Gary Rawnsley
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garydrawnsley.bsky.social
Gary Rawnsley
@garydrawnsley.bsky.social

Head of the School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Lincoln. Research on propaganda, public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy & soft power. Lover of all things literary. Has Crohn’s Disease. Views expressed here are mine & mine alone. .. more

Gary David Rawnsley is a British political scientist whose research is located at the intersection of international relations and international communication. Rawnsley writes extensively on soft power, public and cultural diplomacy, propaganda, international broadcasting, media and democracy, and political cinema. He is the author/editor of 13 scholarly books, and the book review editor of Journal of International Communication and International Journal of Taiwan Studies. Since 2023, he has been Professor of Public Diplomacy & Soft Power and Head of the School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Lincoln. From 2020 to 2022, Rawnsley was a professor of public diplomacy at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) of this university. .. more

Political science 46%
Sociology 25%
Pinned
Delighted my new article published by Social & Cultural History is available open access. The title is 'Chance of a Lifetime (1950): Class, Collaboration, & the Shifting Landscape of British Cinema'. Many thanks to all who gave feedback especially the reviewers. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Chance of a Lifetime (1950): Class, Collaboration, and the Shifting Landscape of British Cinema
Chance of a Lifetime (1950) examines entrenched class hierarchies while dramatising the socio-economic realities of post-war Britain. This article explores how the film reframes class relations thr...
www.tandfonline.com

This is the kind of welcome response to emergency situations one has come to expect from the BBC World Service; but is increasingly difficult with cuts in funding & determination to move language services online
BBC World Service launches a temporary emergency lifeline radio program on medium wave and shortwave for Iran in response to the ongoing turmoil in the country and the unprecedented crackdown on protests. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/202...
BBC launches emergency lifeline radio programme for Iran
The programme will air daily for 30 minutes across medium and shortwave frequencies
www.bbc.co.uk

Reposted by Gary D. Rawnsley

BBC World Service launches a temporary emergency lifeline radio program on medium wave and shortwave for Iran in response to the ongoing turmoil in the country and the unprecedented crackdown on protests. www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/202...
BBC launches emergency lifeline radio programme for Iran
The programme will air daily for 30 minutes across medium and shortwave frequencies
www.bbc.co.uk

Tonight I finished reading Taken As Red by Anushka Asthana. Critics here have not been kind but I enjoyed it

Wonderful Panorama tonight featuring fellow Leeds Uni alum (both 1991) & “defecating squirrel” @bbcstever.bsky.social. Fascinating insight into the life & work of the BBC’s Russia editor. Also threats to/importance of journalism & the power of narratives
Double-headed eagles, white parrots and “defecating squirrels”: my experiences reporting from Russia. Our film ‘Our Man In Moscow’ for BBC Panorama is available on the iPlayer
and will be shown on BBC One at 8pm tonight (Mon Feb 2).
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Steve Rosenberg on the tightrope of reporting from Russia on Ukraine war
The BBC's Russia editor reflects on the difficulties of working as a British journalist in Moscow.
www.bbc.co.uk
Double-headed eagles, white parrots and “defecating squirrels”: my experiences reporting from Russia. Our film ‘Our Man In Moscow’ for BBC Panorama is available on the iPlayer
and will be shown on BBC One at 8pm tonight (Mon Feb 2).
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Steve Rosenberg on the tightrope of reporting from Russia on Ukraine war
The BBC's Russia editor reflects on the difficulties of working as a British journalist in Moscow.
www.bbc.co.uk

Finally got a copy of Philip Larkin’s Complete Poems. Studied Larkin - along with Ted Hughes, John Betjeman & Wilfred Owen - for O Level Eng Lit 40 years ago. Larkin’s humour cheers me up in very difficult times #Booksky

2026 is the centenary of the publication of my favourite #Hemingway novel, Fiesta or The Sun Also Rises - so the perfect excuse for a re-read. Also inspired by the always brilliant One True Podcast, hosted by Mark Cirino & featuring Carl Eby #Booksky

A terrific blog by @emma-briant.co.uk on the decline of US public diplomacy & soft power
🔥America Once Sold ‘Democracy’ to the World—Now It’s Undermining Its Own Message

My latest article published in the CPD Blog: uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/america...
America Once Sold ‘Democracy’ to the World—Now It’s Undermining Its Own Message
As democracy weakens, imperial ambitions gain momentum and disinformation spreads, some foreign audiences now view the U.S. as a central locus of the problem, underscored by the country’s aggressive p...
uscpublicdiplomacy.org

