News Bits

Dance Diplomacy: Hoofer/hill staffer Paul Emerson inspires a new step: the wonkenfuss--combining fancy footwork both in politics and on the dance floor. This Washington Post article describes Emerson's work directing CityDance Ensemble, a troupe that's traveled as a cultural ambassador in Israel, Palestine and many other countries.

Brother Can You Spare a Dime?: The USA pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo will showcase American culture with support from Wal-Mart, PepsiCo, Microsoft and many other multinational companies, but funding for the project is still lacking.

Too Much of a Good Thing?: Information overload could be undermining U.S. diplomacy efforts. Possible solutions include establishing a Ministry of Culture and encouraging private sector participation. Ultimately, however, "the best public diplomacy for the United States will have less to do with how we craft our own stories from inside the Beltway of Washington and more about how we assist others in shaping theirs."

Embassy Overload

According to a recent Washington Post report, the Kabul embassy is straining at the seams, and new employees keep wedging themselves in like so many frat boys in a phone booth, taxing the embassy's ability to accommodate them and run effectively.

The ongoing demand for more personnel has meant that hiring orders are sometimes approved without designated jobs. In one case the inspectors cited, an agency had requested authorization "to create up to ten full-time positions in Afghanistan but had not yet decided what those positions would do when the employees actually arrived in country."

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that pulling ten embassy newbies into a war zone before you've got work for them to do is a poor use of resources. And how exactly do you fill a job position before it's been defined? Just hire somebody who looks reasonably competent and hope they're adept at writing memos and/or detonating mines, whichever need you decide you need met?

The situation's not much better in Iraq:

In Baghdad, the new embassy compound still crowds 1,100 people into 700 one-bedroom apartments. Christopher R. Hill, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said during a recent visit to Washington that those accommodations are better than the boxlike trailers where most civilian embassy personnel were previously housed.

"But in the long run," Hill said, "we're not going to be able to attract people when they're two to a one-bedroom apartment. . . . It's like college. And, you know, I didn't have that great a time in college."

On behalf of all Americans who didn't have that great a time in college, I hear you, Chris. One of the great joys of graduation is knowing your days of coming home to find a sock on your doorknob are over. It's bad enough you're asking these people to serve in a land with camel spiders; the least you can do is provide personal bedrooms.

The article doesn't spell out exactly where these problems stem from, although I suspect the technical term for it is "putting the cart before the horse." I'm all for expanding personnel where it's most needed, and doing it quickly, but a little logistical planning goes a long way. Our embassies do essential work. Let's give them the structural support they need to get that work done.

PD Framework

March 9's CDP blog contains a thoughtful critique of Judith McHale's new framework for U.S. public diplomacy, calling it unimaginative, narrow and inadequate. Quoting President Obama's famous Cairo speech, in which he said, “It is easier to blame others than to look inward. It is easier to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path,” Philip Seib concludes: "In those words is more common sense about public diplomacy than can be found in the entire 'strategic framework' the State Department has produced. The Secretary of State should tell her department to start over and do better."

It's worth noting that the new framework isn't bad--it's just not very inspiring. Despite a few small cosmetic changes, this new vision isn't particularly visionary. It seems a lot like a spit-polished version of existing practices. But I'd like to reserve judgment until I see what it looks like in practice. It's hard to judge a house by its blueprints, and I'm hoping the realization of U.S. public diplomacy will carry it above and beyond its current foundation.

Freedom's Just Another Word...

I've written before on the advantages of using information and communication technologies to promote public diplomacy objectives. Essentially, I believe that mobile and Internet technology have expanded the options available to public diplomats, and they've opened new channels of communication to non-state actors, giving them more opportunities to influence policy formation and enactment.

In recent months, the topic of Internet freedom has surfaced in the news--from Hillary Clinton's January remarks at the Newseum to a recent New York Times article on Internet impact on closed societies to ongoing coverage of the Italian court case involving Google Video and privacy laws.

In January, Clinton compared Internet-enabled information flows to samizdat--censored publications circulated in the former Soviet Union which were credited with helping to end the Cold War. As an advocate of free speech and unhindered international communication, I support information expansion, but I'd also like to caution against premature celebration of its effects.

