The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2011

J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 to develop their technological savvy and journalistic, political and entrepreneur- ial skills. She brought young people from the poorest parts of the country to programs in the capital and arranged scholarships for poor but talented students to attend top U. S. universities like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Amherst College. She reached into all sectors, including the homosexual community, with program- ming on HIV/AIDS awareness, jour- nalistic standards and human rights. Albina Burashnikova, Nina Af- anasyeva and Arzigul Kochkarova were cited “for their commitment, cre- ativity and courage in managing Amer- ican Corners in Mary, Turkmenabat and Dashoguz, Turkmenistan, respec- tively, and for connecting America to tens of thousands of Turkmeni people.” As facility and program managers, they are the face of America in their communities, advising and assisting students to study in the U.S.; providing English, Internet and leadership train- ing; managing rich libraries of Ameri- can books and movies; and organizing events on American culture and history. That they do so in one of the most restrictive societies in the world testi- fies to their courage, energy and imag- ination. The three have had a direct, measurable effect on the lives of many, empowering a new generation of Turk- meni youth. Joseph Zilligen and Carla Benini , PD desk officers in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, were honored “for their uncommon com- mitment to duty and their intelligent, steadfast and creative approaches to building broad and strong relationships with Afghanistan and Pakistan.” As the Washington leads for State Department public diplomacy pro- grams in Pakistan and Afghanistan, re- spectively, Zilligen and Benini were an integral part of the effort to secure a tenfold increase in funding for the two countries. They also ensured that the additional resources were used to achieve key PD objectives, including increasing media engagement, building communications capacity, strengthen- ing people-to-people ties and combat- ing extremist voices. Their efforts created text messaging platforms where none had existed; brought television and radio reach to at-risk populations in Kandahar and both sides of the border between Af- ghanistan and Pakistan; and helped im- prove Afghan and Pakistani outreach to audiences in Europe and the U.S. Mr. Zilligen was recognized for his exceptional support for the public af- fairs section in Islamabad during a pe- riod of unprecedented growth in re- sources and programming; for manag- ing theU.S.-Pakistan StrategicDialogue Communications Working Group; and for his diligent support for Pakistani exchangees in the United States. Ms. Benini was honored for her co- ordination of a pioneer SMS project; for advocating and supporting more European programming on Afghani- stan; and for exemplary work on a tour for Afghan journalists. For more information about the awards and the work of the Public Diplomacy Alumni Association, visit the organization’s Web site ( www.pub licdiplomacy.org ). — Steven Alan Honley, Editor The Impact of Social Media Recent events in Egypt and Tunisia intensified the debate among foreign policy analysts, communications ex- perts and sociologists on the opportu- nities — and limitations — of social media to effect political change. In the C Y B E R N O T E S