In Re Duchy of Sealand

The question of Statehood and the Independent Republic of Sealand. This is great!

Secretary Clinton’s Travel to Africa

At today's press breifing by Spokesman Ian Kelly,

"Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin a seven-nation trip to Africa on August 5 at the 8th U.S. – Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum (known as the AGOA Forum) in Nairobi, Kenya.

This trip will highlight the Obama administration’s commitment to making Africa a priority in U.S. foreign policy. This will be the earliest in any U.S. administration that both the President and the Secretary of State have visited Africa.

The Secretary will travel to South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, and Cape Verde. In each nation, she will emphasize Africa as a place of opportunity, built on an ethic of responsibility. She will underline America’s commitment to partner with governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and private citizens to build societies where each individual can realize their potential.

In her bilateral meetings and other events, she will encourage new solutions to old challenges, harnessing the power of innovation and technology to provide a foundation for future stability, human development, and sustainable economic growth. She will stress the importance of facilitating social and economic entrepreneurship, encouraging a new generation of young African scientists, small business leaders, entrepreneurs and civic leaders who are solving real problems and establishing new models for economic success and social advances, with women as full partners in this progress. And she will discuss ways to foster good regional governance, partnering with regional leaders to band together to prevent conflict and violence, including gender-based violence, democratic erosions, and transnational threats."

The Bravest Woman in Afghanistan: Malalai Joya

The Bravest Woman in Afghanistan: An Exclusive Interview with Malalai Joya

"I am young and I want to live. But I say to those who would eliminate my voice: 'I am ready, wherever and whenever you might strike. You can cut down the flower, but nothing can stop the coming of the spring.'"

"Dust has been thrown into the eyes of the world by your governments. You have not been told the truth. The situation now is as catastrophic as it was under the Taliban for women. Your governments have replaced the fundamentalist rule of the Taliban with another fundamentalist regime of warlords. [That is] what your soldiers are dying for." Instead of being liberated, she is on the brink of being killed."

Read more at Huffington Post.

World Opinions of the US- New Pew Survey Release!

This morning I journeyed upstairs to the National Press Club for the release of a new Pew Global Attitudes Survey of 25 countries including; Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Lebanon, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, the Palestinian territories, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Spain, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States. The report was discussed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Senator John Danforth and Andrew Kohut, President of Pew Research Center. The 2009 survey, based on about 27,000 interviews, examined the attitudes toward the US, confidence in President Obama and views of American foreign policy. It also took stock in attitudes toward other major powers, Islamic extremism and global problems such as the worldwide recession, climate change and swine flu. Some important points;

• U.S. Ratings Soar in Western Europe, Rise Elsewhere, Spurred by Obama’s Image
  U.S. ratings in Western Europe have risen to pre-Bush levels.


• Belief that Obama will “do the right thing in world affairs” is nearly universal in Western countries, where lack of confidence in Bush was endemic for much of his time in office.


• Opinions of America have also become more positive in key countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, reflecting optimism about Obama.


• Israel stands out as the only public among the 25 surveyed where U.S. favorability has dropped.



• U.S ratings are driven more by personal confidence in Obama than by opinions of specific policy decisions, analysis shows.


• U.S Image Improves Only Modestly in Muslim World; Cairo Speech Gets Mixed Results
  U.S. favorability ratings nearly doubled in Indonesia, where most know of Obama’s family ties to the country.


• Modest gains are evident in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, but animosity toward the U.S. is unabated in Turkey, the Palestinian territories and Pakistan.


• Even so, significant percentages express confidence in Obama to “do the right thing in world affairs” even in nations where the U.S remains unpopular.


• U.S. favorability ratings slipped 13 points among Israelis after Obama’s June 4 Cairo speech and rose only marginally (5 % points) among Palestinians.


• The number of Palestinians saying that Obama would consider their interests when making policy rose from 27% before the speech to 39% afterward.


