Politics: US Public Diplomacy : Whatever happened to the US effort to tell its story to the world's peoples?

The USA used to work hard at explaining itself and its current policies thru an single-minded agency making an all-out effort. Just before 9/11 the Clintonite diplomats of the State Department under Madeleine Albright got ahold of the US Information, merged it into the State Department, and broke it into pieces - dispersing its fragments to area bureaux and the kingpins who run bureaux regional desks as little emirates of their own. Stephen Johnson, Helle C. Dale, and Patrick Cronin, Ph.D., present the Executive Summary of their Backgrounder #1875 on the matter, and you can read it by clicking the blog entry headline above.

The final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States said that America’s biggest failure leading to the events of September 11, 2001, was a lack of imagination. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, terrorist dangers were hardly men tioned as priorities in America’s policy debates. Likewise, leaders in both the legislative and executive branches considered public diplomacy (PD) a Cold-War relic in the absence of a powerful adversary.

... While overseas opinion polls show mostly negative views of the United States, the State Department’s communications machinery remains in disarray. Congressional funding for public diplomacy programs has increased only slightly since 9/11, interagency coordination remains minimal, and America’s foreign communication efforts lack a focused strategy. More worrisome, new programs may not be effective in confronting the array of security, foreign policy, and economic challenges emanating from the Middle East.

On July 29, 2005, the Senate confirmed Karen Hughes as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. As a close adviser to President George W. Bush since he was Governor of Texas, she should have his backing to advance needed reforms, but her task will be daunting and limited to fixing one part of the larger public diplomacy effort.

The threesome writing this report - Johnson, Helle, and Cronin - offer an important analysis with a number of policy recommendations. An important read. - Politicarp