Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communications

Thomas Carothers, ed. Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: In Search of Knowledge, (Washington, DC, Carnegie Endowment, 2006). Carothers, director of Carnegie's Democracy and Rule of Law project, and a group of scholars and practitioners analyze methods and goals of rule of law initiatives in China, Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The authors assess problems in promoting the rule of law and seek to identify what kinds of knowledge lead to successful policies. Includes questions to guide further research and a foreward by Carnegie president Jessica Mathews. Index, Table of Contents, and Chapter 1 are available online. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=17714&prog=zgp&proj=zdrl

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.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=18528&prog=zgp&proj=zted

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/programs/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. http://www.osu-tulsa.okstate.edu/sharedvalues

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. http://fpc.org.uk/publications/euro-infopolitik

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) http://www.ctc.usma.edu/imagery.asp

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. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com

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. http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4162

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.

Jozef Batora. "Public Diplomacy Between Home and Abroad: Norway and Canada," The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, I (2006), pp. 53-80. Batora's excellent article in the Journal's first issue makes three central points: (1) successful public diplomacy presupposes an ability to engage multiple stakeholders in domestic constituencies as well as foreign publics; (2) public diplomacy of small and medium-sized states differs from large states in "core mission, volume and breadth of messages and images, and outset legitimacy;" and (3) public diplomacy is more effective when "embedded within both locally and globally attractive values." Useful for its imaginative approach to public diplomacy concepts as well as its Norway and Canada case studies. Dr. Batora is a research scholar at the Institute for European Integration Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences.
http://www.clingendael.nl/publications/2005/20050300_cli_paper_dip_issue97.pdf

Habib Battah. "SMS: The Next TV Revolution," Transnational Broadcasting Studies, June-December, 2006. The managing editor of The Journal of Middle East Broadcasters looks at the potential of interactive television and SMS (Short Message Service) technology fueled by rapid growth in the mobile industry (more rapid than in Internet infrastructure), the popularity of SMS text messaging with the region's youth, and economic benefits for entrepreneurs in the region's liberalizing telecommunications sector. Battah discusses the influence of Star Academy, Superstar, and other reality TV shows on interactive messaging; the role of text messaging in anti-government protests in Egypt, Kuwait, and Lebanon; and interactive television's potential for challenging authority as revenues for regional broadcasters expand.
http://www.tbsjournal.com/Battah.html

Clifford Bob. The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism, (Cambridge University Press, 2005). Duquesne University political science professor Bob explores reasons some causes succeed and many others do not in competition for NGO support in the "global morality market." Much depends on media and marketing strategies, relative power dynamics between insurgent groups and transnational NGOs, organizational imperatives and strategic expectations of NGOs, and the vagaries of uncertainty and chance. Bob's study challenges much conventional wisdom in thinking about the roles of nonstate actors in global civil society. (Courtesy of Donna Oglesby)

Hosam El Sukkary and Lawrence Pintak. "Interview with Hosam El Sukkary, Head of the BBC Arabic Service," Transnational Broadcasting Studies, June-December, 2006. Sukkary responds to questions about the BBC's plans to resume television broadcasting in Arabic in 2007 as part of an integrated multimedia platform to include radio, TV, and Internet operations with interactive content. How will it compete? How will its content differ? Why should the British public fund it? Will it be public diplomacy? Will it have a political message? Will it be Britain's Alhurra?
http://www.tbsjournal.com/sokkaryinterviewpf.html

Sonya Fatah. "FM Mullahs: In Pakistan's Tribal Frontier, 'Talk Radio' Fuels Sectarian Killings," Columbia Journalism Review, July/August, 2006, 16-17. South Asian based journalist Fatah looks at the rise of illegal radio stations in the context of President Musharraf's decision to withhold licenses from jihadi and pro-Indian groups and the availability of inexpensive, portable broadcasting equipment. Since 2002, when all Pakistan radio was state-owned, the government has licensed more than 50 private radio stations; most are in the Punjab.
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/4/fatah.asp

Nathalie Frensley and Nelson Michaud. "Public Diplomacy and Motivated Reasoning: Framing Effects on Canadian Media Coverage of U.S. Foreign Policy Statements," Foreign Policy Analysis, (International Studies Association) 2, July 2006, 201-221. Frensley (University of Texas, Austin) and Michaud (Ecole nationale d'aministration publique) use statistical modeling and media frame analysis of Presidential speeches to provide empirical evidence for including public diplomacy in "take offs" and "crash landings" in foreign policy process -- a metaphor often used by former USIA Director Edward R. Murrow. The authors show that Canadian prestige press reporters responded to U.S. policy statements as "motivated reasoners" rather than on the basis of "tabula rasa" or Bayesian reasoning. Their empirical data confirm what most practitioners have argued intuitively: "a take off role for public diplomacy is more likely to achieve a more meaningful hearing abroad for U.S. foreign policy positions."

