by Bruce Gregory* Michele Acuto, “World Politics by Other Means? London, City Diplomacy and the Olympics,” paper delivered at the International Studies Association, San Francisco, April 2013. Acuto (Program for the Future of Cities, University of Oxford) looks at how global cities participate in world politics as political and “(para)diplomatic” actors. His case study of London’s activities in securing, planning, and managing the 2012 Summer Olympic Games explores the evolving role of cities as diplomatic [...] Read more »
Return of a King: A Cautionary Narrative for Afghanistan
by Steven R. Corman Here is a quiz: In what South Asian war did a country invade to pursue its own interests, overthrow an existing government and establish a client regime, encounter effective resistance by local insurgents despite the superiority of its army, fight to a stalemate, and withdraw when resources and interest waned back home? If your answer did not include the British East India Company (EIC) invasion of Afghanistan in the 19th century, [...] Read more »
Narrating the Exit from Afghanistan E-book
by Steven R. Corman Narrating the Exit from Afghanistan is now available in a Kindle version. A description of the book is available here. There is also a brief review by Tom Wein, here. Read more »
Diplomacy’s Public Dimension: Books, Articles, Websites #64
by Bruce Gregory* Christina Archetti, Understanding Terrorism in the Age of Global Media: A Communication Approach, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). In a book that challenges conventional approaches to understanding the role of the media in terrorism studies, Archetti (University of Salford, UK) offers a new framework to explain ways “in which terrorism is socially constructed through communication.” Her book includes four areas of inquiry: (1) the role of communication, “more or less mediated by technologies,” in [...] Read more »
Narrating the Exit from Afghanistan
by Steven R. Corman With the United States and NATO set to withdraw all or most forces from Afghanistan in 2014, a key question is: How do we want to be remembered for our efforts there? The current narrative of the Afghanistan war is a mess. Yet the narrative of the war, as history tells it, will affect future domestic support for counterinsurgency operations and our credibility with local populations where conflicts take place. If [...] Read more »
Narrative Landmines in Syria
by Steven R. Corman On Thursday, March 20, Small Wars Journal published Narrative Landmines: The Explosive Effects of Rumors in Syria and Around the World by Scott W. Ruston, Chris Lundry, Pauline Hope Cheong and Daniel Bernardi. Ruston and Lundry are Assistant Research Professors at the CSC, and Cheong and Bernardi are former CSC affiliates. The essay addresses rumors in Syria, based on the narrative approach to rumors that the authors present in their book Narrative Landmines: Rumors, Islamist Extremism [...] Read more »
The Difference between Story and Narrative
by Steven R. Corman A presentation by John Hagel, Chairman of Deloitte, at the recent SXSW conference has been getting a lot of play in the blogosphere. In it, Hagel advocates differentiating story from narrative. While he is right to draw the distinction and gets some of the differences right, he misses some key features of narratives that explain why they can be so persuasive. In his presentation, Hagel notes the power of stories for [...] Read more »
Smith-Mundt Has Been Modernized
by Steven R. Corman I was shocked to see in a post at bbgstrategy.com that the 2013 Defense Authorization Act had passed and was signed into law over the holidays with Smith-Mundt modernization provisions intact. I say shocked because of the sh#*tstorm that erupted when these provisions were proposed last summer. I thought this was a no-go, or would at least require a fight, but the critics seem to have either lost track or lost [...] Read more »
Public Diplomacy: Books, Articles, Websites #63
by Bruce Gregory* “Amb. Ryan Crocker in Conversation with NPR’s Steve Inskeep,” 2012 Annual Banquet Keynote Address, Middle East Institute, November 13, 2012. Inskeep, the host of National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, interviews retired US Ambassador Ryan Crocker. In discussing a range of issues relating to Afghanistan and the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, Crocker offers considered views on lessons from the death of US Ambassador Chris Stevens. “One of the lessons [...] Read more »
U.S. Asia Policy: From Pivot to Pirouette to Pivot
by Norman Vasu* While the United States (US) government attempts to pivot towards Asia, China’s recent diplomatic and military moves suggests it is China who has the more robust and thoroughgoing strategy in the region. In effect, China’s latest moves leave the impression that the US pivot has become an aimless pirouette. At the foreign ministers’ meeting in July this year, China displayed how it has effectively become a de facto member of the Association [...] Read more »