Laying foundations for wider ICT implementation

~ Matt Armstrong

TnlaptophandsideNews brief from the Times of India on Microsoft’s train-the-trainers program. Details on the $100 laptop referenced in the article, pictured at right, can be found here.

Microsoft’s India division has committed to train 20,000 teachers in India as part of the Partners-In-Learning program. The goal is to educate government teachers on how to use computers and technology so they can teach their students more effectively. Tech-savvy teachers create a learning environment with more possibilities. Everyone talks about the digital divide, and the problem is that not everyone has an equal chance at knowledge. To address this issue from the hardware side, many companies have teamed up to produce an inexpensive laptop that is hand-crank powered so even those in the remotest locations can experience the power of the PC for learning and entertainment. Having the hardware is only part of the solution. Kids can only do so much without a teacher’s help. The hardware and software are just tools. Thanks to Microsoft’s new program, these teachers get an "upgrade" which in turn helps the students upgrade themselves as well.

Public Diplomacy Quote

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 4 Comments

A quote courtesy of someone else: "Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC

Public Diplomacy without awareness of the audience and the hearing the listening will generate is noise. Having the knowledge of how to win friends and influence people (i.e. win hearts and minds) but not acting on it is irrelevant.

Chavez’s public diplomacy: Playing to American Poor

~ Matt Armstrong

First it was Citgo / Chavez offer to subsidize 25 million gallons of heating oil for 100,000 US households, now it is is Castro offering free eye care for US poor. The opportunity for both Chavez and Castro to exploit American (as in US) poor is an opportunity the Administration has not intercepted. Consider the news coverage of the Chavez / Citgo offer and consider the coverage the Castro offer will get. Pay attention to the response, both verbal and policy, by the Administration. What type of rejection will the Bush Administration give? The Chavez offer, followed by the "exposure" by Katrina, and then the Castro offer… how will the Administration counter the image that is being generated? The Chavez story was widely picked up in the US and elsewhere around the world. The Katrina story, without the benefit of a sophisticated Administration response, grew and festered (from the Bush POV) and demonstrated the Administration was out of touch (demonstrated by "Heck of a job" to Cherthoff’s unawares). The Castro story may or may not sprout legs (it just appeared today), but the image in Latin America of the US will not be improved by this mockery. Will Karen Hughes jump to the rescue? Doubtful, she’s still amazed at least one country is larger than hers.

Off Topic: Race across Manhattan

~ Matt Armstrong

Off topic is this link I’ve been sitting on for a while. Not only a MountainRunner, I was also a MountainRider (bartered my 22.9 lb full-suspension cross country mtn bike for massages… a lot of massages) and a RoadRider (and tri-geek). Now the rollers, CompuTrainer, and bikes just rot in the garage begging to be used. Enough of the tears. To share the joy of riding, check out this vid of the NYC Drag Race of Feb 2004 (50mb so it’ll take a few to download, but it’s good, turn up the sound). If you don’t know anything about bikes, some of these guys are on track bikes: no brakes and no freewheel. You pedal and the wheels turn. Stop pedaling and the wheels stop turning.

Your friendly internet police

~ Matt Armstrong ~ 1 Comment

News brief on the Great Firewall of China from RConversation. The internet police Jingjing_1Chachaof Shenzhen now, as they fly on manhole covers, a "face" to go with the name. The Chinese "Big Brother" and "Big Sister" of the Cyberworld would look out of the place in the Matrix, but not in China. Check out the details.

Probably the only interesting perceptual change on information communications technology is that having a "face" makes the threat or intimidation that much more real. Anytime something is branded, you further its recognition. Will they make these characters into avatars for the massive multiplayer games? Will Chinese gold harvesters see one of these soon?

More on expanding the US military’s public diplomacy capabilities

~ Matt Armstrong

News brief: The US military has clearly signed off on communicating their story in the modern media environment. As part of the Transformation of the US military, the United States Joint Forces Command (USJFCOM) has announced JPASE to set "the pace for joint military public affairs".

A still-developing group of joint public affairs professionals have helped to bring a constant flow of timely, accurate information from combatant commanders to news organizations that set up camp wherever American forces operate…

The speed of the Internet, cable news and other media all contribute to rapid shaping of public opinion of military operations. Armed forces public affairs personnel and their communication skills are indispensable to meeting this challenging information environment, according to military leaders.

Preventing misinformation and setting up media access while initial public impressions are forming has been a formidable challenge for the Department of Defense, until now…

In the past, public affairs planning largely involved pulling together individual practitioners from around DoD-an approach that consistently lengthened the spin-up time for a new operation.

The new JPASE concept provides a scalable cadre of experienced senior public affairs officers and non-commissioned officers, who are familiar with the various agencies in a joint operating area and provide media a full perspective of the operation in progress…

Also see Public Diplomacy section.

