Category: Public Diplomacy

Transforming U.S. Public Diplomacy

~ Matt Armstrong

From Marwan M. Kraidy: Arab Media and US Policy: A Public Diplomacy Reset

It’s a very interesting read. I’ll post this snippet and comment later (I need to prepare for tomorrow’s workshop session):

In addition to fostering this independent localism in the news media, a series of basic, commonsensical steps should be undertaken by the US government. First, create an empowered and more autonomous public diplomacy organism and give its head an office in the White House as special advisor to the president, which would give him/her more power than currently enjoyed by the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy. Second, increase public diplomacy funding, expand Arab language training, and set up a structure of incentives to learn Arabic; for example, shortening rotations in the Middle East, which are currently among the longest for US diplomats. Third, provide Arab journalists with wider and easier access to US sources; facilitate visa and airport entry procedures, especially
for students and journalists; and make sure US consular staff are adequately trained in human relations.

H/T JF

Countering Ideological Support for Terrorism

~ Matt Armstrong

Briefly, countering ideological support for terrorism (CIST) is a catch-phrase that predates Dr. Michael Doran’s appointment as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Support to Public Diplomacy, as he admits, but he has readily adopted it and is, as far as I can tell, the only person still promoting it "publicly". I put that in quotes because you rarely see his name in print, even if you’re paying attention. However, it’s worthwhile to read what he says, not just because he’s helping to set policy but because he’s got the right ideas.

GovExec.com ran an interview last week with Mike. It’s short and worthwhile read.

The GovExec interview was an overview, but this foreign press briefing with Mike a month ago give the details. Time limits any depth, so here is an excerpt:

…I want to put the focus, actually, on al-Qaida itself. Because I think when you look at it closely, you see that the major reason for the successes against al-Qaida are to be found in the nature of al-Qaida’s ideology itself. The ideology contains the seeds of its own destruction and I think that’s true for four major reasons.

The first is that al-Qaida’s global ideology makes it very unresponsive to the local needs of the population in Iraq and anywhere else where we find people adhering to the ideology. The second reason is that it advocates the killing of fellow Sunni Muslims. And the third reason is that it advocates the killing of innocent civilians of all kinds. And the fourth reason is that the teachings of al-Qaida that justify the indiscriminate killing of innocents flies in the face of about a thousand years of traditional Islamic teaching.

Now this was a foreign press briefing. I’ll highlight some of the questions and then I want you to think whether you could imagine an American journalist asking the same question.

Mounzer Sleiman with Lebanon’s Al-Mustaqbal Al-Arabi. The success that you’re mentioning in Iraq, you associated it with the surge, while there was more — it is about local solution than being associated with military operations. That would lead to the narrative that has been used by the administration about waging this ideological warfare, the long war. And I think it needs to be examined if the solution to this is not military. But it’s based on the local intervention, even with the absence of governments. But this danger, if even when government exists, it’s better to be left to the government to deal with it, to the local to deal with it. How about — do you think it’s serving the purpose of throwing words like Islamo-facism and other terms associating with Islam when dealing with ideological warfare against al-Qaida and other extremists?

and…

Hi, my name is Arshad Mahmud and I represent the daily Prothom Alo of Bangladesh. Your title says that you are the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Support to Public Diplomacy and I expected you to focus more on how public diplomacy can help the problems related to al-Qaida and other extremist groups. And I agree with this gentleman that you attached more importance to the success of the surge in undercutting al-Qaida.

Do you personally feel — and I also see that you are from the academia, you were a professor at Princeton. Do you sincerely believe that the military might can actually defeat these problems? Because worldwide, the American foreign policy is perceived to be lopsided: It helps the people like Israel, the Government of Israel vis-à-vis the Palestinians; and also, it supports the repressive regimes in the Middle East. And that’s how all these al-Qaida and other groups have come up. And if you even — I take for argument’s sake that if you defeat them, there will be another group that will be launched from somewhere else because they are fed up with these kind of policies. And how you do deal with this as a person from public diplomacy? Thank you.

This last question is very good and one that should have been addressed by Karen Hughes and will hopefully be better answered and synchronized with actions under James Glassman.

For Mike’s answers and other questions, read the transcript (PDF).

