Articles on how to fix public diplomacy are thick on the ground these days, and most of them are run of the mill stuff. This contribution to the debate is, I think, better than average. The author, Professor Richard Pells, visited Indonesia, and came up with interesting suggestions to improve public diplomacy in the Muslim world (though his suggestions have a wider application). One is to substantially enlarge and improve university collections of books, periodicals, and DVDs on American subjects beyond the level of American Corners, and another is to promote semester-long visiting professorships. Essentially, he believes ignorance of America, not ill-will towards America, is the real problem.
Read it for yourself at:
http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=vzzg8kami4j4d7op4iqlskzi7kibed
or via the excellent Arts and Letters Daily web site at:
http://www.aldaily.com/
Tel Aviv IRC (Ralph Amelan)
No comments:
Post a Comment