• For the first time, confidence in the American president tops confidence in Osama bin Laden in most Muslim nations surveyed.
  
• Approval for Most Obama Foreign Policies – and High Expectations for Future


• Large majorities in almost all countries surveyed support the decisions to close Guantanamo and withdraw troops from Iraq.


• But most publics, including majorities in NATO nations surveyed and Pakistan, oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan. Only Israelis and Americans support the move.


• Most think that Obama would seek international approval before using military force.


• While most global publics think Obama will take into account the interests of their country when making U.S. policy, most say that the U.S. is not currently doing so.


• Optimism exists, especially among Western Europeans and Canadians, that Obama will get the United States to take action on climate change.


• Overwhelming numbers around the world continue to see the U.S as having a big – often bad – influence on their own countries. After steady declines from 2002 to 2008, the 2009 survey finds renewed support among allies for U.S.-led efforts to combat terrorism– except among most Muslim publics.

Danforth commented on the report saying, "It's great to be popular but I don't see where it gets us. [This] popularity is a result of a more passive approach of terrorism," citing the favorable opinions of the closing of Guantanamo, the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and the dissatisfaction for advancement of the US role in Afghanistan. Madeleine Albright disagreed with Danforth saying that "the way that the Bush administration fought terrorism," in her belief, "brought more terrorism." The press conference was best summed up by Albright, "It is nice to be liked, people don't have to say they're from Canada anymore when they travel." A statement I could related to.

For the full report visit this Pew website: http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=264.

Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy

Today I sat in on a State Department Daily Press Briefing which is a briefing by the Press Office to inform Americans on what's happening at State- public affairs. This is different from the Foreign Press Office I work in which directs its briefings to Foreign Offices- public diplomacy. The briefing included an update of the Secretary and Special Representative Holbrooke and then allowed press to ask questions such as the US's policy on Israeli settlements, the situation in Honduras and American Citizens Quarantined in China Due to H1N1 Virus.

After the briefing, I had another meeting in the "Main State" building. There are several off site annexes; the Foreign Press Center is located across town. Waiting for my meeting, I wandered around the building to discover a whole city! There was a dry cleaners, a post office, a gym (the one Condi worked out in everyday), two convenient stores, two gift shops (anyone want any souvenirs), a cafeteria complete with fro-yo and several food choices.

After being lost in the huge maze of a building, I found my way to my meeting. I attended a EUR/PPD meeting which is the public diplomacy meeting (PPD) for the European Affairs bureau (EUR). In the meeting I ran into a familiar face, Mark Smith, who was the diplomat in residence at USC MPD. The meeting was an opportunity for people from all related offices to share their PD projects. The Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) reported on its ongoing program "Democracy Is..". To find out more on what IIP does click here.

McHale talks about PD

NOTES FROM A JULY 15th PRESS BRIEFING BY UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY JUDITH McHALE AT A DAILY PRESS BRIEFING:

"As President Obama visited Ghana last weekend, U.S. ambassadors and State Department Public Diplomacy personnel created unprecedented engagement with people in Africa and around the world. We worked under the leadership of the White House and built on our initial experiments in new media global outreach at the time of the President's Cairo and Moscow speeches. We interacted directly with hundreds of thousands of people, helped the President to engage tens of millions, and showed the world that America listens and wants to engage.

This was a model of creative public diplomacy for the 21st century. I believe that it is embodied in what Secretary Clinton calls "smart power." We broke new ground in using technology to engage nontraditional audiences. The centerpiece was a creative White House initiative that bridged new media and old. Macon Phillips, Katie Stanton, and others at the White House Office of New Media should take a bow, as should the entire State Department team.

Before the speech, we set up an SMS, or texting service, throughout Africa and invited people to text the President in either English or French. Nearly 16,000 did so, from 87 countries in Africa and beyond. Our embassy in South Africa partnered with a mobile-based social networking site and garnered an additional 200,000 questions and comments from throughout the continent.

