News from Kabul (the Siege of a Cultural Centre)

The Siege of the British Council, Kabul

BBC report (1) and BBC (2)

Telegraph

The British Council Afghanistan, official website

What the British Council does in Afghanistan

When culture stays alive (Paul Smith)

From BBC update:

British Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said: "My thoughts are with those killed and injured and their families and friends, including locals working to protect the British Council building".


Sky News

The Telegraph

Mail Online

In due course (I have no doubt) there will be discussions about cultural relations and 'soft power' (already mentioned by Sky News'  Foreign Editor, Tim Marshall) in the context of the theories of Joseph Nye Jr, Nicholas J. Cull and James Pamment, author of "The Limits of the New Public Diplomacy", Doctoral Thesis, Stockholm University, Sweden, 2011.

Soft power is a very regrettable term. Soft target, unfortunately, is not so inaccurate.

Tim Marshall has used both terms in news bulletins today.

British Council statement

Martin Davidson, Chief Executive (Huffington Post)

Some of my own thoughts, from "Representing Britain in Times of Hostilities" in "Literatures of War" (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008)

"The global situation in 2007 was very different, with Tony Blair talking of the need to use 'soft power' alongside the 'hard ower' of military intervention in certain foreign countries. We never considered cultural relations work in Eastern Europe as a form of 'soft power'. It was based on principles of reciprocity, exchange, civilised dialogue and 'mutuality'. At times of active hostilities and the resort to 'hard power', it is unlikely to prove possible or effective to attempt to use 'soft power' (however defined( unless in the form of propaganda."