Archive for 'State Dept.'
US PD Advisory Commission is no more
by Steven R. Corman In an apparent budget cutting move, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy was cut from the recently passed budget, and has ceased to exist. The move eliminates an organization over 60 years old. The Commission was established under the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 as the [...]
Posted: December 29th, 2011 under Diplomacy, Government, State Dept..
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Ridiculing AQ’s Irrelevance in the Arab Spring
by Steven R. Corman A few weeks ago I did a keynote speech at a public meeting of the U.S. Advisory Commission in Public Diplomacy. Later in the meeting I heard a presentation by Ambassador Richard LeBaron, Coordinator of the State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC). The topic of his talk tied together [...]
Posted: December 16th, 2011 under Analysis, Counterterrorism, Egypt, Framing, Media, State Dept., Strategic Comm..
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Yes, Extremists are Paying Attention
by Chris Lundry Last year, my colleagues Steven Corman, Jeffrey Halverson and I wrote a series of blog posts exploring Islamist reactions to anti-Islam and anti-Muslim events in the US, including the debate over the Park51 Islamic Center and an American pastor’s proposal to burn a Qur’an on 9/11, among others. One of the points [...]
Posted: September 26th, 2011 under Analysis, Counterterrorism, Government, Image, Intelligence, Islam, Narrative, Religion, Southeast Asia, State Dept., Strategic Comm..
Comments: 2
Democracy, God, the People, and the Pharaoh: A Master Narrative’s Work is Never Done
by Bud Goodall The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia last week beget further democracy uprisings in Egypt and Yemen this week, as well as protests in Jordan and Mauritania. If the protesters are finally successful in Egypt and President Hosni Mubarak is forced out, this eruption of game-changing scenarios inspired by deep conflicts between the people [...]
Posted: January 29th, 2011 under Analysis, Diplomacy, Egypt, Framing, Identification, Islam, Israel, Media, Narrative, Obama, Religion, Sensemaking, State Dept., technology, Uncertainty.
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State’s Digital Outreach Team May Do More Harm Than Good
by Cameron Bean Since November of 2006, the State Department has taken its public diplomacy efforts into the online arena of Arabic, Urdu, and Persian discussion boards. Heading this effort is the Digital Outreach Team (DOT). According to DOT member Muath Alsufy, the initiative began after the realization that “there was a lot of misinformation [...]
Posted: November 11th, 2010 under Media, Sensemaking, State Dept., technology, Terrorism 2.0.
Comments: 3
Foreign Reaction to U.S. Anti-Muslim Events, Part IV: Narrative Coherence
by Steven R. Corman, Jeffry R. Halverson, and Chris Lundry This series has examined the reaction, mostly in mainstream news sources of foreign Muslim societies, to the recent surge in anti-Islam events in the United States. Part I focused on the Park51 (or Cordoba House) project, the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.” In part II we looked at [...]
Posted: September 10th, 2010 under Analysis, Diplomacy, Framing, Government, Image, Islam, Media, Narrative, Obama, Religion, Sensemaking, State Dept., Strategic Comm..
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Hip-Hop Ambassadors Wanted
by Jeffry R. Halverson Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking about the diplomatic potential of Muslim hip-hop when I posted a blog about it for COMOPS Journal back in September of 2009. Recently we heard from Tyson Amir, one of the Muslim artists that I featured in the blog, and he had some interesting [...]
Posted: May 7th, 2010 under Counterterrorism, Diplomacy, Government, Image, Islam, Media, Popular Culture, Religion, State Dept..
Comments: 2
The Narrative Gap in the New PD Strategy
by Steven R. Corman A new “strategic framework” for U.S. Public Diplomacy has at long last been released. Oddly, it is a slide show rather than a paper, but perhaps that’s because it is to be the basis for a briefing today. My colleague Phil Seib has already expressed disappointment in the new proposal: It is [...]
Posted: March 10th, 2010 under Complexity, Diplomacy, Image, Narrative, Sensemaking, State Dept., Strategic Comm..
Comments: 2
How Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp Can Save the World
by Jeff Halverson In the war of ideas for the “hearts and minds” of the Muslim world, cultural diplomacy can go a long way. The US government may not be very popular abroad, but our cultural products certainly are. Many Muslims hate our policies, but they still love our movies, listen to our pop music, [...]
Posted: March 2nd, 2010 under Analysis, Counterterrorism, Diplomacy, Education, Image, Islam, Media, Popular Culture, State Dept., Strategic Comm..
Comments: 2
Odd Definitions and Promising Themes in McHale’s Speech
by Steven R. Corman Yesterday, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale gave her first major speech outlining priorities in her new job. My reaction to her remarks is mixed. On the one hand there were some confusing definitions a key missing element. On the other hand it contained [...]
Posted: June 12th, 2009 under Analysis, Listening, State Dept., Strategic Comm..
Comments: 2