And as the President spoke on Saturday, we sent simultaneous SMS highlights of the speech to over 12,000 people in some 80 countries in French and English, and solicited their feedback via text message. We posted hundreds of those messages on America.gov, the State Department's Public Diplomacy Web site, and on whitehouse.gov.

In return, the President answered questions selected from this massive influx by three African journalists in a podcast that we dubbed into French, Swahili, Portuguese and Arabic, in addition to the original English. On the screens here behind me, I believe, you can see a visual representation of the words the President used in his speech and of the words used by those who texted him. We'll also show you what the questions looked like on the White House Web site.

So you can see this came out of the President's feed, and then the responses -- and you can see by the sort of prominence of the words, those which resonated with the community, obviously "Obama" being a huge one, but all the things -- and you can see -- if you focused on it, you see some of the concepts that came throughout his speech.

Next slide. Then what we did, because we wanted to continue this community, was a map of the world with comments popping up where they came so others could check in and could see how they were doing.

What made all this work were ambassadors and a corps of professional foreign service officers and locally engaged staff at embassies and consulates overseas. They provided the ideas and advice we needed to bridge our electronic efforts here with real live people overseas. And they carried out the face-to-face personal engagement that will always be the heart of successful public diplomacy.

Our overseas teams worked with local media to enable them to broadcast the President's speech and report on his trip to Ghana. They invited audiences to ambassadorial residences, cultural centers and movie theaters to view and discuss the speech. Ambassadors and public affairs officers led panel discussions and spoke to local and regional media to amplify the President's themes.

Here are just a few examples. Our embassy in Freetown gave micro-grants to dozens of cinema centers throughout Sierra Leone that showed the speech live, free of charge, to all comers, reaching thousands in even far-flung corners of the country.

Our Mission to the African Union in Addis Ababa invited 200 representatives of 53 African countries to a speech screening and discussion. In this hemisphere, in the Dominican Republic, our embassy hosted a screening of the speech with Spanish subtitles for university students and conducted a discussion afterwards. In Canada, our embassy and consulates actively reached out to the Afro-Canadian groups throughout the country.

Audience response, both in person and online, was overwhelmingly positive. Embassy anecdotes and SMS messages alike show that the President's speech and our efforts to help him engage with people struck a chord.

In Niger, which is currently going through a constitutional crisis, audience members at the embassy screening stood up during the speech and cried out, "He speaks for us." A young South African texted, "President Obama, I'm 20 years old, can't believe that we've actually been given this opportunity. Thank you." A Zimbabwean who had fled that country to Mozambique texted, "Thank you, sir, for that uplifting speech." He went on to say, "I will stay and contribute to the democratic reforms in my country of Zimbabwe."

I think that the enthusiasm of Africans, especially young people, to use technology to engage with us shows the very potential and promise of the continent that the President stressed in his speech. Africans are as technologically capable and eager for connections with the world as any people on Earth.

I'm proud that the State Department could partner with the White House to help the President build a conversation with citizens in Africa and beyond, creating and sustaining the kind of global dialogue that, as Secretary Clinton said today in her speech, makes America a smarter and stronger nation.

Q Can you tell us anything about the State Department's efforts to disseminate his speech in Moscow, since that was --

UNDER SECRETARY McHALE: Certainly.

Q -- not broadcast widely live?

UNDER SECRETARY McHALE: That's correct. One of the things that we're looking at, and I think it's an important point, is that each of these events that we want to do we want to tailor it specifically for the event. In the case of Moscow, we did have public diplomacy outreach, but it was more regional. Given the nature of the speech, we felt it was more appropriate to be a regional outreach, and so we did a variety of things.

We had a texting initiative that we did around the Moscow speech. We also have developed a Facebook community and following, which is really interesting, because we launched it following up on Cairo, and we found the group migrated with us to Moscow and is continuing to grow. It grew about 25 percent with the Africa initiative. So Facebook became a key component -- but also understanding what were the tools that the individuals in that region were using, which was somewhat different. And so we had a presence on the applicable tools there. And we're going to continue to do that.

