PoliticalWarfare.org

Great blog on public diplomacy in Afghanistan

Just discovered through Facebook a magnificent blog called Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan. It's run by Mahtab Farid, a US State Department public diplomacy officer in Kabul.

Mahtab is a hugely capable diplomat and communicator, and it's really gratifying to see how the State Department public diplomacy shop is allowing its officers to make more use of unofficial online media.

"Public Diplomacy in Afghanistan" contains compelling, upbeat human interest stories about individual Afghans as well as about US and Coalition troops and their relations with Afghans.

The blogger shows a particular interest in Afghan children, both in their own development as people and in their interactions with the Coalition.

I find the blog refreshing because it contains the personal observations of a US diplomat, free of the sterile processing of traditional State Department messages. It's also pleasant to read something different from the hard-hitting, often miserable stuff that I normally cover on PoliticalWarfare.org. I've bookmarked this blog and put it on my Google homepage. It's a great reminder of the many positive aspects of the Good Fight in Afghanistan.

Exclusive: New 'Strategic Influence' book is finally available

After years of anticipation, my anthology, Strategic Influence: Public Diplomacy, Counterpropaganda and Political Warfare is now available to the public.

The book won't be available in bookstores or on Amazon until October, but you can get it online through this blog.

Strategic Influence is the work of 13 scholars and practitioners in the fields of public diplomacy, counterpropaganda and political warfare. The book surveys the subjects from the American Revolution, through the Cold War, to present-day wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We strove to make the book the best single volume on the subject. It's a combination of scholarly, personal narratives and the policy essays from some of the best minds in the business - some recognizable, some emerging. Here's the table of contents:

• The American Way of Propaganda: Lessons from the Founding Fathers. J. Michael Waller, Institute of World Politics;
• What 'Strategic' Public Diplomacy Is. Carnes Lord, Naval War College;
• Public Diplomacy and Soft Power. Carnes Lord;
• Cultural Diplomacy, Political Influence and Integrated Strategy. John Lenczowski, Institute of World Politics;
• Mediators of the Message: The Role of Religion and Civil Society in Public Diplomacy. Jennifer Marshall, Heritage Foundation;
• Conducting a War of Ideas with Public Diplomacy. Robert Reilly, former director, Voice of America;
• Counterpropaganda: We Can't Win Without It. Herbert Romerstein, former director, Office to Counter Soviet Active Measures, U.S. Information Agency;
• Recovering the Lost Art of Counterpropaganda. Andrew Garfield, Glevum Associates;
• The Interagency Active Measures Working Group: Successful Template for Strategic Influence. Herbert Romerstein;
• Political Warfare: Means for Achieving Political Ends. Angelo Codevilla, Boston University;
• Political War vs Political Terror: Case Study of an American Success Story. John J. Tierney, Institute of World Politics;
• The Importance of Words. J. Michael Waller;
• Hearts and Minds Online: Internetting the Messages in the Infosphere. Hampton Stephens, World Politics Review;
• Toward a Theory of Low-Intensity Propaganda. Stephen C. Baker, Institute of World Politics;
• Red-Teaming Strategic Communications and Political Warfare. David Spencer, National Defense University;
• A Comprehensive Approach to Information Operations. Andrew Garfield;
• Synchronizing Rhetoric, Policy and Action. Juliana Geran Pilon, Institute of World Politics;
• An Immediate-Term Wartime Message Strategy. J. Michael Waller;
• Getting Serious About Strategic Influence. J. Michael Waller.

Strategic Influence is published by the Institute of World Politics Press. The original edition was published for restricted circulation in 2007. This edition was revised in 2009 but was not available until today, and will not be generally available to the public until October 2010.

The book is only available at present - as a paperback and as an e-book - by clicking here.

Videos about Iran's rock underground

From Persian Cats to Yellow Dogs from Jehangir Irani on Vimeo.

Yesterday's post led me to look around for some good videos about Iran's rock underground, and some research about the Yellow Dogs led to these excellent segments. The first one, above, is a look at Iran's young people and how they express themselves through music - with help from supportive parents and corrupt police - focusing on the Yellow Dogs band.

Below is a CNN report on rock in the Middle East. About 1:42 into the video is the section on the Iranian rock underground, with an inside look at Yellow Dogs and the rock scene in Tehran. Following the CNN report is a music video of the Iranian band Hypernova, that just released its debut album, in English, this spring. Hypernova began as an underground band in Iran but is now based in the West and has a more polished look and sound.

The musical threat to Iran's regime

How can we take down Iran's soon-to-be-nuclear-armed regime without firing a shot? There are a number of ways, but the Islamic Republic has been openly betraying its greatest fears: music.

Not just the rock, punk, rap and hip-hop cultures that the regime is trying to repress, but all music. 

Eric Felten writes about it in the Wall Street Journal. In an August 18 piece titled "Why Dictators Hate to See Us Moved by Music," he begins with a recent quote from Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared that music is "not compatible with the highest values of the sacred regime of the Islamic Republic."

The problem with music is that "it affects people profoundly and can't be controlled," Felten observes.

And lack of control is what the regime fears - a legitimate response from the hated tyrants who rule a country in which 70 percent of the population is under age 35.

Felten continues in his column with recent psychological studies about the effects of music on individuals' moods, emotions, and overall states of mind. 

Some of Iran's best rock groups are making it to the West and performing abroad, even in the United States. The group Yellow Dogs (pictured) is one of them.

There's an amazing popular cultural revolution going on in Iran today - a youthful, widespread, pro-western rebellion against the sharia regime of the Islamic Republic. Time for the rest of the world to get on board.

(Hat tip to SD)

There's still time to sign up for my political warfare course

Here's good news for those of you in the Washington, DC area who want to spend edifying Thursday evenings: There's still time to sign up for my political warfare course at the Institute of World Politics.

The four-credit course, Political Warfare: Past, Present and Future, is an intensive 14-week survey of the history, philosophies and techniques of political warfare from antiquity to the present. We study the classics - ancient Greece, Rome, India and China and the Hebrews, among others - and move on through the Crusades and then to Machiavelli, the American Revolution (particularly Samuel Adams), 19th century Europe, World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution, Antonio Gramsci, Saul Alinsky, and present-day Islamic political warfare.

Like most of IWP's graduate-level curriculum, the Naval War College accepts this unique course as an elective. I'm teaching the course at IWP in downtown Washington, DC, on Thursday nights from 6:30 to 9:30 pm. Class starts on September 2.

Apply online at www.iwp.edu (click on upper left corner). For a list of required readings and other course descriptions, see the unofficial course website at www.politicalwarfare.us.

My Foreign Propaganda, Perceptions and Policy course, offered on Monday evenings, is full this semester. In Spring 2011, I will be teaching Public Diplomacy and Political Warfare.