“Recommendation: Just as we did in the Cold War, we need to defend our ideals abroad vigorously. America does stand up for its values. The United States defended, and still defends, Muslims against tyrants and criminals in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. If the United States does not act aggressively to define itself in the Islamic world, the extremists will gladly it for us.
— Recognizing that Arab and Muslim audiences rely on satellite television and radio, the government has begun some promising initiatives in television and radio broadcasting to the Arab world, Iran, and Afghanistan. These efforts are beginning to reach large audiences. The Broadcasting Board of Governors has asked for much larger resources. It should get them.
— The United States should rebuild the scholarship, exchange, and library programs that reach out to young people and offer them knowledge and hope. Where such assistance is provided, it should be identified as coming from the United States.” (p. 377)
“Recommendation: The U.S. government should offer to join with other nations in generously supporting a new International Youth Opportunity Fund. Funds will be spent directly for building and operating primary and secondary schools in those Muslim states that commit to sensibly investing their own money in public education.” (p. 378)
- Campaign 2004 — Council on Foreign Relations Website:
Samuel R. Berger. “Foreign Policy for a Democratic President,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2004, pp. 47-63. The former NSC Advisor’s views for the next President include policy changes, preventive diplomacy, pragmatic multilateral approaches, restoring “America’s global and moral authority,” and “influence through persuasion.” The “war on terrorism” calls for “a third military transformation,” and a “major retooling of our intelligence agencies.” Berger does not discuss terrorism in the context of a struggle of ideas or changes in the direction and conduct of public diplomacy.
Chuck Hagel. “A Republican Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2004, pp. 64-76. Senator Hagel outlines seven foreign policy principles. The seventh principle “is the importance of strong and imaginative public diplomacy.” Hagel contends public diplomacy requires strategic direction, renewed exchange programs “that pay due weight to both security and openness,” and more public affairs officers “to engage publics in their host countries . . . listen to what they have to say, and coordinate this information into an effective public diplomacy strategy.”
Bill Clinton. My Life, (Random House 2004). Clinton’s autobiography contains very little on public diplomacy. There are brief references in the context of his overseas trips. In discussing his association with Senator William Fulbright, he mentions the Fulbright scholarship program and Fulbright’s thinking that politics is about the power of ideas. References to former USIA Director Joseph Duffey relate to his Senate Democratic primary campaign in Connecticut and mention his appointment as USIA Director. One sentence deals with USIA’s merger into the Department of State:
“I spent most of the month [April 1997] in an intense effort to convince the Senate to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention: calling and meeting with members of Congress; agreeing with Jesse Helms to move the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and the U.S. Information Agency into the State Department in return for his allowing a vote on the CWC, which he opposed . . . .” (p. 753)
Ariel Cohen. “War of Ideas: Combating Militant Islamist Ideology,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Winter/Spring, 2004, pp. 113-121. Heritage Foundation Research Fellow Cohen urges an integrated strategy of public diplomacy and political action directed at radical organizations and governments that support Islamist political violence. The author discusses targeted audiences, broadcasting, publications, cultural exchanges, education reforms, political covert action, strategic planning through a high level interagency task force, and coordination with allies.
Control Room. Documentary film directed by Jehane Nouaim, Magnolia Pictures, 2004. Control Room looks inside Al Jazeera and portrays complex issues relating to media coverage of the Iraq war and the throughtful views of several Al Jazeera journalists and one military public affairs officer at the U.S. Central Command. When available on DVD, Control Room, (84 minutes) will be useful in courses with topics on satellite television and foreign affairs, media and the military, and cross cultural communication. See also a review by Julia M. Klein, “Whose News? Whose Propaganda?” Columbia Journalism Review, July/August, 2004, pp. 54-55.
Stephen Cook. “Hearts, Minds, and Hearings,” The New York Times, July 6, 2004. Council on Foreign Relations Fellow Cook suggests the U.S. government transform its Al Hurra Arabic language satellite television network “into a kind of C-Span for the Arab World.” Available on CFR’s website.
Wilson Dizard. Inventing Public Diplomacy: The Story of the U.S. Information Agency, (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004). Public Diplomacy Council member Wilson Dizard’s history of USIA begins with its World War II antecedents and takes the story to the Agency’s merger with the Department of State in 1999. Wilson’s study of USIA’s activities, strengths, and limitations is complemented by his analysis of public diplomacy concepts, USIA’s role in facilitating cultural exchanges, parallel influence activities of the CIA and the Department of Defense, and thoughts on the future of public diplomacy. Anecdotes drawn from personal experience and his views on changes in the information environment enrich the narrative.