Q Just a quick question. How do you guard against only reaching the elites if you're using these new media methods?

UNDER SECRETARY McHALE: Well, we're not just using new media. One of the points that I wanted to make in the Africa situation is that new media will work in certain places, but it's a tool, not a strategy. And I believe that quite passionately. And so we're going to use it where appropriate to reach certain targeted demographics. But, frankly, in the case of Africa, we had free cinemas, we had radio outreach. We understand -- we know very well that throughout Africa, radio is the predominant media.

And so we were very careful to be sure that the speech was accessible to the largest population by understanding what is the media infrastructure in each country. And it's one of the strengths of the embassies, is that they understand that and they report it to us, and we tailor each of these initiatives to the available infrastructure.

So it's designed to reach sort of less-affluent populations. It is designed to reach deep into these countries. And I think if you got to read some of the questions, you would be pretty amazed at the reactions that we got and the feedback that we got from our embassies. It reached very, very deep into these areas.
Q In Afghanistan and Pakistan, how do you plan to use public diplomacy to win over the people?

UNDER SECRETARY McHALE: Well, in every country in the world, we have a pretty active public diplomacy program and plan. And in both of those countries, which I've been sort of looking at quite intensely recently, we have a number of public diplomacy initiatives in each of those countries, appropriate to the country. So, for example, in Pakistan, we have, as you probably know, a very robust exchange program. We have more Fulbright students coming from Pakistan than anywhere else in the world. We have high school students coming over from Pakistan. So there are a number of initiatives that we will continue to do that.

Same thing in Afghanistan, where a lot of our efforts are focused on building Afghan capacity to sort of deal in a lot of different areas. So we have very aggressive plans and programs in both of those countries, and we have public diplomacy initiatives in every country in the world."

More money for diplomacy

Bill passed to provide more funding for diplomacy.

Transnational Crime Reporting Tour

When the Foreign Press Center takes journalists on a national tour they blog, twitter and Facebook about the trip. Right now a group of journalists is visiting Atlanta, Georgia to discuss "what U.S. communities are doing to combat not only drug production and transport, but the demand side of the problem as well." For an example of what one of these reporting tours is like check out the DipNote blog posting from the FPC Program Officers.

"For the interviewees, responding to questioning by journalists on FPC
tours is never a cakewalk. We typically ask our embassies around the world to
recommend highly motivated, highly professional journalists for participation,
and their questions often probe difficult aspects of the relationship between
the U.S. and their countries. This tour has been a professional as well as
cultural exchange for our guests, and we’ll hopefully be able to round things
out with the only appropriate introduction to Atlanta: hot dogs, cheese fries,
and super-sized cups of Coca Cola when the Braves play the New York Mets tonight
at Turner Field."

The Swearing in..

As one of the many perks of interning at the DoS, I was able to attend the swearing-in of Philip (P.J.) Crowley as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Public Affairs in the Benjamin Franklin Room of the State Department. I stood among DoS Public Affairs staff, family and friends, all gathered in the room with wine and took in the majestic ambiance of the room. It was beautiful, and included some of the most beautiful gifts and artifacts in the history of the State Department.

This included the desk upon which the parts of the Constitution may have been drafted, retired State china and a very posh ladies lounge that was for too nice to be a bathroom. Secretary Clinton gave a light and entertaining introduction and then administered the oath of office (not raising her right hand as her elbow injury was not yet healed), which, I might add, everyone from the President to lowly interns such as myself, take before entering into service for State.

The highlight of the event was meeting Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy Judith McHale who was not so guarded by "her people" at this event and was walking around chatting here and there. My colleague and MPD classmate, Matthew Wallin and I jumped at the opportunity to introduce ourselves to her. She was welcoming but quickly dismissed us as she off-handedly invited us up to her office "some time." Stay tuned as I am determined to take her up on her polite offer.

