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‘Welcome to the year of the whores’

Friday saw the start of the Chinese new year, with this being the year of the horse. Unfortunately the BBC News’ subtitle system didn’t understand the memo quite right, and instead declared this the ‘year of the whores,’ too much the embarrassment of the channel, Independent reported.

“Welcome to the year of the whores. People around the globe celebrate,” read the subtitles.

Noticing the blunder, a number of eagle eyed viewers were able to quickly grab a screenshot and post it on Twitter.

This isn’t the first time the BBC’s subtitles have had somewhat of a malfunction, the Archbishop of Canterbury has been referred to as the “Arch bitch of Canterbury”, while during coverage of the Queen Mother’s funeral there was a call for “a moment’s violence”.

Are the Olympics an Opportunity for Public Diplomacy?

The Olympic Games are often touted as an opportunity for nations to set aside their differences and come together to celebrate excellence in athletics. A huge production is made of the bi-annual event, which can cost billions of dollars and attracts leaders and spectators from around the globe. This year’s games are reported to have cost Russia $51 billion (yes, you read that correctly… billion with a “B”)—making it the most expensive Olympics in history. But are they really the best opportunity for public diplomacy?

The Olympics are depicted as a “feel-good” event, a way to celebrate a country’s “best and brightest” athletic stars. In the U.S., companies capitalize upon this positive atmosphere, releasing television commercials emphasizing their integral role in the event and marketing products specifically geared towards the Games.

With this, nationalism abounds. In the opening ceremonies and throughout the competition, athletes are outfitted in gear made exclusively for those representing their country. Athletes are there to bring home the gold; in sports, there is only one winner. The opening ceremony itself is also a huge display of nationalism on behalf of the host country. During the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, the opening ceremony featured eccentric, artistic performances highlighting Britain’s history and showcasing famous Brits. The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was even bigger, with the opening performance featuring thousands of drummers who had rehearsed for nearly a year leading up to the Olympics. In other words, politics and diplomacy take a back seat to the competition and performance.

On the level of a spectator, the Sochi Games, which are set to begin on Feb. 7, don’t exactly encourage citizen diplomacy, either. There are serious security concerns, including threats of terrorist attacks directed toward foreign spectators. A militant leader recently stated tourists would specifically be targeted in revenge for “all the Muslim blood that is shed every day around the world.” In December, two suicide bombings in two days killed 34 and wounded numerous others, in attacks linked to a terrorist group in a nearby province.

This environment, and the reported 40,000-strong security force to be used at the Winter Olympics, does nothing to foster a welcoming atmosphere as spectators watch the games in Sochi. Furthermore, media coverage of the Games usually focuses on the athletes of the country in which that media outlet functions. Millions more people view the Olympics on television than attend the games themselves. The emphasis on nationalistic news coverage again excludes the opportunity for cross cultural awareness by these viewers, both in the U.S. and around the world.

In terms of politics, Russia has also been in the news for a recent law restricting gay right activities, which has received considerable outcry in the U.S. and elsewhere. President Obama will not be attending this year’s Games due to his schedule, but named several openly gay and lesbian athletes to the U.S.’ opening and closing delegations to the Games. For the first time in 20 years, the U.S. will not be sending the President, Vice President, or one of their spouses. France and Germany also elected to not send their heads of state. Many news sources speculate that leaders’ absences are due to a chilling in relations with the Russian government.

It’s certainly possible for diplomacy to occur over the course of the Games; however, I’m skeptical that a setting in which nationalism rules would present a fair opportunity to create meaningful and lasting—as well measurable—public diplomacy outcomes, especially in an official government capacity. While bringing athletes together can have positive effects, the environment surrounding the Olympics does not lay sturdy groundwork for public diplomacy to flourish.

 

Two Elephants Reunited After More Than 20 Years – video

The story of Shirley and Jenny may not be new, but is worth watching or learning from it. The two crippled circus elephants were reunited at ”The Elephant Sanctuary” in Tennessee, after a 22-year-long separation.

