by Scott W. Ruston The International Communication Association (ICA) holds its annual conference later this week here in Phoenix 24-28 May, and the CSC is sponsoring two events focused on strategic communication.  If you’re interested in strategic communication and in town for ICA, please consider these events. First, the CSC has put together a back-to-back [...]

by Chris Lundry President Obama has now made his second trip in office to the land where he spent four years of his youth, Indonesia, while on a trip to Asia and Australia. Although Obama’s time in Indonesia was brief, he was welcomed relatively warmly by most Indonesians, who appreciate his ties to the most [...]

by Scott Ruston As details pour in regarding this past weekend’s daring raid in which U.S. Navy SEALs  killed elusive al-Qaeda leader and world’s most wanted terrorist Osama Bin Laden, the exact details of the events keep changing slightly. The New York Times titled an article covering a recent revision to the sequence of events [...]

Here is a repost of Public Diplomacy books, articles, and websites compiled periodically and distributed via email list by Bruce Gregory at GWU.  Matt at Mountainrunner used to distribute these for people not on Bruce’s list, but his blog has gone dark/read-only now that he has moved to the Corridors of Power.  Accordingly COMOPS Journal [...]

by Chris Lundry Indonesian police have charged Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Basyir with supporting terrorism for his role in the the Jemaah Islamiyah training camp in Aceh. He has been accused of participating in planning and funding the project and ordering others to commit terrorist acts, and police reported finding progress reports and videos from [...]

Having recently returned from a brief (four-day!) trip to Indonesia and Singapore, I’ve been reminded of the value of simply being in a location with eyes and ears open in order to gain insight into current events. While in Indonesia, some interesting communication- and terrorism-related news emerged. Facebook has been gaining ground in Indonesia, and [...]

Below is a list of the top ten most-viewed posts of 2009 on COMOPS Journal: Why Israel’s Twitter Experiment Flopped (January 12).  Dawn Gilpin analyzes Israel’s use of Twitter during its excursion into Gaza, concluding that it failed because of a lack of understanding of symmetry, culture, and the structure of the different media platforms. [...]

by Steven R. Corman Below is a list of the top ten posts of 2008 on COMOPS Journal, by page views: Minerva on the Cheap? Did the Bad Guys Scuttle Their Own Forums? Obama Garb Photo Hits AQ Boards Candidates’ PD Positions Miss the Point Cracks in The Base Time to Stop Fooling Ourselves About [...]

by Bud Goodall In a New York Times article today entitled “Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics,” evidence gathered by investigative reporters on the scene strongly indicates that the appeal of violent extremism may be waning. Are we at a new “tipping point?” Reasons given in the article for believing we may be at a [...]

How to beat women – Bush Has One Last Chance on Public Diplomacy – Media Hides Islamists’ True Intentions – Ba’shir: Bomb Americans, Not Muslims – Kuwaiti MP Praises Jihad, Advises Bin Laden