The Moment I've been waiting for..

I was fortunate enough this morning to sit about 15 feet away from Secretary Clinton at her Town Hall at the State Department. Clinton announced the launch of a new "Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review" to be headed by Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew and Policy Planning chief Anne-Marie Slaughter. Who, as I type are briefing the media about now. QDDR is modeled on the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review -- "the major shaping document for U.S. defense policy currently being spearheaded by Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy and a team of roughly 100 people." Here is a Foreign Policy article on the plan, but basically it "moves our present planning from [a] year-to-year, annual appropriations-driven process. And it lashes up our two pillars, diplomacy and development," which are currently "separated by two appropriations processes and separate bureaucracies."

"The key question among development watchers is that, considering that development is broader than just assistance, any sort of consideration of coherent policy towards countries needs to take into account trade, in addition to aid," one Washington development expert said on condition of anonymity. "The question is whether ... the QDDR will be a planning tool for the State Department ... or will it really extend beyond to be a more comprehensive tool."

After thanking the DoS staff for their hardwork, Clinton then took several questions and comments from the packed house of DoS staffers. Some of the comments included requests for showers in the building for those who want to walk or bike to work, to the use of the Firefox Internet browser and the focus on disability issues. The Secretary was looking beautiful as ever, smiling and addressing us graciously despite her healing elbow. Gotta love her!

History repeats itself... another Iranian-American detained..

Time magazine is reporting that an American-Iranian citizen, Kian Tajbakhsh, who was in Tehran was detained yesterday by the Iranian government. This brings back eerily familiar feelings, as a dear friend and colleague of mine, Ali Shakeri was detained along with Kian Tajbakhsh, Haleh Esfandiari and Parnaz Azima in early 2007. Ali and I worked for the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding together at the time and as part of such, I worked, along with many others, to campaign for Ali's release as he was not a threat to the Iranian regime, but merely a peace activist who dearly loved his country of Iran. He was released some five months later. I think of other Iranian-American friends who had plans and even plane tickets to visit Iran this summer who had to throw away the money and change their plans indefinitely. It was truly a wise idea to do so after these distressing events. This all comes just as protests resume in the streets of Iran after a short and tense period of calm.

Al Jazeera Changing Channels

So about two weeks ago I blogged about my attendance of the Al Jazeera Changing Channels filming here in DC to get ready for the debut of the channel in Washington, D.C. The program was aired on July 2nd, the day of the launching of AJE in the US. I hope you will watch this program, part one has been posted below and you can find both episodes on the Al Jazeera website. If you don't have time to watch it all, check out minute 18 or so for a celebrity cameo (yours truly) and a shout out to MPD!

MJ's Funural and the black hole of nothingness in media space..

I am very frustrated today with the media, which is not entirely unusual. All day I have been switching back and forth between MSNBC, CNN and others to find some news other than the funeral preparations, processions and proceedings for MJ- to no avail. Then, I thought, well at least Fox News will be bitching about Obama or something, right, at least there will be some entertainmenting rant on liberal media there... WRONG! Don't get me wrong, I have many fine memories of dancing to Billie Jean and recognize the artist MJ was but really. But isn't there a war going on, a conflict somewhere.. anything more important than this.. isn't Sarah Palin talking somewhere? What's happening in Iran or China.. or Honduras.. anyone know.. or care.. It got to the point where I turned to The View for the closest thing to real news which is pretty sad. Not to knock the ladies of The View but really? Whoopi arguing with the blonde Republican chic is the best we can do here? One of the FSO's in my office was astonished at how long the newscasters could talk about nothing while show clips of Staple Center barriers. Now that's talent. I am going to refer everyone to an article mentioned in a previous post on MJ's death and Iran.. because this is just ridiculous.

Best Seat In the House

Spent the 4th of July with friends in best place I could imagine, right on the mall, looking at the National Monument watching the best fireworks show I have ever seen. Great summer so far!

Props to Levantine 18's post on the holiday.