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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.
REFLECTIONS ON U.S. PUBLIC DIPLOMACY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
NOV 24, 2008 - 8:22PM PST
Posted by Kristin M. Lord
All posts by this author
With help from USC’s Center on Public Diplomacy and hundreds of other individuals and groups, I recently authored a Brookings Institution report on public diplomacy and what it should look like in the coming years and decades. That report is available on-line at Voices of America: U.S. Public Diplomacy for the 21st Century. This blog won’t retread that ground. Instead, I’d like to share some personal reflections you won’t find in the text. Reflection Number 1: I always knew that Americans were patriotic and cared about America’s image in the world, but I was stunned by the incredible outpouring of goodwill, offers to help with the report, and – most importantly – a widespread willingness to help the United States address its public diplomacy challenges. “If my country calls me,” these individuals said, “I’ll be there. I’ll step up.” This reaction spanned age groups, party boundaries, geographic locations, ranks, and professions. Tapping into this remarkable spirit of generosity could present a huge opportunity for a new president. But it is also an enormous challenge. Exactly how do you translate diffuse good intentions into tangible positive change? How do you sustain and nurture that commitment? Reflection Number 2: Though this goodwill was nearly universal, there were unsurprising but amusing geographic differences. Washingtonians felt that government officials and inside-the-beltway policy analysts had the keenest understanding of America’s foreign policy needs and should keep a steady hand on the helm. New Yorkers felt that Washington is a denizen of inside-the-box bureaucrats dealing with a problem that needs outside-the-box thinking – best found in the private sector in general and the New York private sector in particular. Those in Los Angeles called attention the real center of power in the world: Hollywood. Reflection Number 3: I had to jettison all standard operating procedures to write this report. My inner academic yearned to pore over historic texts, contemplate theories of persuasion, and conduct comparative studies of public diplomacy around the world. I just didn’t have time to do that. Moreover, I doubted that approach would fill the current need. (Note to horrified scholars: Worry not. I’ve done this on other occasions.) Instead, I spent time on Capitol Hill, in executive branch agencies, with military officers, with the educational exchange community, and with executives in private companies. I talked to democracy advocates, foreign policy leaders, scientists, development professionals, regional experts, and scholars. My job, I realized, was not to write an academic journal article but rather to develop, to the best of my ability, a vision of U.S. public diplomacy that would be effective, appealing, politically plausible, flexible enough to adjust to changing circumstances, and enduring – and one that could be supported by a broad coalition of Americans in government, the private sector, universities, and NGOs. I realized that U.S. public diplomacy will only be effective if it mobilizes the talents of Americans, in all their diversity – the many Voices of America.
Read Comments (3) | Add Your Own
 Read Comments:
M.E. "Bud" Jacobs on November 26, 2008 @ 7:14 am:
Dr. Lord has done our country and its public diplomacy a great service. I hope her report serves to stimulate thinking in the Obama administration and the Congres about this critical issue, especially with regard to her recommendation that we not "reinvent" USIA or something like it, but move in an entirely different direction with the establishment of the USA-World Trust. Well done!
Michele on December 4, 2008 @ 6:23 pm:
Here's one great example of the recommendations in action!
U.S. Department of State and the Adobe Foundation Launches Online Video Contest to Amplify U.S. Public Diplomacy
Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Goli Ameri, in conjunction with the Adobe Foundation, launched an online video contest on December 1 to amplify U.S. public diplomacy using web-based outreach campaigns and social media platforms. The "My Culture + Your Culture = ? Share Your Story" video contest is part of a Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) initiative to encourage cross-cultural community building and mutual understanding via the web and social media platforms. The contest also highlights the newly designed website, exchanges.state.gov.
The Department of State and contest co-sponsor, the Adobe Foundation, invite members of the ExchangesConnect online community to submit a short video (up to 3 minutes) on the contest’s theme. Video submissions will be accepted December 1, 2008 to January 26, 2009. The ExchangesConnect community will vote on video entries and an expert panel of judges, all ECA exchange alumni, will rank the "top 40" videos. Two foreign and two American winners will be selected by ECA. International winners will be eligible for a two-week all-expenses paid exchange trip to the United States; the American winners will receive the same to an overseas destination.
http://exchanges.state.gov/news/ovc.html
Joe Johnson on December 12, 2008 @ 8:50 am:
Kristin's remarks about differing world views around the U.S. were evident in the listening session that I attended and the presentation, too. Her report comes closer than any I have seen to balancing them in the interest of the real customer of public diplomacy -- the American taxpayer.
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