There’s more to it than security

~ Matt Armstrong

The Los Angeles Times today has a story, new to some old to others, on getting Iraqis to participate in government, as well as giving them something positive to do. The U.S. has created Concerned Local Citizen groups, or CLC, around the country. Going by different names here and there, CLC’s give locals the opportunity to fill gaps in security but more importantly, to become part of the solution. In some areas, they have been instrumental in pushing out al-Qaeda, not because AQ was killing Americans, but because AQ and the Iraqis didn’t get along (which, if you check your program, has been part of our messaging for a while).

The important ‘twist’ to Peter Spiegel’s report is the transition from security to reconstruction.

…U.S. officials have begun a pilot program to develop a civil service corps to employ the men.

"We’ll teach them skills, like repairing pipes, electricity, sewage," [day-to-day commander in Iraq, Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T.] Odierno said. Still, officials aren’t certain such programs can absorb the huge numbers of the concerned local citizens.

The last sentence is important for two reasons. Note the focus on SWET: sewage, water, electricity and trash, the basic services necessary for civil life. The military hard proof that focusing on SWET reduces insurgent attacks.  General Stone has talked (raw transcript here) about the need and pressure for a New Deal-style employment option, which would extend this across the board.

As I wrote before, we must focus on the reconstruction efforts if we are to win the struggle. Those who think surgical kinetic strikes are all that is necessary are smoking something.

JCS Chairman Wants Gitmo Shut Down

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 2 Comments

Very briefly, in another example the military gets that we’re in a war of perceptions and ideas, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wants to close Gitmo. From the Associated Press: 

The chief of the U.S. military said he favors closing the prison here as soon as possible because he believes negative publicity worldwide about treatment of terrorist suspects has been "pretty damaging" to the image of the United States.

"I’d like to see it shut down," Adm. Mike Mullen said Jan. 13 in an interview with three reporters who toured the detention center with him on his first visit since becoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last October….

Asked why he thinks Guantanamo Bay… Mullen said, "More than anything else it’s been the image – how Gitmo has become around the world, in terms of representing the United States."

First State, now the White House?

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 1 Comment

From Opinio Juris: 

The White House is thinking of starting a blog — or at least a blog-like substance. From Dana Perino’s press conference today:

At 6:15 p.m., the President departs the White House on Marine One to head for his trip to the Middle East, the first stop being Jerusalem.
One note. As we leave for the Middle East trip today, we will begin posting periodic updates from the senior staff that’s traveling with the President on a website — on our website, whitehouse.gov. It will be called "Trip Notes from the Middle East." This is new to us. We encourage you to log on and to check back often to read some of the updates that the staff will be posting throughout the trip. So it will be just a little bit of a blog.
Q Blog?
MS. PERINO: A little bit like a blog, yes — dare I say.
Q Bolten? Hadley? You?
MS. PERINO: Probably all of the above. Ed Gillespie is also on the trip. And also Bill McGurn, our speechwriter, he’s on the trip. So they’ll be available at whitehouse.gov, and we hope to do something daily, but we’ll just see how the trip goes.
Q Is it just for the trip?
MS. PERINO: Yes, because it’s a trip to the Middle East. (Laughter.)
Q Trip notes — there could be another trip.
MS. PERINO: Well, we’ll see how it goes, and then we may do it in the future as well.

Will Barney post as well?

Al Qaeda taps cell phone downloads

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 2 Comments

If you think this isn’t a war of information, think again. 

Al Qaeda video messages of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri can now be downloaded to cell phones, the terror network announced as part of its attempts to extend its influence….

In a written message introducing the new cell phone videos, al-Zawahri, al Qaeda’s No. 2 figure, asked followers to spread the terror group’s messages.

Kent’s Imperative: Of PSDs and future assassinations

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 2 Comments

For year-end reading on private security companies, read this smart post by Kent’s Imperative:

It is no surprise that highly visible political targets under significant threat would seek the very best protection money could buy. Thus the news that Benazir Bhutto sought to obtain the services of a Blackwater protective security detail prior to her assassination is not entirely without precedent.

However, we are reminded of Mountainrunner’s admonition that private military companies play into US foreign policy overseas – and in particular, US public diplomacy – in a manner that few analysts or decision-makers take into account. Blackwater is among the most visibly associated with US engagements in the Long War – even though it plays a protective rather than offensive role. In the minds of many in the Gap, Blackwater is just another instrument of the United States itself….