Photo from: advocacy.britannica.com

Carol Buckley, Executive Director of the Sanctuary at the time, spoke about their amazing reunion:

“Jenny came into the barn for the first time since Shirley’s arrival at around 7:00 pm. There was an immediate urgency in Jenny ‘s behavior. She wanted to get close to Shirley. Once Shirley was allowed into the adjacent stall, the interaction between her and Jenny became quite intense. Jenny wanted to get into the stall with Shirley desperately. She became agitated, banging on the gate and trying to climb through and over”.

Photo from: earthandanimalwellness.com

”After several minutes of touching and exploring each other, Shirley started to roar and I mean roar – Jenny joined in immediately. The interaction was dramatic, to say the least, with both elephants trying to climb in with each other and frantically touching each other through the bars. I have never experienced anything even close to this depth of emotion”, Buckley added.

The bonding was immediate, intense and unforgettable between the two former circus elephants. Like they say, elephants never forget. Here is the story of their friendship:

[ct_video title=”Two Elephants Reunited After More Than 20 Years ” type=”youtube” id=”lF8em4uPdCg”] Two Elephants Reunited After More Than 20 Years [/ct_video]

Weird “fun” at the frontline [video]

Several soldiers had fun by provoking a sniper with a doll hung on a shovel. Most likely, the video, coming from Syria, was made by the Uzbeks.

Screenshot YouTube video | @Ammor Rahmatulloh

Video appeared a few days ago, and shows the reaction of soldier, who teased the enemy sniper with a rubber doll. Since published, it was not known from where does video originates.

Thanks to the comments on this video on Reddit, it is most likely that Uzbeks made the video.

Here is the video of their little ”game” with the enemy sniper:

[ct_video title=”Very unusual Humor in War” type=”youtube” id=”qi5s1ZnhjtM”] Very unusual Humor in War [/ct_video]

VimeoWikipedia: Vimeo is a U.S.-based video-sharing website on which users can upload, share and view videos. →

From Russia with Love: Наталья Чаплыгина

She is from Russia, her name is Natalia Chaplygina (Наталья Чаплыгина) and here is how she sang Serbian popular folk songs. Enjoy!

YouTube Screenshot

Oro

[ct_video title=”From Russia with love” type=”youtube” id=”1JX59ZlNKSM”] From Russia with love [/ct_video]

Vidovdan

[ct_video title=”From Russia with love” type=”youtube” id=”Y-x5RFnnl2Y”] From Russia with love [/ct_video]

How real sports diplomacy works

Dennis Rodman is bound to grab headlines with his third trip to North Korea, scheduled for later this week. But his message to President Barack Obama that he just needs to pick up the phone and talk to the erratic Kim Jong Un (who only last week had his uncle executed on the grounds that he was a traitor and “despicable human scum”), suggests that the former NBA star and self-proclaimed ambassador might be overstating his influence.
Sports diplomacy is real and effective – but probably not in the form we are about to see.Last year, President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Burma, a country that has recently undergone a degree of democratic change that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. During the trip, Obama pledged U.S. economic assistance to the country, and authorized the dispatch of the first U.S. ambassador to Burma, also known as Myanmar, in decades.But while the high-profile summits between the countries’ elites showcased warming official ties, some low-key sports exchanges earlier this year will also have played their part in boosting trust and understanding following the president’s trip.In January, the U.S. State Department committed to a sports exchange program in which a delegation of Burmese youth came to the United States for a week of basketball activities. On their first night in Washington, D.C., the delegation met members of the Washington Wizards NBA team, before visiting a local high school in Maryland where they shot hoops with the varsity team.  The Burmese visitors then traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they met with Rich Cho, general manager of the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats, a Burmese immigrant and one of the organizers of the program.One can only imagine what it was like for a Burmese boy to step onto the Verizon Center court and shoot baskets with NBA star John Wall. And although these types of exchanges don’t grab international headlines, they are the sort of activities that can do much to improve relations between long-estranged countries by creating positive memories, friendships and deep bonds between Americans and others through the universal language of sports.And the value of these programs is apparently recognized by the U.S. government itself. SportsUnited, a division of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) that is devoted to sports diplomacy, has been increasingly active over the past decade, bringing over 1,400 athletes from 65 countries to the U.S to participate in sport visitor programs since 2002. In 2005, it also created the Sports Envoy program under then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, sending 250 U.S. athletes, including high-profile stars such as the Baltimore Orioles’ Cal Ripken and U.S. Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwon, as goodwill ambassadors to nearly 60 countries.