Very sad news. Have listened to Mark Tully on the radio for decades & turned to his books to better understand India. Few journalists could match his passion & expertise. Had the honour of meeting him at the Ilkley Literature Festival. RIP
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Mark Tully, the BBC's 'voice of India', dies aged 90
Tully covered some of the defining moments in India's history in a career that spanned decades.
www.bbc.co.uk

If only the UK was a member of some kind of … I don’t know … European bloc or trade alliance so these countries could be united in standing up to Trump www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c1...
Trump vows extra tariffs for UK, Denmark and other European countries until Greenland deal struck - follow live
The US president says the countries will be charged a
www.bbc.co.uk

When I am unwell I retreat to comfort reading & re-reading. Since Xmas I’ve been re-reading the Smiley books in sequence, starting with Call for the Dead. Now halfway through The Honourable Schoolboy & it is much better than I remember. This is the 1978 Pan edition I’m reading #booksky
Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

Ahem ….

Yes, I thought exactly the same. Really not the same

When does a robbery become a ‘heist’? Surely it is only a heist when masterminded by Michael Caine & involves a fleet of minis?

The UK's soft power: the experience of visitors, many of them from overseas, at the Houses of Parliament.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
'It has the X-factor' - the view from the Commons public gallery
Who would choose to spend the day watching MPs talking? We spent a day in the visitors' gallery to find out.
www.bbc.co.uk

Lost count of my re-watches. Didn't like the Zoe kidnapping story, but that was a minor blip. I also think that Arnie Vinick should have won in Season 7. BUT still brilliant and the photo you show is from one of my favourite episodes. Poor Mrs Landingham and the story of her "boys".

Today’s reading: John Carey’s gloriously piercing critique of English literature in the first half of the 20th century #booksky

In 2012 I wrote this blog about a 1955 radio programme, hosted by Bing Crosby & broadcast around the world by the Voice of America. At the end of an awful year for #VoA I repost it here & send my best wishes to everyone associated with that remarkable station wwwpdic.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-ch...
A Christmas Sing with Bing
Christmas has a smell. For some, it may be mince pies or a turkey roasting in the oven; for others, pine or holly. For me, Christmas smells ...
wwwpdic.blogspot.com

Grew up listening to Bing Crosby Christmas albums from the 1950s. One song was Happy Holidays - doesn’t mention Xmas once

‘Better off with #Taiwan’: Honduras joins other Latin American countries rethinking ties with #China’ - effect of broken promises & shifting geopolitics

Reflecting & communicating #Taiwan’s considerable soft power @audreyt.org discusses how she has built Taiwan’s digital diplomacy capacity & safeguards democratic resilience

Reposted by Gary D. Rawnsley

‘Better off with Taiwan’: Honduras joins other Latin American countries rethinking ties with China
‘Better off with Taiwan’: Honduras joins other Latin American countries rethinking ties with China
US pressure, broken promises by China and corruption scandals have halted Taiwan’s slide to diplomatic irrelevance in the region
www.theguardian.com

An excellent blog by Neal Rosendorf that presents 'A Post-Trump Domestic Policy Roadmap to Restore U.S. Soft Power. The author understands that soft power is not based on culture but on political institutions, values, behaviours & a recommitment to democracy. uscpublicdiplomacy.org/blog/post-tr...
A Post-Trump Domestic Policy Roadmap to Restore U.S. Soft Power
Neal Rosendorf outlines a post-Trump bipartisan plan to restore America’s reputation and soft power.
uscpublicdiplomacy.org

Very sad to learn John Carey has died. A towering intellect & a champion of the arts. Love his What Good are the Arts? and his memoir, An Unexpected Professor.

Following the recent wonderful @empirepoduk.bsky.social miniseries on Rudyard Kipling, just picked up my copy of Andrew Lycett's biography. That's my Xmas reading sorted! @anitaanand.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social

I really recommend Left Handed Girl. Amazing performances by the three main actresses but Nina Ye is outstanding; and an incredible number of supporting actors (Chao Xin-Yan especially). Heartbreaking, uplifting, inspirational, funny.
This movie helped me understand myself and my background and my upbringing in a way that I have yet to fully process.

Amazing filmmaking and the left-handed girl will steal your heart.

Many thanks to HE The Deputy Ambassador of Kuwait for speaking with colleagues & students from the School of Social & Political Sciences. We discussed a range of issues, inc. history of Kuwait-UK diplomatic relations, education as an engine of deepening relations & role of experts in foreign policy