Image problems hamper US on goals abroad

Most experts anticipate that the elections in Belarus will not be free and fair, so observers will be watching how Russia - and Western Europe - respond to potential postelection controversy.

A similar test could arise in Southeast Asia, where the Bush administration is encouraging its partners there to apply pressure for reform of the military dictatorship in Burma (Myanmar). The US is expected to move for a UN Security Council resolution on Burma as early as January, and will be looking for support from Asian countries including India, Japan, the Philippines, and Thailand.

The Bush administration has also made improving America's image abroad a priority. Its importance was underscored when Bush named one of his closest advisers, Karen Hughes, to head up the State Department's public diplomacy efforts, a job she took on in earnest in the fall.

But a string of events that undercut the ideals it espouses to the world hurt America's public-relations effort, experts say.

"What Katrina exposed, the questions over renditions and torture of terror suspects, and now the domestic spying controversy - all of this has really hit our image hard around the world," says Lawrence Korb, a former Defense Department official in the Reagan Administration now at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

Mrs. Hughes has acknowledged that the task of promoting American ideals abroad is more difficult that she anticipated. With global access to - and interest in - US news so high, efforts to discuss democracy and human rights abroad are often clouded by American issues such as race relations, the death penalty, or domestic spying.

"I was in Europe when all the hoopla broke over Bush's authorization of domestic spying, and what I kept hearing from people was, 'You guys sound like the Soviet Union during the cold war,' " says Mr. Korb.

The US scored high points and won some hearts with its outpouring of aid after the South Asian tsunami and, to a lesser extent, with its response to the Paki- stani earthquake. "But on balance I'd say we had a net loss," Korb adds. "Unfortunately, these other issues dominated that expose the US to charges of hypocrisy."

In 2006, Iraq and the success or failure of its political evolution will continue to play a major role in influencing how other countries respond to US initiatives. But if anything, the Iraq experience will probably remain a wedge between the US and its partners, sapping their enthusiasm for joining US efforts at spreading democracy that some leaders contend can be dangerously destabilizing.

"The hope in Washington was that 2005 would be the year Iraq would be put behind us [diplomatically]," says Gvosdev. "But that didn't happen, and it's not likely to happen next year, either."

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