More recently, I participated in a SportsUnited program this past summer, which hosted a delegation of wheelchair basketball athletes from Turkey. The team of national champions was taken to a practice session with the WNBA Washington Mystics, and to the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C. to meet with doctors to hear about injury prevention, rehabilitation and prosthetic options.  In between the official appointments, the team did some sightseeing, shopping, and practiced for what turned out to be a nail biter of a game against NRH’s wheelchair basketball squad.

The kind of goodwill that is generated at the micro level with these kinds of visits can truly underpin the progress made at the government level, especially as such programs are not just about sports – they also offer an opportunity for visitors to learn about U.S. society. Through the Turkey basketball exchange, for example, Turkish players gained an appreciation of the opportunities for handicapped athletes to thrive in the United States. This spirit is contagious, and past participants in sports programs have returned to their home countries to start similar initiatives.

This isn’t to say that high profile sports diplomacy doesn’t have a place – “ping-pong” diplomacy back in the early 1970s famously helped kickstart relations between the United States and China. “You have opened a new chapter in the relations of the American and Chinese people,” Premier Chou En-lai reportedly told the visiting Americans at a banquet back then. “I am confident that this beginning again of our friendship will certainly meet with majority support of our two peoples.” The rest, as they say, is history.

But such events are the exceptions rather than the rule. Effective sports diplomacy usually happens beneath the headlines, facilitated by those who believe that sports are a unique form of international interaction, where language is not a barrier. Indeed, just playing together on a court or a pitch can help young people build the kind of trust and understanding that regular politics can’t impose – fun, effective and without fanfare.

By Patrick Cha, Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Patrick Ellis Cha is the founder of NetBenefitUSA, a Maryland-based non-governmental organization dedicated to socially conscious sports projects. You can follow them @NetBenefitUSA. The views expressed are the writer’s own.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/17/how-real-sports-diplomacy-works/

 

[Today in PD] Vedrine And Kinkel Visit Sarajevo: The Makings Of A Public Diplomacy Disaster

We connoisseurs of the diplomatic public speaking art are fortunate to have one example of a high-profile public speaking occasion where everything that could possibly go wrong did indeed go wrong. If you are working at an Embassy or in a Foreign Minister’s office and are looking for a model for how not do it, seek no further.

We are in Sarajevo in late 1997, two years after the Dayton Peace Accords, at the Holiday Inn. During the Bosnian war this hotel had been an iconic object of attack for the Bosnian Serbs besieging the city. It had been built for the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympic games, a splendid example of high communist kitsch with a bright yellow facade and gruesome purple furnishings. By late 1997 those aesthetic glories of Yugoslav socialist self-management are being meticulously restored.

Several hundred senior Bosnian figures are gathered in the main hotel reception room, waiting for the two guest speakers. France’s Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine and Germany’s Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel are paying a joint visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina. They want to use this occasion publicly to urge Bosnian leaders to set aside their vexing political differences and unite to rebuild the country, using generous support provided by the European Union. Forsooth, the very fact of their visit together symbolises reconciliation and partnership in modern Europe. If France and Germany can settle their historic differences, so can the Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats of Bosnia.

What can go wrong? Everything.

The audience assembles in good time for the arrival. Everyone is standing up. Drinks are served. Noisy, good-humoured conversation gathers pace.

