Public Diplomacy in the Middle East

In my other blog, Critical Thoughts, I discuss the inherently dishonest nature of public diplomacy efforts targeted at the Middle East. These efforts have been driven by a top-down agenda seeking to "Americanize" the Middle East, with the notion that an Americanized Middle East public would be more favorable toward the US and its agendas. An Americanized Middle East would be more closely aligned with US values,and hence would be favorable toward US security interests and would supply markets for US multinational corporations.

In recent years, the language of dialogue and listening have been incorporated into these public diplomacy efforts although they continue to be driven by one-way agendas of changing the target audience. This outward show of listening serves to hide the top-down agendas of current public diplomacy efforts and makes these top-down communication strategies look more humane and dialogical.

Pointing out the failure of such strategies as they are inherently dishonest, the culture-centered approach suggests the importance of a commitment to listening that is focussed on reflection and transformation. The transformation here is not outwardly directed at the other, but is inwardly directed, based on reflection. Visits such as that of Dr. Rice are likely to be meaningful entry points for dialogue only when they are committed to honesty, transparency, and ultimately to listening that leads to transformation.

If Dr. Rice were to "truly" listen to the voices from the Middle East, one would hope that she would return to the US with questions regarding US strategies in the Middle East and with suggestions for the ways in which US foreign policies can become more humane and responsive to the issues facing the Middle East. If Dr. Rice were to "truly" listen to the people of the Middle East, she would begin by being accountable to the people of the Middle East instead of telling the Middle East what the US plans to do, and by being answerable for the thousands of civilan deaths caused in the Middle East by current US actions in the region.

The whiteness of binaries that erase the Global South: On Communicative Inversions and the invitation to Vijay Prashad in Aotearoa

When I learned through my activist networks that the public intellectual Vijay Prashad was coming to Aotearoa, I was filled with joy. In my early years in the U.S., when learning the basics of the struggle against the fascist forces of Hindutva, I came in conversation with Vijay's work. Two of his critical interventions, the book, The Karma of Brown Folk , and the journal article " The protean forms of Yankee Hindutva " co-authored with Biju Matthew and published in Ethnic and Racial Studies shaped my early activism. These pieces of work are core readings in understanding the workings of Hindutva fascism and how it mobilizes cultural tropes to serve fascist agendas. Much later, I felt overjoyed learning about his West Bengal roots and his actual commitment to the politics of the Left, reflected in the organising of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a political register that shaped much of my earliest lessons around Global South resistance, collectivization, and orga...

Upper caste Indian women in the diaspora, DEI, and the politics of hate

Figure 1: Trump, Vance and their partners responding to the remarks by Mariann Edgar Budde Emergent from the struggles of the civil rights movement , led by African Americans , organized against the oppressive history of settler colonialism and slavery that forms the backbone of US society, structures around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) formed an integral role in forging spaces for diverse recognition and representation. These struggles around affirmative action, diversity, equity and inclusion were at the heart of the changes to white only immigration policies, building pathways for migration of diverse peoples from the Global South. The changes to the immigration policies created opportunities for Indians to migrate to the US, with a rise of Indian immigration into the US since the 1970s into educational institutions, research and development infrastructures, and technology-finance infrastructures. These migratory structures into the US were leveraged by l...

Whiteness, NCA, and Distinguished Scholars

In a post made in response to the changes to how my discipline operates made by the Executive Committee of the largest organization of the discipline, the National Communication Association (NCA), one of the editors of a disciplinary journal Rhetoric and Public Affairs (RPA), Professor Martin J. Medhurst, a Distinguished Scholar of the discipline, calls out what he sees as the threat of identity (see below for his full piece published in the journal that he has edited for 20+ years, with 2019 SJR score of 0.27). In what he notes is a threat to the "scholarly merit" of the discipline, Professor Medhurst sets up a caricature of what he calls "identity." In his rhetorical construction of the struggles the NCA has faced over the years to find Distinguished Scholars of colour, he shares with us the facts. So let's look at the facts presented by this rhetor. It turns out, as a member of the Distinguished Scholar community of the NCA, Mr. Medhurst has problems wit...

Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

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