Francis Fukuyama. “The Neoconservative Moment,” The National Interest, Summer 2004, pp. 57-68. Fukyama provides a critique of Charles Krauthammer’s 2004 AEI lecture on democratic realism and American unipolarity. Fukyama is concerned about the “great suspicion” with which American power is viewed and finds “excessive realism,” “excessive idealism,” and failure to appreciate the harm brought by America’s “legitimacy deficit” in the neoconservative argument.
Douglas McCollam. “The List: How Chalabi Played the Press,” Columbia Journalism Review, July/August, 2004, pp. 31-37. McCollam examines the Iraqi National Congress’s influence campaign directed at prominent U.S. and British news organizations and the INC’s relations with the State Department, CIA, and other U.S. agencies. McCollam concludes from interviews and media analysis the INC heavily influenced Western press coverage in the run up to the Iraq war. He is less certain as to why so many journalists were unable to resist “the lure of the INC.”
House CJS Appropriations Committee. Report 108-221, July 2004. Title IV of the Fiscal Year 2005 appropriations bill includes public diplomacy programs, educational exchanges, and international broadcasting. The CJS Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), notes “alarming public opinion polls;” calls public diplomacy “a vital element in U.S. foreign policy;” and voices support for “American Corners,” new State Department websites, English teaching to non-elites, Fulbright student and scholar exchanges, International Visitors, cultural exchanges, Middle East Television and Radio Sawa, and maximum use of creative talents in the private sector.
— State Department
— Broadcasting Board of Governors
Azar Nafisi. Reading Lolita in Tehran, (Random House, 2003). Nafisi’s powerful novel about a group of female students who risked much in 1995 to read Western literature in a reading group in Iran is now available in paperback. Barry Fulton used it this year in his graduate seminar on public diplomacy at George Washington University’s Public Diplomacy Institute.
John Hallett Norris. “Jaded Optimists: The Young Guns of Foreign Policy,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Winter/Spring 2004, pp. 79-87. Norris, who served with State and USAID and is now with the International Crisis Group, interviewed 40 U.S. foreign policy experts between the ages of 25 and 40 in universities, NGOs, and think tanks. He concludes that adulation of the post-World War II generation of policymakers and much of the current conventional wisdom about the next generation is “remarkably wrongheaded.”
Stanley R. Sloan, Robert G. Sutter, and Casimir A. Yost. The Use of U.S. Power: Implications for U.S. Interests, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, 2004. The authors look at ways the U.S. has used its hard and soft power since 9/11, the consequent adverse impact on America’s image abroad, the potential for strategic failure in the Middle East and South Asia, and weakened U.S. positions with key allies in Europe and Asia. They offer recommendations and suggest priorities for the next Administration. ISD’s monograph will be discussed in a public session at Georgetown, 12 pm to 2 pm, September 9, 2004 on the seventh floor of the University’s Intercultural Center.
Government and Independent Organization Studies of Strategic Communication and Public Diplomacy, September 2001 – September 2004
Following is an updated and consolidated alphabetical list of studies available through identified websites:
Building Public Diplomacy Through a Reformed Structure and Additional Resources, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2002.
Changing Minds, Winning Peace: A New Strategic Direction for U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Arab & Muslim World, Report of the Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, Submitted to the Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, October 1, 2003.
Finding America’s Voice: A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy, Report of an Independent Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, September 2003.
How to Reinvigorate U.S. Public Diplomacy, The Heritage Foundation, April 2003.
Managed Information Dissemination, Report of a Defense Science Board Task Force sponsored by the Department of Defense and Department of State, September 2001.
Public Diplomacy: A Strategy for Reform, Report of an Independent Task Force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, July 2002.
Reclaiming America’s Voice Overseas, The Heritage Foundation, May 2003.
The Need to Communicate: How to Improve U.S. Public Diplomacy with the Islamic World, The Brookings Institution, Analysis Paper #6, January 2004.
The New Diplomacy: Utilizing Innovative Communication Concepts that Recognize Resource Constraints, Report of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, 2003.
Strengthening U.S.-Muslim Communications, Report of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, July 2003.
The Rise of Netpolitik: How the Internet is Changing International Politics and Diplomacy, Report of the Eleventh Annual Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology, 2003.
U.S. International Broadcasting: Enhanced Measure of Local Media Conditions Would Facilitate Decisions to Terminate Language Services. Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, February 2004.
{Note: on July 7, 2004 the name of the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) changed to the U.S. General Accountability Office.}
U.S. International Broadcasting: New Strategic Approach Focuses on Reaching Large Audiences but Lacks Measurable Program Objectives, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, July 2003
U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department and Broadcasting Board of Governors Expand Efforts in the Middle East but Face Significant Challenges, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives, February 10, 2004.
U.S. Public Diplomacy: State Department Expands Efforts But Faces Significant Challenges, Report of the U.S. General Accountability Office to the Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives, September 2003.
U.S. International Broadcasting: Challenges Facing the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Testimony of the U.S. General Accountability Office before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, April 29, 2004.