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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.

THE USA-WORLD TRUST IS AN IDEA WHOSE TIME HAS COME
JAN 6, 2009 - 1:00PM PST
Posted by Mitchell Polman
All posts by this author

The Brookings Institution's report on its proposed USA-World Trust has unleashed a predictable torrent of criticism from the public diplomacy community. To be sure, not all of the commentary has been negative, but much of it has been. The critics are rehashing many of the same tired arguments that have been used to kill any ideas to deal with today's public diplomacy realities. Predictably much of the discussion has centered on how the trust is or is not like the old US Information Agency (USIA). Many seem to be asking why if we are going to create the Trust then why do we not just recreate USIA? The answer for that is quite simple: The USIA was created in 1953 and America has changed a great deal since then. In 1953 most Americans who had traveled overseas or had an interest in foreign cultures were either recent immigrants, the children of recent immigrants, or had missionary backgrounds. That is no longer the case. In my travels across America I have met countless Americans who have served in the Peace Corps, studied abroad, worked overseas, served in the military overseas, travel abroad for pleasure annually, married a foreigner, or have hosted exchange students. There are now hundred of thousands of Americans who hold degrees in international affairs or related fields such as international public health or international business. The days when America was an insular and isolated nation are long gone. Many inside the Beltway still can't seem to grasp this. One time I heard a Washington based journalist tell a large group of visiting foreign journalists that nobody in America knows the difference between Sunni and Shi'a Islam. Two weeks later I was in a Minot, North Dakota coffeeshop with two of those journalists and we overheard two middle-aged men nearby discuss the differences between Sunni and Shi'a Islam. The local state university in Minot had a relationship with Johns Hopkins SAIS that enabled their students to participate in SAIS' programs in China. I have many other similar anecdotes. The fact is that there are many Americans who are working at the grassroots level to build ties with other nations and they don't need professional diplomats to assist them. The Internet is making it that much easier for Americans to independently conduct their own versions of public diplomacy. What Americans do need is an institution that can provide them with the financial support that is necessary to empower them to build on those ties. I myself - and many other Americans I know - have been involved with many fine projects that failed to get off the ground for lack of a very modest amount of funding. Our current public diplomacy structure still operates under the assumption that only foreign policy professionals can create public diplomacy programs. In short, we need to put the "public" into public diplomacy. That is not the case now and it would still not be the case if we re-created the old USIA. Given that…... FULL TEXT
 
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Audrey on January 14, 2009 @ 9:05 am:
I really enjoyed reading this. I agree that a new approach to public diplomacy is needed and the USA-World Trust would be a way to harness the ideas of private individuals who have more freedom to act than public servants.

I have spent most of my life somehow connected with public diplomacy efforts - child of a State/USIA diplomats, Peace Corps, employee of international broadcasting organization - but currently I am just a private individual on a journey around the world. This trip has shown me the large gaps in public diplomacy efforts, especially outside capital cities. Our interactions in places like Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan showed that there is a sincere interest to learn more about America than what is seen on the nightly news and in Hollywood movies.

It's time to tap the creative ideas of private individuals/organizations and use technology effectively.

I look forward to reading more.
Audrey
http://www.uncorneredmarket.com

James on March 29, 2012 @ 12:38 am:
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