Technorati Tags: Public Diplomacy, Civil-Military, JPASE

Alexander Strategy Group and Eritrea

~ Matt Armstrong

Interesting (and old) news from PR Watch 8 Nov 04.

From The O’Drwyer Report — Eritrea “signed Alexander Strategy Group, a firm with strong Republican ties, to a contract worth more than $300K a year to improve its ties with the United States.” According to Amnesty International, “torture, arbitrary detention, ‘disappearances’ and ill-treatment of political prisoners” are common in the Horn of Africa nation. Human Rights Watch reports, “The Eritrean government has lobbied the United States to use Eritrea’s Red Sea ports as military bases in the war against terrorism.” The contract “forbids the [Alexander Strategy Group] from discussing its work without the consent of Eritrea.” The Alexander Strategy Group’s other clients include the Nuclear Energy Institute, Blackwater USA and PhRMA.

It seems the lobbying was unsuccessful as the US forces are apparently based further south.

War News Radio

~ Matt Armstrong

News brief for those interested in information communication technology and cultural diplomacy. A recent story on NPR’s Day to Day highlighted a college’s attempt to reachout and communicate directly with Iraqis.

War News Radio uses Skype and Yahoo messenging, and their respective directory systems, to contact English-speaking Iraqis. This type of grassroots outreach demonstrates more than journalism adapting to technology and barriers to interview (another story on NPR’s Morning Edition interviewed a reporter who no longer interviews the "person on the street" due to security problems). Technology may enable the so-called CNN Effect, but it also facilitates this type of peer to peer grassroots communication.

The online awareness and recruiting the led to the "Battle in Seattle", cultural diplomacy outreach could be advantaged by leveraging these technologies at the individual level. The Cold War United States Information Service facilities, vast (and less micromanaged) VOA broadcasts, and other cultural reachouts (thanks to the Honorable Helms) may be past relics, but these technology options may fill an important niche in the modern security-challenged era.

Technorati Tags: ICT, Public Diplomacy, Technology

Mother Jones Interview with Marc Lynch – Voices of the New Arab Public

~ Matt Armstrong

News brief: I had the opportunity to speak at length with Marc recently about the Middle East (and other topics). The recently unmasked blogger, Abu Aardvark, has some very interesting and intriguing thoughts and ideas on the Middle East. A recent Mother Jones interview is available, which is a good read. Also, check out Marc’s blog on the book and the press it has received.

Technorati Tags: Public Diplomacy, Middle East

Islamic Republic News Agency (Iranian official news) reaches out

~ Matt Armstrong

I have a GoogleAlert for “public diplomacy” and it gave me a link the following headline: UK Foreign Office urged to improve public diplomacy. What is interesting about this post is the source is the Islamic Republic News Agency (English version). The IRNA site is offered in nine languages: English, Russian, Chinese, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish, Arabic, and Farsi. The content changes based on the language, presumably to provide targeted information to the national audience of the selected language. The Iranians have the outreach down far better than most government communication services, Western or otherwise. Very impressive and deserving of a deeper discussion on their own efforts at media diplomacy through this site.

Technorati Tags: Public Diplomacy, Iran

CIA Torture Flights… UK Memo

~ Matt Armstrong

News brief from the Scotsman:

Memo points to more ‘rendition’ flights: A leaked memo from the Foreign Office to Downing Street last night revealed uncertainty in Whitehall over the number of so-called
"rendition" flights operated secretly by the US through British
airspace.

The Scotsman.com is a great resource for information. They exploit internet technology the way it should be. Here is a page of dynamic Scotsman.com content on the CIA flights and the RSS feed for same.

China’s Africa expansion

~ Matt Armstrong

News briefs from UPI and People’s Daily Online. First, the raw story, later an analysis.

First, from UPI: China’s Africa expansion
 

Over
the last decade China and the continent of Africa have gradually been
building diplomatic and economic ties in the hopes of further advancing
globalization and enjoying mutually beneficial cooperation. But now
with a mounting global oil crisis and reforms underway at the United
Nations, China has emerged as a growing ally to most of the 57 African
territories, stepping up efforts to expand its ties to the continent,
host of the world’s least-developed countries.

Continue reading “China’s Africa expansion
“ →

Consultants Advisory Group (CAG) as UN PMC?

~ Matt Armstrong

Kathryn Cramer has an interesting post on Consultants Advisory Group (CAG),what it is apparently doing in Haiti under UN contract, its new
Panamanian location (to hide from US? media? Kathryn?), arrests of
somebody with diplomatic immunity, use of TopCat boats, and more. This
almost reads like spy novel. Given how poorly the TopCat and Somalia deal was structured, the use of an Emoryville address, etc. it is hard to not suspect the at times bumbling ways of CAG.