The two speakers arrive. A more or less respectful silence descends. Minister Védrine is introduced and starts to speak in French. He has a microphone, but if there is a podium it is not especially pronounced. It is a large bland room, difficult for the speaker to dominate.

Védrine and his team have given no proper thought to how best to deliver his speech to such a big audience that is standing up and mainly does not understand French. He delivers his speech in dull and wordy long paragraphs, leaving the interpreter a tricky job in remembering and conveying in Bosnian everything he has said in equally dull and wordy long paragraphs.

His speech meanders on. After a while people at the back of the room not unreasonably conclude that Védrine and the interpreter are saying nothing to interest them, and they start chatting quietly among themselves. This creates a disconcerting effect across the audience as a whole. Those standing immediately in front of the two speakers have no choice but to pretend to listen politely. More and more people at the back of the room decide to ignore the speaker completely and start talking. Those in the middle start to feel uncomfortable. As does Herr Kinkel, watching in dismay as the proud European message of his distinguished colleague is ignored by a small but steadily growing part of the audience.

After about 20 minutes of platitudes Védrine’s speech ends, to fitful applause. Herr Kinkel takes over. Unfortunately for him, his speech too has been written to be delivered in lengthy passages in German followed by lengthy passages in Bosnian spoken by the interpreter. This way of handling consecutive translation for a speech dooms from the start any hope of creating a sense of conversation between speaker and audience.

By now the massed Bosnians at the back of the room have given up on the occasion and are talking openly among themselves. Herr Kinkel gets visibly angry at this open Balkan disrespect for Modern Europe. He raises his voice to try to bring everyone to listen to him.

Bosnians are made of stern stuff and have long memories of Nazi atrocities in World War Two. They tend to be unimpressed when Germans talk loudly at them. The louder Herr Kinkel talks, the louder the Bosnians talk.

A ghastly sonic arms race ensues. Herr Kinkel is determined to drown out the insolent Bosnians. The bored Bosnians are no less keen to drown out that German man at the other end of the room spoiling the reception by making such an annoying noise.

My subsequent reporting telegram to London recorded this amazing scene:

“It also is striking how diplomatically ineffective our main European partners seem here. The Védrine/Kinkel visit here last week seemed to sum things up, in presentational terms at least. At the large Holiday Inn reception for the visitors with a top-level turnout of Bosnian, Serb, and Croat leaders, Védrine’s tame speech was the normal Dayton platitudes. Kinkel delivered an energetic address on the general lines of ‘We have done a lot for you! You shall be grateful! And cooperate!’ Stirring stuff, but not enough to enthuse the Bosnian audience, many of whom rudely carried on talking among themselves while it was delivered.”

All in all, a grimly instructive diplomatic fiasco.

Where the two countries’ diplomats organizing this event get things wrong? Basically, neither the Ministers’ respective offices nor their Embassies in Sarajevo had devised a formula to make sure the event would work as an event. I suspect that most of the clever effort before their visit had been devoted to crafting the words of the speech, ignoring the fact that what makes a speech successful is (of course) the words themselves but also the way in which they are delivered to the audience. Thus an audience that (perhaps for good practical reasons) is standing up needs a short, punchy speech; an audience sitting down is more comfortable and can cope with something longer and more thoughtful.

This applies all the more so if consecutive interpreting has to be used for a standing audience. A ten-minute speech by the Minister becomes a twenty-minute speech when delivered through an interpreter. This is a long time for people to stand and listen and try to absorb the words, when for precisely half the time they do not know what is being said. It is much better to format the speech so that the speaker’s words are translated sentence by sentence by the interpreter. This creates a direct sense of conversation with the audience. It keeps their minds engaged on the speaker, not on the discomfort of standing to listen.

If (as on this occasion) the politics of the event require two speakers, both using consecutive interpreting, a way has to be found to coordinate the two speeches to keep them short, sharp and accessible. Perhaps in fact only one speech is needed, with the two speakers taking it in turns to deliver different sections of it. Something like this will have novelty value, and in itself will symbolise political cooperation and high-level mutual trust. Plus the very way the speech is delivered is more likely to keep the audience interested and alert.

