Definitions of public diplomacy and public affairs:
Public Diplomacy:
Public Diplomacy seeks to promote the national interest of the United States through understanding, informing and influencing foreign audiences.Public Affairs:
Public Affairs is the provision of information to the public, press and other institutions concerning the goals, policies and activities of the U.S. Government. Public affairs seeks to foster understanding of these goals through dialogue with individual citizens and other groups and institutions, and domestic and international media. However, the thrust of public affairs is to inform the domestic audience.
David Corn on the problem with American public diplomacy:
Of course, the problem is US policies, not the administration's PR efforts. As a report produced by the Defense Science Board last year notes, "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather they hate our policies [in the Middle East]." The Bushies talk about public diplomacy--when the bother to do so--as a marketing issue. ("Gee, I just don't understand why they don't want to buy our new chalk-tasting cola? We must not be pitching it right.") No, this is about product. True, you can successfully market crap and all sorts of stuff that harm consumers. But it sure helps to be peddling something that people want and that they consider high-quality.
Fred Kaplan at Slate has similar concerns:
The assumption was that a clever ad can sell America in pretty much the same way that a clever ad can sell Coca-Cola, Nike, or Britney Spears. The fundamental flaw in this notion isn't so much that Arabs or Muslims overseas are different from Western consumers: They too are susceptible to shrewd marketing. Arab Muslims can take a swig of Coca-Cola, try on a pair of Nikes, or listen to Britney's new hit. If they like it, they might buy it and gradually develop a loyalty to the brand. If they don't like it, the best ad in the world won't convince them otherwise--just as, in America, not even Bill Cosby's endorsement could overwhelm the wide consensus that the New Coke was swill.
In consumer marketing, it's not just the slogan that counts; it's ultimately how the product tastes, feels, looks, or sounds. The same is true with public diplomacy. The product matters: What's important is what the U.S. government does. As a recent RAND Corporation paper on public diplomacy [PDF] put it, "Misunderstanding of American values is not the principal source of anti-Americanism." Sometimes foreigners understand us just fine; they simply don't like what they see. The study concludes that "some U.S. policies have been, are, and will continue to be major sources of anti-Americanism." (Italics are in the original.) It didn't matter what ads [previous Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy] Tutwiler produced: Her audience already distrusted Brand America.
Three or so years ago, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy had a meeting to talk about Middle Eastern perceptions of the United States. At this meeting, former CIA official Graham Fuller 'hit the nail on the head:'
When President Bush was asked during some youth conference about [Prime Minister of Israel Ariel] Sharon, he replied that Sharon is a man of peace. This particular phrase has been seized upon by the media and it is regularly run, not so much as news items but as fillers between station breaks, etc. where the President says Sharon is a man of peace and then we are treated to 30 seconds or one minute of images coming from the West Bank as they mention all the destruction, Israeli tanks shooting, buildings collapsing, Palestinians being man-handled, etc. So this kind of image is very, very damaging and makes me wonder how we can possibly win some kind of information struggle for information in the region. A second comment that was seized and widely publicized just after I arrived was Richard Army's statement on Chris Matthews Hardball a couple of weeks ago in which he unequivocally stated that he favored expulsion of all Palestinians from the West Bank. You can imagine the impact that this had on Arab media and the extent to which this fueled deep suspicion of what the American agenda is. Most Arabs now feel that American interests and the interests of Israel are absolutely identical, that there is no difference whatsoever between them and that therefore they are powerless in being able to change anything.The real truth about why Karen Hughes was selected for this job: she is a partisan 'spin' doctor that will focus on the 'public affairs' aspect of her office. Influencing the domestic audience will be her primary job. She does not have foreign policy or diplomacy experience. She will be working hard to spread propaganda to the American people--to convince us that any positive change in the Middle East is a result of President Bush's bold initiatives....
This is a day of new beginnings,
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that's gone.
For by the life and death of Jesus,
God's mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference,
as faith and hope are born again.
--Brian Wren
This is a day of new beginnings, 1978, alt.
(1st 2 verses)
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that's gone.
For by the life and death of Jesus,
God's mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference,
as faith and hope are born again.
--Brian Wren
This is a day of new beginnings, 1978, alt.
(1st 2 verses)