[Note: Murrow famously used the "take offs" and "crash landings" metaphor in a public diplomacy context. The metaphor originated, however, in a 1939 Gridiron speech by former Minnesota governor and Presidential candidate Harold Stassen according to an oral history interview with Stassen in the Truman Presidential Library. Stassen said he used the phrase when encouraging FDR to bring senior Republicans "along on the foreign policy takeoffs as well as on the crash landings." The metaphor was used subsequently by Senator Arthur Vandenberg in urging bipartisan support for the United Nations and other foreign policies in the 1940s and by Murrow in the 1960s. BG]

The Hague Journal of Diplomacy. HJD, launched earlier this year, is an academic journal devoted entirely to diplomacy, which its editors define as "the institutions and processes by which states and others represent themselves and their interests to one another." Articles in the first edition can be downloaded without charge. Several are annotated in this email. HJD is published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. It is co-edited by Jan Melissen, director of the Clingendael Diplomatic Studies Programme, Netherlands Institute of International Relations and Paul Sharp, professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. The editors welcome articles for review from scholars and practitioners.
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/mnp/hjd/2006/00000001/00000001

The Hedgehog Review: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Culture, "After Secularization," (Spring & Summer, 2006). The latest edition of the University of Virginia's Center for Religion and Culture is devoted entirely to 17 articles on the secularization debate and its impact on the social sciences and the place of religion in today's world. Articles of interest to public diplomacy teachers and students include:

Jose Casanova (New School for Social Research), "Rethinking Secularization: A Global Comparative Perspective" 7-22.

Talal Asad (City University of New York Graduate Center), "French Secularism and the 'Islamic Veil Affair,'" 93-106.

Thomas Albert Howard, (Gordon College), "American Religion and European Anti-Americanism," 116-126.

Olivier Roy (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Institut d'Etudes Politiques), "Islam in the West or Western Islam? The Disconnect of Religion and Culture," 127-132.

Charles T. Mathews (University of Virginia) and Peter Berger (Boston University), "An Interview with Peter Berger," 152-161.

Kevin M. Schultz (University of Virginia), "Secularization: A Bibliographic Essay," 170-177.

Alan L. Heil, Jr. "America's Vanishing Voice," Transnational Broadcasting Studies, June-December, 2006. The Voice of America's former Deputy Director and author of Voice of America: A History (Columbia University Press, 2003) argues that VOA is on the verge of disappearing as a global network. Heil takes issue with priorities in U.S. international broadcasting's budget request for 2007, the Broadcasting Board of Governor's abolition of most VOA broadcasts in English, disproportionate spending on Radio Sawa and Alhurra TV (U.S. funded Arabic language services) "despite growing doubts about their overall impact," and reductions in shortwave and other VOA language services.
http://www.tbsjournal.com/Heil.html

Alan K. Henrikson. "Diplomacy's Possible Futures," The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, I (2006), 3-27. The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy's Henrikson discusses five possible models for diplomacy: (1) "disintermediation" in which diplomats adopt business methods and the Internet to compete with a dynamic private sector; (2) "Europeanization," subordination of bilateral diplomacy within a regional framework, leaving space for public diplomacy functions; (3) "democratization" which expands diplomatic roles for civil society institutions and states previously excluded from decision-making in multilateral organizations; (4) "thematization" requiring more flexible diplomacy in dealing with terrorism, disease, and other threats; and (5) "Americanization" where diplomacy is "conducted along the lines of US domestic politics, with lobbying and advocacy becoming major activities."

Brian Hocking and Donna Lee. "The Diplomacy of Proximity and Specialness: Enhancing Canada's Representation in the United States," The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, I (2006), 29-52. Hocking (University of Loughborough) and Lee (University of Birmingham) examine conceptual, structural, and process changes in diplomatic representation driven by changes in international and domestic political environments. The authors focus on spatial and issue-related aspects of proximity; characteristics of "special relationships;" the increasing importance of diplomatic missions as nodes in knowledge networks; and diplomacy as a "consumer good" in the context of mass tourism, crisis management, and the increased importance of consular services. Includes a case study of the Canadian-U.S. relationship and Canada's Enhanced Representation Initiative -- a "whole of government approach" involving 14 government departments "in the delivery and management of Canadian diplomacy across North America."

