"Global-Local" Cultural Diplomacy and Public Diplomacy

Robert Albro, a public policy anthropologist at American University, summons powerful evidence from communication theory and cultural and public diplomacy practice to suggest that cultural diplomacy (and therefore public diplomacy, at least as practiced by the U.S. government) is an inherently transnational project (http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newswire/cpdblog _detail/cultural_engagement_as_glocal_diplomacy/). What he argues has important implications for "western" and "secular" governments confronting the emerging "Islamist" governments.

Thanks to Len Baldyga (LJBJBB@aol.com, 5/15/12) and his PD list-serve for e-mailing the link to Albro's essay.

New Film Out Today!

From Nadine Labaki, the director of "Caramel," comes a recent film about Muslim and Christian Lebanese women trying to navigate the tragedies of sectarian politics in their lives (see http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/lebanon-lens/). It opens today, promising to be thoughtful and poignant, with a soulful political message of forgiveness.

Marcel Khalife

Check out this story if you are interested in soulful folk music from the Near East: http://www.npr.org/2012/05/02/150874125/marcel-khalife-the-bob-dylan-of-the-arab-world