeeping missions, and promote the rule of law.Strengthen Economic Prosperity, by funding proposals which: encourage trade and investment between the United States and the Netherlands, build support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), and support entrepreneurship and innovation.Promote Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, by funding propo..

www2.fundsforngos.org Image (not from entry) from, under the headline: "US Embassy revokes visas of 71 Students attending UN confab," Aug 14, 2018 [...]Deadline: 29 March 2019The Public Affairs Section (PAS) of the U.S. Embassy in Ghana is seeking proposals for funding for its 2019 Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] Grants programPublic Diplomacy grants should address one (or more) of U.S. Embassy Ghana’s strategic goals, which are:Improve Governance, Strengthen Democratic Institutions, and Promote AccountabilityPromote Opportunity and Development by Investing in PeopleMaintain and Bolster Peace and SecuritySpur Sustained Economic Growth, Trade, and InvestmentActivities that fall under these goals and may qualify for funding include (but are not limited to):Combatting corruption and strengthening accountabilityEncouraging and supporting the media and civil society (including women, rural residents, economically and politically disadvantaged groups, and youth) to better advocate for improv..

sites.tufts.edu The Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University) and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University have held a series of joint conferences on “Grand Challenges in Russia-U.S. Relations” since 2017. In partnership with Carnegie Corporation of New York, the two schools have organized two joint conferences in Medford, Massachusetts and Moscow (November 2017 and May 2018) and a joint student policy workshop in Moscow (March 2018) on a host of contemporary issues in Russia-U.S. relations.The goals of the joint MGIMO-Fletcher conference series are to examine both the depth and scope of disagreements between the United States and Russia, assess the potential for bilateral cooperation in the areas of shared interests, educate future U.S. and Russian decision-makers, and foster mutual understanding between Russian and American scholars and practitioners. The next joint conferences of The Fletcher School and MGIMO University, in partnership ..

communication.gmu.edu/research-and-centers/carp/2019-conference Excerpt: Fairfax, VA – George Mason University’s Character Assassination and Reputation Politics (CARP) Research Lab hosts its second international conference “Character Assassination and Populism: Challenges and Responses” on March 15-17, 2019. One primary characteristic of today’s global society is the growing public distrust in many traditional authorities. In the context of institutional legitimacy crisis, there is a great demand for new voices to trust. These changes provide opportunities for populists and charismatic opinion leaders of all kinds to promote their agendas and influence public opinion. Populist politicians often become primary newsmakers for clickbait content in the media that proliferates personal opinions, falsehoods, and unwarranted ad hominem attacks. Belligerent rhetoric also normalizes the culture of incivility which has negative consequences for civil debate in a well-functioning democracy. The k..

By Matthijs Tieleman, The Washington Post, below the headline, "How 18th-century information wars can solve the problem of 21st-century ‘fake news’ Matthijs Tieleman is a P.h.D candidate in history at UCLA and the Society of the Cincinnati dissertation fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s McNeil Center for Early American Studies. February 24 at 6:00 AM The crucial value of education in the humanities Franklin image (not from article) from the CIA website which notes, "Look Back ... Benjamin Franklin: Founding Father of Covert Action [see item below the posted article] Fake news, active measures, Twitter bots: Not since the 1980s have espionage and disinformation so captivated our collective mind. Many have looked back to the Cold War to understand the implications of these phenomena. After all, Russia, America’s Cold War nemesis, is considered the primary culprit in today’s most controversial disinformation campaigns. Yet our media landscape, the breeding and feeding ground of..

Denis MacEoin, gatestoneinstitute.org image (not from entry) fromExcerpt: Adapting religious beliefs to secularism should not be hard to do; it mainly depends if one wants to. French secularism, like the American separation of church and state, allows religions to act openly in matters of worship and faith. That freedom has been well summed up by the leading French organization for public diplomacy [JB emphasis] , France Diplomatie: "France is an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic, guaranteeing that all citizens regardless of their origin, race or religion are treated as equals before the law and respecting all religious beliefs" states the Constitution of 1958. The "freedom to practice religion" has been recognised since 1905 when the Law on the Separation of the Church and State (la loi sur la séparation de l'Église et de l'État) came into effect. Far from being a weapon against religion, this text returned all religions to the private sector and establish..

Rina Bassist, al-monitor.com Image from article, with caption: French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during the 34th annual dinner of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France at the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, France, Feb. 20, 2019. French President Emmanuel Macron is the direct type. As such, his address at the annual dinner for the French Jewish umbrella organization on Feb. 20 offered a clear and direct vision of his government’s battle against the recent rise in anti-Semitic attacks. But Macron went further, rejecting any attempts to negate Israel’s right to exist. He argued, "Anti-Zionism is one of the modern forms of anti-Semitism. Behind the negation of Israel's existence, what is hiding is the hatred of Jews," His words pleased not only the Jewish French leaders who came to listen to their president, but also Israeli ambassador Aliza Bin Noun, who had been invited for the occasion.Some French politicians went even further. Interviewed on Tuesday, par..