Ways to burnish America's image abroad

But the panel also concludes that it is not just unpopular policies, but a failure to explain those policies and demonstrate an interest in dialogue about them with the rest of the world, that is hurting America's cause just as much.

At the State Department, which is the lead agency for public-diplomacy efforts, officials welcome the call for more resources for a job that has been heavily curtailed since the end of the cold war. They say what is being proposed is basically a modernized version of what the US used to have around the world, when the former US Information Agency had libraries and PR campaigns, and budgets for academic exchanges were larger.

Ironically, America's public-diplomacy effort was cut back even as the information age exploded and mass communications, through cable and satellite programming often hostile to the US, became everyone's domain.

But some officials say the hearts-and-minds battle will continue to be an uphill fight - principally because US policy remains widely unpopular. What can help, however, experts say, is a sustained effort to explain the values and motivation behind those policies - and to listen more to foreigners as to why they are unpopular.

"Our policy is the issue, but no one wants to acknowledge that," says one official who asked not to be named. "Basically the policymakers don't care much about the impact on foreign opinion of those polices." Still, the official says more of the kinds of efforts the panel recommends - more public debates, and making sure the US point of view is represented in more foreign-news broadcasts - are important.

For example, Mr. Djerejian, a former assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, says the panel was dismayed to view a tape of a recent Arab satellite TV program entitled "The Americanization of Islam" that claimed the US was determined to change a religion followed by 1.5 billion Muslims to its liking. The claims were made with no opposing point of view.

One experienced foreign-service officer notes that the number of officers with specific training in public diplomacy has fallen sharply since the cold war. Fluent speakers of languages spoken in Arab and Muslim countries have also declined.

"We have to face the fact that we haven't been as engaged as we were," the officer says, "and that disengagement is taking its toll." He echoes the view that unpopular policies make the effort difficult, but adds that a long-term effort to explain the American perspective - and to appear interested in listening to others - can still win points.

Others cite another key problem in the age of instant global information: what may be meant for domestic consumption now reaches quickly around the world - and isn't always well received.

"It's distressing when hundreds of hours of goodwill from our officials appearing on Al Jazeera, trying to put out a favorable view of America, can be undone by 10 minutes of chauvinistic and offensive commentary" on US media or by US officials at home, says Charles Freeman, a former ambassador with experience in the Middle East.

"Public diplomacy is important because people appreciate the effort, but it has to be honest and can't be seen in terms of how to spin unpopular policies," Ambassador Freeman says. "Spin won't do it."

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