Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review (PDPBR): A Change of Emphasis0

• John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Public diplomacy
• 17th April 2019

image from
Given the immense amount of data found on the Internet via search engines, I am refocusing the goal of PDPBR: no longer a “non-biased” compilation essentially based on how often and where the term “public diplomacy” is cited on the internet, but rather from a selection on my part what is important about public diplomacy today — a selection based on internet searches (granted, not on often incomprehensible, “theoretical” texts scholarly/academic articles– quite distant from what U.S. dips do for PD “in the field”) that reflects on my diplomatic career in the field and post-retirement publications, as well as teaching (too strong a word) focusing on American public diplomacy.
“What is important?” is a question I learned from one of my mentors in Russian history at Princeton grad school, the eminent scholar James H. Billington.
Billington image from
“Mr. Brown,” he asked “what is important about what your dissertation will be about?”
(FYI — the minor unpublished opus turned ..

P1.07T a year from Chinese tourists0

• John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Public diplomacy
• 16th April 2019

Ramon T. Tulfo, manilatimes.net, April 16, 2019
Tulfo image from his article
MANY companies in China are falling all over one another in a mad scramble to invest in the Philippines, which they see as a potential source of food on the table for its 3.5 billion people, a market for its products and a manufacturing hub.
I know whereof I speak. Since I was appointed special envoy to China late last year, I’ve been talking with many prospective investors from the Mainland who want to:
– Lease vast farmlands to plant vegetables and tropical fruits for export to China.
— Lease thousands of hectares of fishpond, which have not been used or sequestered by the banks for nonpayment of mortgage.
— Build or operate fishports complete with ice plants so Chinese vessels could carry the seafood and other aquatic produce to the Mainland fresh.
— Buy river sand and gravel, and lahar sand to be used as construction materials. Most of our rivers are silted with sand and gravel which cause flooding during ..

Dept of State Public Diplomacy in Mexico0

• John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Public diplomacy
• 16th April 2019

grantbulletin.research.uiowa.edu
Image from, under the headline: US Consulate [Juarez] joins blood drive campaign
Sponsor Deadline:
Dec 31, 2020
Sponsor:
Dept of State Consulate General in Ciudad Juarez
UI Contact:
mary-blackwood@uiowa.edu (link sends e-mail)
Updated Date:
Apr 15, 2019
Email this (link sends e-mail)
Annual Program Statement PAS US Consulate Juarez
DOS-MEX-PD-CJ-2019-1
Grants.gov https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=314487 (link is external)
Closing Date: Dec 31, 2020 To receive FY2019 funds your grant must be approved before September 15, 2019
Examples of PAS Small Grants Program programs include, but are not limited to:
Academic and professional lectures, seminars and speaker programs;
Artistic and cultural workshops, joint performances and exhibitions;
Cultural heritage conservation and preservation programs;
Professional and academic exchanges and programs;
Priority Program Areas:
1) Culture of lawfulness and rule of law for the new gener..

Media: Julian Assange Is a D*ck, but He’s Our D*ck0

• John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Public diplomacy
• 16th April 2019

Lloyd Grove, Daily Beast, 04.16.19
Julian Assange’s detractors in the media are many, but they also say that charging him over his WikiLeaks activities would amount to an attack on journalistic practice.

Excerpt:
Former Time magazine editor Rick Stengel, who served in the Obama administration as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy [JB emphasis] and Public Affairs, pointed out that the Assange arrest and indictment could have alarming implications for journalists worldwide.
“It's not unreasonable to think that any prosecution of Assange emboldens autocratic leaders to crack down on journalists or whistleblowers,” Stengel told The Daily Beast.
“But the tragic thing is that if you look at any of the countries we might be talking about—Turkey, China, Saudi Arabia and others—they do not have laws that protect freedom of the press and they do have laws that punish those who criticize the government. That's why it's so dangerous to be a journalist in those places, an..

State Dept. Merges PA, Propaganda Units0

• John Brown's Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Public diplomacy
• 13th April 2019

odwyerpr.com
State Dept. Merges PA, Propaganda Units, Fri., Apr. 12, 2019,
By Kevin McCauley

Michelle GiudaThe State Dept. has merged its domestic PA [JB – Public Affairs] bureau with the international information programs (public diplomacy [JB emphasis] ) unit to form a new global public affairs shop of about 300 staffers.The Washington Post calls the revamp “the biggest structural change at the State Dept. in 20 years,” and a effort to counter disinformation campaigns by China and Russia.Michelle Giuda, acting under secretary for public policy and PA, engineered the overhaul, which had been contemplated for years but stymied by the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 that bars the government from targeting Americans with propaganda.The Post noted that Smith-Mundt Act restrictions are less relevant in the digital age when US reporters report on State Dept. messaging overseas, and foreign journalists cover State Dept. briefings.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the restructuring marks a “crit..