However, that sort of thing requires a lot of extra work, plus a sophistication and self-awareness that typically escape the high chancelleries of today’s Europe.

In all public speaking, it is not what you say—it is what they hear. In war-weary Sarajevo in 1997 many of the leading personalities in post-conflict Bosnia did not hear from these two prominent European politicians an inspiring message of unity and shared purpose. They heard disjointedness, tedium, and perhaps even irrelevance. An expensive missed opportunity.

Charles Crawford was British Ambassador in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Warsaw. He is now a private presentation skills consultant and founding partner of The Ambassador Partnership, a global corporate diplomacy panel. He tweets at @charlescrawford.

This article was originally published in the Diplomatic Courier’s January/February 2014 print edition.

Digital news: weekend round-up

EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes announced yesterday on her Facebook page that her office is launching 2 competitions for developers, innovators and start-ups, with significant financials rewards. To enter, you must create apps which respond, support and improve society, in fields like education, health or social inclusion. We are talking about prizes worth over 300,000 Euros, so our advise is to get ready and put your knowledge to good use. The apps are not geographically bound and Romania could use some related to its healthcare or education systems, for example. More details are available here and here. Good luck!

Because Romania is struggling these days with heavy snowfalls and blizzards, we have a useful recommendation for you: the Waze Romania app created a list of all closed roads and alternative detours. All data will be updated in real time as the roads open for traffic. Let us know if you find it useful!

The European Parliament organized between 24-26 January 2014 in Brussels its Europarl Hackathon for the European Elections 2014, a 2 day event aimed to reunite coders, activists, graphists and journalists and come up with solutions, apps, portals or other types of social or online tools to enhance access and understanding around European Parliamentarians and their job s and roles. Here are some selected results:

Check here for a storify of Twitter tweets from the event and here to see some other results and conclusions of the meeting. The Romanian Government organized its own hackthon in February 2013, as Radu Puchiu, the Head of the Online Services and Design Department told us in a special interview.

The @Amazing_Maps team created a map of Europe mapped by tweets in different languages pic.twitter.com/A6WiR8M6pd! Amaizing!

The Netherlands have a very active online diplomatic community. The Dutch Government is commited to use social media to enhance its diplomatic communication, as His Excellency Mr. Matthijs van Bonzel, Dutch Ambassador to Romania told DigitalDiplomacy.ro in a past interview.  In this 2minute video clip you can see how do Dutch diplomats use social media.

2 very important social media events to take place in Bucharest in February. Check our friend Cristian China Birta’s blog for details about the conferences and reasons you should attend. See you there!

Mistakes in social media are easy to spot, can get overblown quite quickly and can cause serious concequences. But they can also be avoided quite easily. Check the article to find out some useful tips.

For those working in NGOs, you should kow that social networks can be very useful in terms of promoting your work and the causes you fight for. Check the following article to find out social media tips for nonprofits but also how to specifically use Snapchat to support your work.

The Future of U.S. Public Diplomacy Towards Cuba

The Future of U.S. Public Diplomacy Towards Cuba

By Aleksandra Ristovic

The bilateral relationship between the United States and Cuba has come a long way since April 6, 1960 when it was deemed that “every possible means should be taken to weaken the Cuban economic life.” Back then, U.S. policy toward Cuba was categorized by non-recognition of the Cuban government’s legitimacy; diplomatic isolation in the hemisphere and beyond; and economic, financial, and commercial blockade. Cuba’s strategy has always been resistance, especially when it came to U.S.-backed democracy promotion initiatives such as Radio and TV Marti – a broadcasting operation created to serve as “consistently reliable and authoritative sources of accurate, objective, and comprehensive news for people in Cuba.” Since its inception, the Cuban government has made regular attempts to block Radio and TV Marti’s signal – an operation believed by the Cubans to be disseminating propaganda against the revolution. Moreover, when Cubans get limited access to information, despite the government’s censorship, they prefer alternative media sources with less friction and political rhetoric. The outcome of Radio and TV Marti is a failed U.S. public diplomacy initiative and an increasingly unpopular image for the U.S. in Latin America and the Caribbean.