Kathryn’s post…

covers
a lot of ground, ranging from a mysterious company owned by US ex-pats
placing spies disguised as journalists in the audience of Haitian
presidential debates, to CAG arranging for the detention of people who
wrote to me to ask for information about CAG and complain about CAG’s
involvement in human rights violations in Haiti. So bear with me. This
is my second post about CAG, and part of an ongoing series on Top Cat
Marine Security.

Making Our (Retired) Soldiers Pay

~ Matt Armstrong

News brief: In an effort to further break civil-military relations, or at least demonstrated lack of understanding and support of the sacrifices made by our soldiers and their families…

The Pentagon hopes to reap billions of dollars to pay for ships, aircraft and other weapons by doubling or tripling health insurance premiums paid by military retirees and driving 600,000 of those pensioners out of the military medical system, charges a coalition of veterans’ organizations….

Defense Department officials have complained for
years that skyrocketing health care costs, particularly for retirees,
are cutting into money needed to equip today’s troops. The Pentagon’s
medical expenses have doubled in the p ast five years and could reach
$64 billion annually by 2015, according to Pentagon estimates.

From The Virginian-Pilot story notes the appropriate concern for rising health care costs. The "comparisons between civilian and military health premiums ignore the hardships that go with military life" and furthers (demonstrates?) the image that military service is an occupation and not an institution in the mind of many.

Is TopCat really in “mobilization”?

~ Matt Armstrong

From Kathryn Cramer comes a tasty bit of news that the BBC wasn’t actually wrong when it said Top Cat Marine Security was in a “mobilisation phase”. From Ms Kathryn Cramer:

[a] company that builds boats identical to Top Cat’s seems to have set up shop in Panama

Panama is a nice place to hide. A commentator on Kathryn’s site says Casini, if it is Top Cat, can’t hide in Panama because ITAR can still reach Pete, he being a US citizen and all. I don’t think that is why he’s hiding out. The US State Department’s “cease & desist” is still a fuzzy red herring to me until I actually see something. The more I ponder this, the more it seems USG was involved. As I said in the past, somebody should have been fired for selecting Top Cat Marine security as cover. More to come for sure.

Public Diplomacy brought to you by the Department of Defense, not State

~ Matt Armstrong

News brief from Yemen:

US Troops help animals in Yemen. More than 780 animals were treated as part of a free veterinary project by American forces last week, the US military news agency reported. Local veterinarians joined with civil affairs team members from the US Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa to treat herds in the villages of Bani Mamoon, Thula and Hababa. Animals were given vitamins and anti-parasitic medication and were checked for any other problems. While the number of animals treated was lower than in past held by the task force, team members said they felt the mission was succesful, according to the American Forces Press Service. "We made a big difference for probably 700-plus families, each with their own work animal," said Army Major Jim Riche, a veterinarian and civic action team leader. "Each animal was extremely valuable to the owner, so we had a larger effect on the human population owning these animals than we originally expected." In addition to helping the villagers, team members shared and learnt techniques with the local vets they worked with. "They were a lot of fun, even if communication was a little difficult at times," said Riche. "There were a lot of tools we use that they weren’t familiar with, and techniques they use we’ve never seen before, so the experience improved the profession on both sides."

Is the US military really the best tool for public diplomacy? Initial PD makes sense, especially in war ravaged or dangerous regions. But there must be follow through folks.

Technorati Tags: Public Diplomacy, 4GW, Yemen, Horn of Africa

Fourth Generation Category description

~ Matt Armstrong

This is a brief note on what generally will be appearing in this category. There is an ongoing debate right on Fourth Generation Warfare that questions its existence, parameters, and solutions. This is a debate I believe is germain to foreign & security policy (is there really a difference?) and public & cultural diplomacy (again, as substantial a difference as fp and sp). Some have commented on Clausetwitz’s Trinity, including those who claim 4GW’ers misunderstood it, and those that claim that because states do not seem to be central to politics, previous versions of warfare are thus obsolete.

From the planning to the future (hoped for changed) structure of the armed forces (think QDR / Rumsfeld), integration of non-combat resources and military assets as vanguards (Barnett’s SysAdmin), and the role of private military forces in defensive, offensive, and peacekeeping (MOOTW) operations.

Rumsfeld Seeks Cut in Military

~ Matt Armstrong

News brief: Rumsfeld Seeks Cut in Military.

Hampered by an increasingly combative relationship with Congress, the Pentagon is expected to seek savings from its payroll rather than making deep cuts in major weapons programs in its next long-range plan.

The lead of this story immediately distracts the reader from reality. The combative relationship with Congress is not with the military. The public almost entirely reads "Pentagon" and hears "US Armed Forces". This is an example of the civilian leadership (civilian elites in the executive branch) of the military having a combative relationship with the civilian elites in the legislative branch. There are reasons why the uniformed military has its own lobbyists on Capitol Hill to lobby for restoring budgets the Pentagon civilians (and politicized military… three star and above?) have cut.