It has long been a maxim that any political target can be taken by a sufficiently motivated suicidal attacker. While modern protective intelligence and operational TTPs have thankfully greatly reduced the margin of success for an attack, the PIRA’s warning to Lady Thatcher after the failed 1984 IED attack still haunts every practitioner: “Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always.”…

Let us be clear, though – such issues need not arise from any impropriety on the part of the private contractor capability, be they intelligence officers or PSD operators. This is an emergent property of the current political and media atmosphere that has not yet reconciled to the business of privatized intelligence or PMCs – largely because of the continued illusion that the state can (or should) somehow magically still provide the range of capabilities demanded in the Long War….

Strategic communications, public affairs, and public diplomacy professionals that will have to deal with the consequences of such an incident in the future had best start preparing contingency planning for this sort of political football. It is only a matter of time – and of adversary kinetic and IO action.

The political football is already out there. The clock is already ticking for the media and the enemy to capitalize on the vulnerability made by private security forces, a similar vulnerability that led to their marginalization almost two hundred years ago. Private resources can be effective extensions, as they were to some in the past, but as the passive additions and extensions of foreign policy as they are today, they will increasingly a liability, as they were to others in the past.

Read the whole thing over at Kent’s Imperative.

Agreed.

~ Matt Armstrong

Yup, I agree with what he said, although that we need to learn the difference between speaking/listening and discourse and understand there are different ways of achieving our ends that actually produce deeper, longer lasting, and better solutions.

On the meat of Triplett’s article, I’ve seen Keith Reinhard’s presentation (which included a video of the Kiwi quoted in the article) and listened to him talk. I agree with Business for Diplomatic Action’s mission, but to focus on better Hollywood produced commercials for a national security imperative like public diplomacy is nationalizing "America, F*** Yeah!", only mellower.

But, let’s start with what Steve said and hope Jim changes the trajectory established by Karen Hughes and backburner’s Reinhard’s suggestion.

WaPo: Warnings Unheeded On Guards In Iraq

~ Matt Armstrong

There’s a decent article by Steve Fainaru in the Washington Post on the troubles of private security in Iraq:

The U.S. government disregarded numerous warnings over the past two years about the risks of using Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms in Iraq, expanding their presence even after a series of shooting incidents showed that the firms were operating with little regulation or oversight, according to government officials, private security firms and documents.

There nothing new in the article I haven’t written about before, but Fainaru’s article has a change in tone and perspective on the issue of privatization we’re likely to see more of. It seems we may be finally getting to the point where people realize private security companies themselves aren’t bad (note the quotes from Chris Beese of AEGIS), but their unchecked and irresponsible use that did more than permit but encouraged operations that violated basic requirements for successful counterinsurgency, perception management, and reconstruction and stabilization operations.

Fundamentally, private security companies are tools of American foreign policy, security policy, and public diplomacy, all deeply intertwined and interdependent practices, and thus must be under more than haphazard oversight by middle managers and few others. The mainstream media must start to investigate and discuss the blind eye of the principal (the U.S.) and spend less time on the "reckless" agent, the companies, who are paid and contracted and explicitly (or at worse implicitly) managed by USG or its own agents. With Fairnaru’s article, we should see the previously academic discussion over problems posed by bypassing Constitutional and Congressional oversight, in terms of both checks and balances and management, move into the mainstream in the new year.

See also:

DoD to host an al-Qaeda Roundtable?

~ Matt Armstrong

The other day Noah posted on an upcoming cyber town meeting with al-Qaeda deputy Ayman al-Zahwahiri. Putting on one of these events can be challenging. Allowing one month for supporters and apostates alike to submit questions and you’d need Allah’s help.

Blogger wrangler Jack Holt, DoD’s Chief of New Media operations, has sense of the challenge. Jack is the mind and force behind DoD’s Blogger’s Roundtable and while he’s not running CNN/YouTube debates, he’s running multiple teleconferences a week, sometimes more than one a day, with participants around the world, including Afghanistan and Iraq. He understands as well as any the hurdles the As-Sahab Foundation for Islamic Media will face, even if As-Sahab is coordinating with Al-Fajr Center, as the announcement tells us.

So Jack told this blogger offline that he’d offer his toll-free number used for the Blogger Roundtables to host a Zahwahiri call in. Maybe this post will be read by #2’s public affairs officer and he’ll have his people talk to Jack’s people (will a DoD shortage of translators be a snag in the negotiations?).

My money is the questions for this cyber town meeting will be vetted better than they were for the CNN/YouTube debates.