While there is no existing model for how Cubans can build a new socialist state, effective public diplomacy initiatives have the potential to become invaluable tools for the future of U.S. engagement with the island nation, especially since Cuba is already in the process of transition. Fidel is no longer in power and, with the exception of one ‘young’ new heir; the rest of the Cuban leadership is beyond retirement age. Change is simply inevitable. Cuba’s political system will need to become more flexible in order to be compatible with the globalized world we live in. For the U.S., the role of democratic promotion in human empowerment for the future generations of young Cubans will be key.

Cuba has historically been very successful at adapting to exogenous shocks that threatened its survival. This reality reveals a space for an effective communication strategy that speaks to the aspirations and resourcefulness of the Cuban people. However, in order to reach them, outreach need not be designed through the same Cold War lens of previous U.S.-backed public diplomacy initiatives and failed foreign policies. Now more than ever, with Obama’s ‘new beginning with Cuba’ strategy, the U.S. Department of State has a real chance for meaningful outreach to the island. With the latest travel ban lifted in January 2011 for people-to-people travel, the U.S. Department of State has a window of opportunity to exercise its soft power in the form of effective public diplomacy strategies, namely in the areas of educational exchange and cultural diplomacy.

With that in mind, here are three things to recognize about Cuba today:

1. Cuba has a private sector.
In April of 2011, the 6th Congress reaffirmed the path of transition to socialism with a new economic model. The evolution began 15 years ago as a way to legalize the black market and profit on it. It is an attempt to recover fallen sectors of the economy such as oil, nickel, and iron, and expand the non-state sector through new projects designed to push growth including a new airport, a new harbor in Mariel Bay, and 20,000 four and five start hotel rooms. The most significant shift to liberalizing elements of the economy takes the form of legal permission to become a ‘cuentapropista’ or a private business owner. With the firing of 1.2 million people (roughly 20% of the Cuban economy’s workforce), an expansion of 181 service jobs was designed to alleviate the government’s paycheck. However, the approved activities do not seem to produce meaningful economic development and may only aggravate Cuba’s inefficiency in production capabilities. For example, while the experiment with free-market in the agricultural sector is a vivid sign of how the country has changed, Cuban food imports have increased indicating the political and practical limitations that hold it back. Regardless of the success rate, however, such economic ‘updates,’ generate unintended consequences that could have larger socio-political and economic implications for the island. For Cuba, however, it is not about how you want to be, but how to do it when you have no reference at all.

A state employee looks on to the empty shelves at the local bodega (convenience store) where Cuban families once relied upon for their food intake, regardless of the their social and economical status.

The Libreta de Abastecimiento (supplies booklet), created on March 12, 1962 to keep track of the rations each person is allowed to buy at subsidized prices and the frequency of supplies from the distribution system

2. Cuba has a highly educated population.
One of the most notable achievements of the 53-year-old Cuban revolution is free education. In Cuba, primary, secondary and tertiary school, as well as higher education, is equal opportunity and until last year, completely free of charge. In terms of gender equality, contrary to most developed countries, women make up 65% of university students in areas of science and high technology. While this revolutionary accomplishment has created a high quality of human capital, it has also generated a real threat of migration for the state. Each year, 38,000 Cubans immigrate, 35% of which are highly qualified professionals. Immigration in most cases is due to the lack of professional growth, economic incentive, and high aspirations for highly qualified human capital in Cuba. The result is a highly educated and unfulfilled population. So far, the Cuban government has only taken preventative measures to solve inequality amongst its most qualified workers. By cutting back enrollment in humanities by 40%, it hopes to avoid mass unemployment in the areas of social sciences. It remains to be seen how the government will treat its current case of diminishing human condition.

