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"A Travesty of a Mockery of a Sham"
Just the blowoff......The single most important Public Diplomacy official in the government is the Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. But Charlotte Beers left that job in March 2003 and wasn't replaced for nine months. Her successor, Margaret Tutwiler, an able diplomat and information specialist, made it clear she didn't want the job, She said last month she's leaving June 30. Meanwhile, the Board of Broadcasting Governors, which operates independently of the rest of the P.D. system and has a budget nearly as big as the State Department's, has closed the Arabic service of Voice of America and started Radio Sawa, which mainly plays pop music. An expensive U.S. satellite-TV network in the Mideast has promise -- but it's not clear whether its goal is to build audience or actually change minds. Public diplomacy today, as Woody Allen said in an utterly different context, is "a travesty of a mockery of a sham." But it requires only a single step to fix. Just as the President declared war on terror, he needs to declare a mobilization of public diplomacy to support that war -- to eviscerate our enemies in the battle of ideas and images. He'll find eager warriors in the public and private sectors. He should begin by naming a Cabinet-level counselor in the White House to set and monitor an overall P.D. strategy for State, Defense, broadcasting and the rest of government. It's incredible, but we don't have a strategy today. The U.S. is home to Madison Avenue and Hollywood, to the world's best political polling and commercial marketing. But we are failing miserably to win hearts and minds, not just in the Middle East but around the world. There's no excuse. None at all. Posted by: tipper 2004-05-20 |
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