On the topic of New Media, I’ll be at the Army War College next month for a workshop appropriately titled "New Media and the Warfighter" (pdf).

P.S. No doubt Walter Pincus would report from that transcript…

I might like you better if we slept together

~ Matt Armstrong

048_eu_filmIs the EU reaching in, out, or around with this montage? From Fortune:

They don’t call it the European Union for nothing

To highlight its role as a patron of the arts, the EU posts a mashup on YouTube featuring two dozen sex scenes from movies it has funded, followed by the line, "Let’s come together."

This government propaganda video, below, is not work safe for sensitive American workplaces. This promotion has some unions you won’t find in the U.S. Department of State’s "Portraits of America".

DHS as Public Diplomat

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 1 Comment

From Jason:

Iceland Have you seen this dangerous woman? She came into JFK airport a week ago, and was shackled, jailed, and questioned for two days based on a past record. A record of menace… she overstayed her US visa more than 10 years ago. Meet… Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl of Iceland.

Lillendahl, 33, had planned to shop and sightsee with friends, but endured instead what she has claimed was the most humiliating experience of her life.

She contended she was interrogated at JFK airport for two days, during which she was not allowed to call relatives. She said she was denied food and drink for part of the time, and was photographed and fingerprinted.

On Monday, Lillendahl claimed, her hands and feet were chained and she was moved to a prison in New Jersey, where she was kept in a cell, interrogated further and denied access to a phone.

She was deported Tuesday, she told reporters and wrote on her Internet blog.

Her story can be found, translated into English, at this blog site. The only thing I can think of is that when she said, "I am from Iceland," that the idiots at JFK thought she said "I am from Islam." The Icelandic government is demanding an apology, and frankly, she deserves one.

Ask Al Qaeda Anything!

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 4 Comments

Zawahiri2006All I can do is smirk at this. Clever. Will it succeed? Better than when we do it. From Noah:

Like me, I’m sure you’re filled with questions for Al Qaeda deputy dog Ayman al-Zahwahiri: Why are you so pissed off?  What’s your next diabolical plot?  Where can a Predator deliver a little present to you right now?  And what’s up with that big ol’ splotch on your forehead?

Well, now here’s your chance to ask ’em all.  The public, "have been asked to send in their questions for the terror network’s second in command, which he will then answer in an online interview next month," Australia’s News.com informs us.

Continue reading “Ask Al Qaeda Anything!
“ →

Newsweek and its Special Guest Commentary

~ Matt Armstrong

Iran’s public diplomacy is kicking it up a notch. News week just published a "Special Guest Commentary" written by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Shane sent an email to a few of us last night looking for comments and included a link to an interesting response from Not a Sheep. I think Not a Sheep’s commentary may be the standard reaction.

twa847hijackerandcaptain I have a few other thoughts on this. This Special Guest Commentary reminds me of another Iranian-linked media event: the hostage situation of TWA Flight 847.

Hizbollah’s hijacking of the flight 14 June 1985 put in motion a series of events you probably remember clearly if you’re old enough. The picture of the terrorist hanging out the window with the pilot as well as the murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethern and the dumping of his body onto the tarmac.

Continue reading “Newsweek and its Special Guest Commentary
“ →

Monitoring what they say (and don’t)

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 1 Comment

Read Abu Muqawama:

Andrew Hammond, who speaks wickedly good Arabic and is a close friend of Abu Muqawama’s violent Pashtun flatmate, has an article up on the Reuters wire on the thaw in relations between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.* This is bad news for consumers of the Arabic-language media, because Qatar-owned al-Jazeera was one of the few places where you could read or see anything critical of the Saudi regime. Rich Saudi princes have bought controlling interests in pretty much every newspaper (al-Hayat, ash-Sharq al-Awsat, an-Nahar, etc.) and television station (al-Arabiyya, LBC, etc.) in the Arab world. So a country that sends hundreds of suicide bombers to Iraq to kill "Shia apostate dogs" (read = innocent civilians), provided 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers and spreads the most extreme interpretation of Islam through the Islamic world never has anything bad written or said about it in the Arabic-language media. Great.
*Abu Muqawama has never actually seen his flatmate do anything violent, but he is Pashtun and asks Abu Muqawama to post entries describing him as "violent" every so often in order to boost his "street cred" with the Islamist militants among whom he spends his days drinking tea.