US State Department 'charm offensive' hits bumps

Several other recent events – such the airing of footage shot by an Australian news team of US soldiers burning the bodies of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan – have set back a $680 million campaign that President Bush considers vitally important. Mr. Bush appointed his longtime friend and adviser Karen Hughes as undersecretary for public diplomacy to head the effort. Yet despite these problems, the US effort to win the "hearts and minds" of the Muslim world continues, and is achieving some small victories along the way.

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Recent opinion polls have shown that the US image abroad is up slightly, but still largely negative in many countries, including those the US considers close friends around the world.

James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, a Washington-based nonpartisan political research group, says part of the problem with the US effort is that the message meant for domestic audiences about the war against terrorism, " ends up trumping the public diplomacy message every time."

Part of the problem may extend from messages the administration has sent about the Iraq war. After the conflict began in March 2003, State Department talking points intended for the foreign and domestic press highlighted different rationales for the invasion, according to a US official who closely monitors the US image abroad.

"For an American audience, you would say, 'We're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here,'" he said. "The second point would be that we are trying to make the world the better place," he said, adding that the emphasis would be reversed for the foreign audience.

Problems with the US image now are starting to hurting US business abroad, according to Keith Reinhard, chairman of the New York advertising firm DDB Worldwide, and founder and president of Business for Diplomatic Action. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported last week that Mr. Reinhard recently told an audience of US government officials and business leaders that "sooner or later, anti-Americanism is bad for business."

In an interview in Sunday's New York Times, Reinhard pointed to the impact on just one sector, the travel business. Trips to the US from foreign countries are down 1.5 percent from 2000 levels. "One share point is 7.6 million visits and $12 billion in sales, because people who visit from other countries tend to stay longer and spend more. That's the equivalent of 153,000 jobs and lots of tax dollars." He says there are four root causes for the problems with the US image abroad. The first one is the war in Iraq.

Another is the arrogance, ignorance and insensitivity of American people. A third reason for anti-American sentiment is the pervasiveness of American pop culture. We're not the only source of "cool" anymore. And the fourth reason is the effects of globalization. In developing countries, they resent the fact that American-led globalization has, in their minds, left them out.

Experts say anti-American sentiment is not new and this particular crescendo has been building for two decades, since the fall of Communism. We decided history was over and that we had won. We cut back cultural exchanges, which were so important during the cold war: music and art, jazz in particular. We cut back on the US Information Agency and Voice of America. Then geopolitical events, and differences with US geopolitical policy, ignited that sentiment.

Ms. Hughes also has come under some heavy criticism during her travels to promote the US image abroad. She has faced some tough questioning and criticisms during recent trips to Turkey and Indonesia, largely from women in her audiences.

But Hughes has also had some successes. The Associated Press reported Sunday that during a recent visit to Southeast Asia, she secured a pledge from Malaysia to spread its message of progressive Islam "to help fight terrorism and foster peace in Iraq."

She described Malaysia's concept of "Islam Hadhari" – a modern, moderate approach to Islam in which religion and science go hand-in-hand – as a "powerful example" in spreading racial tolerance and interfaith respect around the world. She said Muslim majority Malaysia also is a role model for Iraq as it strives for democracy.

"We think it is a particularly important example for places like Iraq right now as Iraq seeks to establish its own government and seeks to have different factions within its own country work together in a united way," Hughes, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, told reporters.

Also...
• A goal being realized in Iraq ( The Boston Herald)
• Bush legacy threatened by violence in Iraq ( New York Daily News)
• Does Condi realize the danger of Europe's anti-Americanism? ( IntellectualConservative.com

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan .