From Deseret News archives:

USIA needs to be revived to fight anti-Americanism

Published: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:11 a.m. MDT
 |  E-MAIL | PRINT | FONT + - 
Each candidate in the presidential election has recognized the need, once in office, to galvanize public diplomacy to improve the image of the United States abroad.

Congress is also seized of the issue. A House subcommittee has held a series of hearings that affirm in recent years a "precipitous decline in favorability" toward the United States and its foreign policy.

At the urging of Congress, the Department of State, current home of the government's public diplomacy efforts, has commissioned a study to review the instruments and techniques needed to burnish the U.S. image. Three interested organizations, the Brookings Institution, the Business for Diplomatic Action group and the Washington-based Public Diplomacy Council, will conduct hearings in Washington, New York and Los Angeles in July to assess the views of interested parties.

Story continues below
Key to the debate is whether the government's public diplomacy, or "soft-power" effort, should remain based in the State Department or should become a separate institution. Republican candidate John McCain has already pronounced on his choice if he becomes president. In Foreign Affairs, he wrote: "In 1998 the Clinton administration and Congress mistakenly agreed to abolish the U.S. Information Agency and move its public diplomacy functions to the State Department. This amounted to unilateral disarmament in the war of ideas. I will work with Congress to create a new independent agency with the sole purpose of getting America's message to the world — a critical element in combating Islamic extremism and restoring the positive image of our country abroad."

With the end of the Cold War, adopting the happy view that America's foes were now few, Congress opted to make public diplomacy a lower priority. USIA programs were cut back, and the remnants and lingering personnel of the agency eventually subsumed under the State Department, whose professional diplomats are schooled not in public relations, but the art of close-to-the-chest, government-to-government negotiations. Public diplomacy has thus been deprived of a separate agency whose sole reason for being is to amplify the American story to publics around the world, using the latest communications technology and the skills of practitioners who live, breathe and dream the mission.

Recent comments

For all the Mormons in the house, there was a political adviser from...

IIE Again... | Aug. 21, 2008 at 3:38 p.m.

Working for the International Visitor Leadership Program under the...

IIE | Aug. 21, 2008 at 3:26 p.m.

Wow. Thomas sees so many stupid people out there. That means he must...

Lewt | July 23, 2008 at 9:26 p.m.

previousnext

Latest comments

Gifts for gamers

There are some games I love not on your list. Arkham Asylum for one.

Daughter: Mitchell fed me my pet

Our parents made my brothers help kill and clean our rabbits before we ate...

Why would you keep it open? I would understand if there was a lot of amazing...

The government will run our health care well? Read Reader's Digest, November...

BCS stable at top, Y. up to 14

TCU stomped on the MWC so they are naturally ready to crush Florida, Alabama...

Jazz win 6th in 7 games

could you understand Dave Locke any more than my mom does and she is not even...

Notre Dame fires Weis

Attending the ND/BYU game 3 years ago in south bend, a couple of things stuck...

I missed the game, actually i heard a little bit of Locke on the radio (man...

Hall's pain reflects self-betrayal

quotes were good: Article was dumb and unnecessary.

Understanding translation process

I believe the art depicting Joseph looking at the plates may possibly be...

Advertisements