User blogs

It’s at least likely that you’re one of the over 100 million people who have seen the Kony2012 video. Perhaps you’ve tweeted, blogged, Facebooked (sic – it really is a verb), Tumblrd or passed it on in other ways.

Public diplomacy has become a ‘hot button’ issue, not just for diplomats but for a whole clutch of non-state actors – those active in business, culture, education, the media, public affairs and scholars, and even tourism – all of whom contribute to PD and are affected by it.

The 'shift in power from governments to social actors' as Anne-Marie Slaughter, puts it, is very significant for e-diplomacy. This is partly because this opening up has changed both the context and roles of diplomats. But is is also because the tools of e-diplomacy, especially social media, both influence and are impacted by concomitant changes in leadership and relationship styles.

(Beautifully Presented Bull S*t)

This articulate and articulated graph is on view in http://bit.ly/V70CUH. Good for a rainy Monday morning:

The scope of the uncertainly in which we are living is growing exponentially. When it comes to handling this new reality, we can no longer think in terms of certainties; we need to move to thinking in terms of probabilities and adapt accordingly.  According to Diplo’s resident contrarian, Aldo Matteucci, speaking at Diplo’s conference in Innovation in Diplomacy this week in Malta, adaptive diplomacy is an attitude, an attitude that views uncertainty as a source of opportunity that can be explored creatively.

One of the beauties of the internet is sharing “interesting” information. It’s like real life: if you need to rush to the hospital, you’ll ask the cop on the beat. If you need to find the street your friend lives in, you’ll ask a passerby. Easier, and the downside risk is limited.

The same goes for books. People get together to summarize and read books – and then share it on the net.

I've often maintained that any experience - even one we do not consider important - may become transformative.

Sometimes a little fun is worth a ton of authority

here is a new version of Air New Zerand's safety instructions

(those you always disregard when you fly to another destination

(I hope the link works)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cBlRbrB_Gnc

A Snapshot in Foreign Affairs [1]  provides a good summary of the current state of international “hydro-politics” around the world. Here the main results:

1. In short, predictions of a Water World War are overwrought. However, tensions over water usage can still exacerbate other existing regional conflicts. Climate change is expected to intensify droughts, floods, and other extreme weather conditions that jeopardize freshwater quantity and quality and therefore act as a threat-multiplier, making shaky regions shakier.

The “command and control” (or “principal – agent”) approach is built on the assumption that by achieving “information dominance” a government can shape events to suits one’s purposes. Karl Rove famously argued: “We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.” The war in Iraq proved him disastrously wrong.

George PACKER’s thorough and thoughtful analysis of the experience on the ground in Iraq (http://nyr.kr/P1CTBP The Lesson of Tal Afar – in New Yorker) shows that in a social reality achieving “information dominance” is delusion.