Better U.S. image abroad: how to attain it?

Presidential candidates cite intent to improve US stature, but retooling policies is complicated.

By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the January 30, 2008 edition

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Washington - Hillary Rodham Clinton would send prominent emissaries to world capitals the day after being elected president. John McCain would close the Guantánamo detention facility and renounce the use of torture. Barack Obama would speak to all foreign leaders, even America's worst enemies.

With global views of the United States seemingly stuck at historic lows, improving America's image abroad has emerged as a prominent issue of the 2008 presidential campaign. In debates and speeches, candidates acknowledge to varying degrees that everything from the prospects for diplomatic initiatives to America's economic well-being in the global economy hinges in part on how the world views the US.

And they are offering ideas, like those cited above, for how the image slide can be reversed.

But changing America's world image will take more than campaign rhetoric, experts say, especially in the post-9/11 era. Although they note that much of the blame for a deteriorated image is placed at the feet of President Bush, they say it won't work for the next president to seek a return to where the US was in 2000. Rather, they say, the next US leader should try to discern the kind of leadership the world is craving for the 21st century.

"The image challenge is much more about substance than symbols; but changing some of what the world perceived as the more egregious policies of George Bush will be necessary but far from sufficient," says Bruce Jentleson, a professor of public policy at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and a member of the State Department policy planning staff during the Clinton presidency. "The next president has to realize the world has changed, and there's no going back to square one."

The sharp decline in America's image abroad is acknowledged by the Bush administration, which has launched various public-diplomacy campaigns to try to reverse it. At one point, Mr. Bush named one of his closest advisers, Karen Hughes, to take on the task of polishing America's brand around the world. Despite those efforts, a majority in many countries that once had a positive opinion of the US now view it negatively.

In NATO ally Turkey, for example, a Pew Global Attitudes Project survey last year found that only 9 percent of Turks had a positive view of the US, down from about half in 2001.

Reversing the low stature may be helped along by the arrival of a fresh face in the White House, but what it will really take is a change in unpopular policies, analysts say – from the war in Iraq to the more restrictive criteria for granting US visas. But some unpopular policies, among them some of those resulting from 9/11, are likely to remain unchanged no matter who is president.

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