That ICT development has opened the door to new methods of diplomacy is indisputable, but the success of such innovations is not a foregone conclusion. Diplomacy works best when it is multi-directional—not simply one hegemonic source swamping foreign nations with a torrential outpouring of its views, but a collaborative process that takes into account the history, culture, needs and objectives of all partners. New technologies, particularly those with networking and interactive elements, are uniquely adapted to facilitate such collaborations.

Multi-directional communication is a laudable goal, and can be used not only to disperse a uniquely domestic message abroad, but to collaborate with foreign nations and their citizens to identify common goals and values from which to build stronger relationships. But it is important to recognize that ICT development has not been universally positive. After all, the same tools that facilitate civil society organization have been used by al Qaeda and other anti-U.S. groups to recruit and distribute misinformation.

As Clinton noted in her speech, free information doesn't necessarily translate into free society. Nor can it be expected to automatically lead to the wide scale embrace of U.S. foreign policy objectives. Supporters of U.S. policy need to be prepared for the reality that supporting the right to free speech means supporting everybody's right to free speech, including--and perhaps especially--the rights of people with opposing views. By exporting online services to Iran, Cuba and Sudan, U.S. companies will be opening doors not only to allies, but to opponents as well. I'm not suggesting that the U.S. halt its outreach efforts; rather, I believe we should proceed, but with full awareness of the potential danger. When it comes to free speech, it is impossible to have one's cake and eat it too.

Cracks in Dubai Brand's Facade -- and Shark Tank

A recent report from Al Jazeera English describes Dubai's attempts to rejuvenate its brand in the wake of negative headlines. Mark Ritson, an Academic and Brand Consultant interviewed for the report, notes that Dubai "stands for modern; it stands for safe; it stands for luxury. Anything it does which is contradictory to that ... runs counter to that perception and therefore does damage to the perception of Dubai." Unfortunate, then, that Dubai's had a rash of bad press lately related to its murky economic prospects and some high-profile tourist destination snafus.

His recommendations for brand refurbishing: monitor brand perception and employ a crisis-management team. It's a short report, but well worth watching, if only to see the blurry havoc wreaked by a leaking shark tank in one of the world's largest shopping centers.

So what steps has the emirate's Brand Dubai office taken to mitigate the damage? Despite the fact that it was established to interact with international media and promote Dubai's image abroad (as reported in the Huffington Post and Arabian Business, among other sources, in June 2009), Brand Dubai declined to comment for the al Jazeera report. But don't imagine that BD is resting on its laurels! Here's a sampling of tweets the office has released over the past week:

• #Dubai Womens College students participate in a recycling campaign http://bit.ly/9XKBBD
• #Dubai Horse Fair to showcase equestrian safety http://bit.ly/9zaOVu
• #Dubai Fashion 2010 has audience mesmerized http://bit.ly/aGgeRD

Brand Dubai's tweets are short, sweet and steady, but the news that female students are recycling is unlikely to wrest the attention of the international press (or their readers) away from the news that Dubai's stock continues to plummet--or even from soft news topics with as much glamour as last week's marine mall mayhem. Rebuilding Dubai's brand is going to require an emphasis on the values on which it was originally founded. Safety, modernity and luxury are a good place to start.

Give U.S. Diplomacy Some Muscle

In 2006, figure-skating champ Michelle Kwan accepted a post as a public diplomat for the United States. Kwan was a natural fit for the post. She is poised, charismatic and (thanks to multiple titles and Olympic medals) recognizable. Her story (second-generation American, determined athlete, world champion) reflects many of the national values the United States likes to promote abroad.

So last night, watching the closing ceremonies, I started to wonder: If I were scanning the ranks of 2010 athletes for future diplomats, who would I recommend? Personally, I think I'd have to go with Shaun White. I've loved this kid since the 2006 games, when his half-time performance saved my friends and me from a serious case of Bode Bummer. He never fails to please. Plus, they call him "the Flying Tomato." There's just something inherently likable about him. Obviously snowboarding finesse isn't going to resonate with all foreign publics, but I think White has a lot of the characteristics a good public diplomat needs: charisma, patriotism, optimism. Plus, he's laid back, good natured and incredibly talented. What's not to love?

I'll open the Comments section to more suggestions. Who's your pick for 2010 Sports Diplomat?