One of many soviet-style school buses still operating in downtown Havana

3. Change must come from within Cuba.
Cuban national hero, Jose Marti, once said “con todos, y para el bien de todos” (with all, and for the good of all) in reference to the sacrifice, dedication, and collective needed for the best ideas to be born and the most difficult goals for the sake of human welfare to be reached. This is the common theme of the Cuban Revolution’s social service component. The service requirements are merged into the socialist model of education. They began in high school, or pre-universitario, three-year period where coursework is merged with voluntary projects that teach students to participate in common duties, shared values, and learn to become independent. For men, there is a one-year military service mandate (two years for those who do not plan to study). After graduation, there is another two-three year compulsory service requirement that must be completed before young graduates can begin work. The social service mandates not only bond Cubans to each other, they bond individuals to the land and bring the ideals of the revolution – such as nationalism, socialism, and participation – alive.

A revolutionary billboard outside the airport says “We see you every day…” referring to Che Guevara, an important figure in the Cuban Revolution, which serves to remind Cuban society that the revolution is still very much alive.

A photo of a town hall meeting where state officials come to hear the concerns of individual community members regarding the ongoing government ‘updates’

Effective Public Diplomacy Must Back Effective Foreign Policy
While the above primarily serves to inform an effective public diplomacy strategy for Cuba, the obvious constraints of the U.S. embargo impede the potential success of such strategic communication initiatives. We have seen that increasing trade ties doesn’t only serve for economic development, it also increases communication, transportation, and people-to-people interaction. Lifting the embargo would break the isolation of information in Cuba and the information society would pressure the Cuban government into a 21st century model of socialism that can exist in harmony with the globalized economy and international political system of today. For a hopeful future of mutual respect, cooperation, open dialogue, and effective engagement with the island, the U.S. embargo must be lifted.

All images are courtesy of the author.

Below is a selected collection of recent news articles on Cuba and public diplomacy aggregated by the PDiN news team. To full a full list of PDiN articles on Cuba, visit #cuba:

Classic Journeys Introduces People-To-People Cultural Exchange to Cuba
PR Web (press release)

California Chefs Encourage Fresh Dining in Cuba
Huffington Post

U.S. Bottleneck Snags Florida Orchestra’s Cuba Exchange
Tampa Bay Times

Aleksandra Ristovic currently serves as the International Broadcasting intern for CPD’s 2013 Research Initiative. She has also helped conduct research on a number of strategic topics for CPD and updates the CPD research database with relevant and new resources in the growing field of public diplomacy. She graduates from USC’s Masters of Public Diplomacy program in May of 2013 and plans to join the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer. Aleks’ focus is on diasporas as important tools of public diplomacy and the domestic dimensions of PD. She is especially interested in the role of digital diplomacy, exchange diplomacy, and the process of socialization in creating narratives and cultivating relationships between states and other actors. Aleks is proficient in Serbian, Spanish, and Portuguese with a working knowledge of French.

http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/pdin_monitor/article/the_future_of_us_public_diplomacy_towards_cuba/

[Today in PD] Football And Soft Power

In its first issue of 2014, Monocle dedicated a slice of the magazine to its Soft Power Survey, a run-down of countries and their ability to create and sustain influence in positive ways. For the first time in its four year history, Monocle accorded sport its own category in the metrics of the survey. Football took centre stage as perhaps the most pervasive and global of all sports. As such, Monocle stated:

“Footballers playing abroad in the top leagues, major events screened around the globe, the competitors and teams that stand out from the crowd — all these have an impact on the way a country is viewed”

Taking first place in the survey, Germany can boast a significant number of players contracted to clubs in the world’s top leagues (though what those leagues are, and the presumed Euro-centric definition of ‘top’ leave this metric open to debate), and four clubs in the ‘global rich list’. Other significant sporting achievements are also recognised, such as Olympic medals, but my focus here is football.

