The Foreign Service Journal, May 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2014 13 to attend the April meeting in Moscow. In addition, we have decided that G-7 energy ministers will meet to discuss ways to strengthen our collective energy security.” Since Moscow was invited to join the forum in 1998 as a gesture to encourage the nascent democracy to align with Western powers, the decision to hold the foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, where NATO is headquartered, may well be meant to hammer that point home. There is little reason to believe the snub will induce Russian President Vladimir Putin to roll back his country’s “annexation” of Crimea. Speaking at the Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague (where the G-7 issued its statement), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov responded: “If our Western partners believe that this format has become obsolete, then so be it. We are not cling- ing to this format and we do not see big troubles if the group does not meet.” Still, might such moves deter Putin from further aggression toward Ukraine or other former Soviet repub- lics? Michael A. McFaul, who recently stepped down as U.S. ambassador to Moscow, believes it might. In hi s view, “The G-8 was something [Russia] wanted to be part of. This for them was a symbol of being part of the big-boy club, the great power club—and the club of democracies,” he adds. But other commentators insist that expulsion from the G-8 actually serves Putin’s interests, freeing him from keeping up the pretense that he shares Western values. In a March 3 New York Times op-ed, William Inboden, a profes - sor at the Clements Center for History, dismisses the Kremlin as a “kleptocratic autocracy” and says, “It’s long been clear that Russia doesn’t belong” to the West. Nor will “jettisoning the G-8” harm the global economy, concludes David Bosco, an assistant professor at Ameri- can University. He points out that the Group of 20 (which includes Russia) emerged as the principal forum for global economic issues in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. (The next G-20 summit will take place in Brisbane on Nov. 15-16.) — Bret Matera, Editorial Intern MTV Fights Trafficking R emember the old days when MTV just showed music videos? Today the pioneering network harnesses the power of its world-famous brand to support social action campaigns. One such campaign is MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking), which works in partnership with USAID and Australian Aid. MTV EXIT seeks to help end human trafficking and exploitation “by raising awareness, promoting positive behavior change and driving social action.” Based inThailand, MTV EXIT works with “influencers” around the world, including international and local celebri- ties, anti-trafficking and youth organiza- tions, government agencies and young people, primarily in the Asia Pacific region. So far, the campaign has put on 38 large concerts, including a Jason Mraz appearance in Myanmar and concerts in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and even Timor-Leste, featuring many of the most popular Southeast Asian artists. Through films, TV shows, music vid- eos, concerts, public service announce- T he University of Southern California’s Center on Pub- lic Diplomacy was established in 2003 as a partner- ship between the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. In 2008, USC received the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplo- macy from the U.S. State Department in recognition of its work to “advance and enrich the study and practice of public diplomacy through its research, professional educa- tion and public engagement.” To enhance its ability to carry out that mission, CPD has redesigned its website to connect PD professionals to colleagues around the world, help them dig deeper into its original analy- sis and curated content, and share their work with the global PD community. The new and improved site offers access to daily news, blogs, inter- views and multimedia content, as well as the largest free collection of public diplomacy resources anywhere. —Steven Alan Honley, Contributing Editor SITE OF THE MONTH: http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org