NAFSA: Association of International Educators. "Restoring U.S. Competitiveness for International Students and Scholars," June 19, 2006. NAFSA finds the absence of a national strategy has diminished U.S. capacity to attract students and scholars with adverse consequence for U.S. security, economic, and leadership interests. The report updates and expands earlier NAFSA recommendations with emphasis on greater U.S. government coordination (Departments of Homeland Security, State, Commerce, and Education) and reforms in excessive barriers in the U.S. immigration system.
http://www.nafsa.org/press_releases.sec/press_releases.pg/restoring_u.s._competitiveness_2

Joseph S. Nye., Jr. "Transformational Leadership and U.S. Grand Strategy," Foreign Affairs, July/August, 2006, 139-148. Nye compares the Bush Administration's transformational grand strategy with those of twentieth century presidents and offers a critique of Bush's leadership style and policy choices. Nye's analysis includes an assessment of soft and hard power capabilities. He concludes that Bush's legacy and a successful transformation depend on the "still uncertain outcome of the preventive war in Iraq" in which "the odds are against him and he is running out of time."
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060701faessay85411/joseph-s-nye-jr/transformational-leadership-and-u-s-grand-strategy.html

Orphan Pamuk. Snow, (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004; Vintage International paperback edition, 2005). Pamuk's political novel about an exiled poet who returns to Turkey to find love and report for a German newspaper on suicides by Islamic girls forbidden to wear head scarfs has been widely acclaimed as a compelling narrative of secularism, religious fanaticism, modern Turkey, and East-West relations. Useful also for its handling of television and other media influences on the political agendas of its protagonists.

Robert Satloff, Eunice Youmans, and Mark Nakhla. Assessing What Arabs Do, Not What They Say: A New Approach to Understanding Arab Anti-Americanism, The Washington Institute, Policy Focus #57, July 19, 2006. This report on the Institute's Keston Project on the Battle of Ideas in the Middle East is based on inventories of media-reported anti-American demonstrations in Arab countries between 2000 and 2005. The authors argue that "regional animosity toward the United States and its policies is episodic and event-driven, with little evidence of a continually rising tide of popular hatred." Questioning excessive reliance on opinion surveys, they urge policymakers "to pay at least as much attention to Arab behavior as they do to potentially distorted and easily manipulated perceptions of Arab public opinion."
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC04.php?CID=244

Chris Sullentrop, "Playing With Our Minds," The Wilson Quarterly, Summer 2006, 14-21. The author of The Opinionator, an online column for The New York Times, examines the growing cultural impact of video games and concludes they are powerful teaching tools with positive and negative characteristics. Sullentrop looks at the uses of games for recruiting, training, sports, education, and promoting values agendas. Contains numerous examples and references to theoretical literature.

Sydney Tarrow. The New Transnational Activism, (Cambridge University Press, 2005). Hailed as a major contribution to the literature on transnational movements, Cornell University's professor of government and sociology addresses three central questions: (1) how does growing transnational activism change actors and their connections, claims,and political strategies; (2) are links between nonstate actors, their states, and international politics creating a new political arena that "fuses domestic and international contention; and (3) how does this affect "inherited understanding of the autonomy of national politics from international politics?" Tarrow argues that while globalization provides incentives and themes for transnational activism, it is internationalism that offers a framework, focal points, and structured opportunities for activists many of whom are "rooted cosmopolitans." A rich mixture of history, case studies, and analytical depth. (Courtesy of Donna Oglesby)

Gabriel Weimann. "Deadly Conversations," YaleGlobal Online, July 13, 2006. Weimann, professor of communication at Haifa University and author of Terror on the Internet (2006), argues that the Internet provides terrorists with a forum for debating ideas and strategy. Attention to online controversies and conflicting perspectives between Al Qaeda and other factions, he suggests, reveals insights into mindsets and offers practical ways to support voices that oppose terrorism and "channel the discourse to non-violent forms of action." http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=7799

Websites

Public Diplomacy Instiute (George Washington University)

Bruce_Gregory's Reading List

See also:

Recommended Websites on Cyberterrorism and Information Warfare

Recommended Websites on Terrorism and Counterterrorism

to the Teaching Terror home page

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