What is ‘soft power’? I would suggest that Monocle’s own definition, revolving around “attraction rather than coercion”, neatly summarises the concept. This, of course, includes deliberate attempts to flex such power as well as the benefits which derive coincidentally from being basically decent. This is why nations vie for the chance to host the Olympics or the World Cup; it is as much for the ‘feel-good factor’ as any tangible economic benefit or demonstration of infrastructure or clout. It is a ‘soft’ way of showing that a nation has not only arrived as a serious player on the global stage, but also that it has sufficient traction to persuade others to get behind its bid; it shows that a nation has friends as well as influence.

Is football really key to this demonstration of soft power then? And, if it is, is that a whole story? Arguably, the answer to the first question is pretty straightforward, and it is yes. Football at its best is vibrant, exciting, emotional, as much as it is a generator of capital and a means of exposure for a nation. It creates a sense of shared experience, of happiness, and, when it goes well, success. The image of a nation’s or a club’s fans dancing in the streets to celebrate a victory is not hard to summon. Collective experience is very powerful. The manner and style of victory are also crucial. The beauty of Spain’s first two international tournament victories lay more in the aesthetics of their football than any narrative of previous heroic failure. The arrival of Chile in the Monocle survey’s top thirty coincides with their team playing a swash-buckling, adventurous style of play based on Bielsa-influenced principles which stirs most impartial observers.

Football clubs can also embody values which are conducive to the growth of ‘soft power’. The ownership principles of Bundesliga clubs, which ensure that fans retain a controlling interest in the club, or the socis principle by which Barcelona, among other Spanish clubs, are run, speaks to a sense of egalitarianism and being rooted in the local. In an age of globalisation and aggressive capitalism, these models seem to stand for something fairer, more decent, and more located in the actual identity of the club than, say, the franchise system of many US sports. This is soft economic power, the engendering of positive values by association.

Footballers have also become brands in themselves, which can have soft power benefits for the nations they represent. Monocle cites the mercurial Zlatan Ibrahimovic as Sweden’s ‘soft-power superstar’, a poster boy for integration and achievement despite his self-professed humble origins. It is Zlatan’s unquestioned talent and drive that have elevated him to world-wide acclaim and financial success, and football is full of such rags-to-riches tales, often involving individuals from backgrounds whose overwhelming narrative, imposed externally by the traditional seats of power, is of social exclusion or failure. This is an attractive story, aspirational and inclusive.

However, to see football as an indicator of soft power without caveats is to engage in a certain amount of myopia. Football is a global business and dominated by brands. For every soci-run club there are countless others run by outside investors and it is hard to ignore the sense that clubs are increasingly vehicles for debt servicing or profit maximisation, run by businesspeople eager to exploit the positive associations of the sport. Government support for stadium development, or the taking-over of stadia constructed for other purposes, also allows investors to exploit a desire for soft power, benefiting from projects paid for by the nation and seeing their assets grow on the back of it.

Football also has a potential for corruption which many are quick to exploit. Whether it is scandals involving FIFA, match-fixing, or forms of exploitation of aspirant footballers such as fraudulent promises of trials or contracts, there is a very murky side to the beautiful game that speaks less of soft power than its more brutal, at times criminal, cousin.

Even the hosting of major sporting events is no guarantee of soft power. Russia, Qatar, and Poland and the Ukraine all suffered from substantiated or alleged accusations of corruption, racism, homophobia, and political violence or instability. It must be argued that shining a light on these issues is positive. However, it cannot be ignored that, in spite of these problems, the governing bodies of football saw fit to efface or downplay such negatives in order to sustain their decisions to host tournaments in those countries. Soft power gained despite such issues is merely a balm, or smoke and mirrors to hide what is really going on.

Perhaps, then, like anything, Monocle’s recognition of the soft power potential of sports such as football needs to be read against a wider narrative. There is no doubt that football does confer soft power and for many, very good reasons. To take that as a total and transparent reflection of the global game is, however, denying a very obvious reality.

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