Tag: Vaclav Havel

International Broadcasting, Public Diplomacy

Who is the leader of the Free World? – Reagan, Bush, Obama – lessons in public diplomacy in response to anti-democracy crackdown in Belarus

En ce moment, il n’y a plus de pilote dans l’avion. [At the moment, there is no longer a pilot on the plane.] — A European comment on President Obama as a leader of the Free World.

TedLipien.com TedLipien.com, Truckee, California, USA, January 03, 2011 — Who is the leader of the Free World when democracy is under threat?

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International Broadcasting, Poland, Public Diplomacy

Who is the leader of the Free World? – Reagan, Bush, Obama – lessons in public diplomacy in response to anti-democracy crackdown in Belarus

En ce moment, il n’y a plus de pilote dans l’avion. [At the moment, there is no longer a pilot on the plane.] — A European comment on President Obama as a leader of the Free World. TedLipien.com, Truckee, California, USA, January 03, 2011 — Who is the leader of the Free World when democracy is under threat? For a…

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International Broadcasting

Armenian journalist appeals to Obama to protect rights of foreign journalists at U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Armenian journalist Anna Karapetian (photo) has written a letter to President Obama asking him to protect the rights of foreign journalists employed by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which is managed by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) and funded by U.S. Congress. IT’S THE MORALITY, STUPID a commentary by Lev Roitman Evidently, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) bureaucrats (President…

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Public Diplomacy

U.S. Embassy blames diplomatic gaffe on a Polish translator but a problem runs much deeper

TedLipien.com, SAN FRANCISCO — Bill Clinton might have asked what the “enhanced” definition of  “to enhance” IS?  The U.S. Embassy in Warsaw is busy blaming a Polish translator for mistranslating U.S. Ambassador Lee Feinstein’s TV interview answer about Polish troops in Afghanistan,  which caused a diplomatic uproar in Poland. In an interview broadcast last Saturday,  Ambassador Feinstein  thanked Polish prime minister and…

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Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Obama’s bad foreign policy decisions may have good unintended consequences for public discourse in the U.S.

SAN FRANCISCO — Sometimes really bad decisions produce some unintended good results. Two recent public diplomacy disasters caused by President Obama’s questionable judgement — where was Judith McHale and the State Department diplomats? — had some unexpected good consequences, as did the winning of the Nobel Peace Prize despite his lack of any concrete foreign policy accomplishments. Some of his recent…

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Cold War, History, Poland, Russia

Ambassador Arthur Bliss Lane’s warning about naive idealism in foreign policy

SAN FRANCISCO — Arthur Bliss Lane (16 June 1894–12 August 1956) was the United States Ambassador to Poland (1944–1947). He served earlier as the U.S. Ambassador to the wartime Polish government-in-exile in London and was with the U.S. diplomatic mission in Poland in 1919. During the interwar period, he had a number of other diplomatic assignments in Western Europe and…

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Poland, Public Diplomacy, Russia

Walesa on Obama’s Missile Diplomacy – American Diplomacy Failed Obama in Poland Update

“It wasn’t that the shield was that important, but it’s about the way, the way of treating us.”   –Lech Wałęsa, the former Polish president and Solidarity leader, regarding the US decision to drop the missile defense shield in Poland; John Brown’s Public Diplomacy Press and Blog Review, Version 2.0   Dear Poland, Happy Soviet Invasion Day, Love Uncle Sam…

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Cold War, Digital Journal, Public Diplomacy, Russia

September 17, A Wrong Date for Obama White House to Snub Poland | Digital Journal Ted Lipien Op-Ed

The following is my op-ed for Digital Journal. Republishing is allowed. September 17, A Wrong Date for Obama White House to Snub Poland President Obama’s announcement on September 17 that the US is shelving its plans to build a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system in Central Europe is likely to raise painful historical memories in Poland. By making the announcement…

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Uncategorized

A Sense of Betrayal Propels A Journalist to Seek Help from the European Human Rights Court Against the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors

 FreeMediaOnline.org & Free Media Online Blog, Commentary by Ted Lipien, April 15, 2009, San Francisco — When Anna Karapetian, an Armenian-born journalist, accepted a job offer in 1995 from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a U.S. government-funded radio station that promotes democracy and the rule of law mostly in the countries of the former Soviet Union, she could not have imagined that nearly 15…

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Uncategorized

Armenian Journalist Hopes Obama Administration Will Protect Foreign Workers Rights at RFE/RL

Anna Karapetian, a journalist from Armenia who in radio broadcasts funded by the U.S. government reported on human rights abuses in her country, is one of many people around the world who see Barack Obama’s inauguration as a hopeful beginning of a new era of change in Washington.  Ms. Karapetian hopes that with Mr. Obama’s strong commitment to protecting workers’ rights, the new administration will…

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