Public Diplomacy Plans for the Future

Since September 11, all of us have focused on the war on terrorism, which Secretary Powell and President Bush have called a war against a common threat to the world -- not a war against Islam.  This focus on the war and its consequences has been necessary, and I have reported on our more immediate efforts in my recorded remarks.

Today, however, is exactly nine months after that fateful day.  So I want to use these few minutes to talk with you about the issues we feel are a longer-term priority.  As President Bush says, "This will be a long war."

We have to be able to enter the Information Revolution aggressively to build a larger presence -- what I'd call a larger "share of voice" engaged in discussing shared ideas and values.

We have to continue to strengthen and defend our considerable ability to speak with government officials and elites. 

At the same time, we must improve considerably our communication with the mainstream of young adults, especially in the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia -- even those young adults outside of cities.  We have to meet this expanded target on their terms and in their channels of distribution.

To enlarge our audience -- to include the very young under 20 -- we must develop plans, resources, and teams to activate the huge multinational companies as well as exchange students from U.S. universities.  We must encourage our foreign exchange visitors to talk about our common values and to demonstrate the aspects of democracy that lead to personal progress.  These commitments will require changes in the allocation of resources, skills and structure.

We must broaden our polling capacity to include diagnostic research that evaluates "why" as well as what attitudes exist abroad, and use this research to lead us to improved programs.  We've already hired an outside consultant to help shape such sophisticated research.  We also want to expand our training of public diplomacy officers considerably to include modern marketing and communications skills.

Secretary Powell and I are addressing public diplomacy structural issues in this, our third year of consolidation [of USIA and the State Department].  This inquiry will examine how we can maximize communication, innovation, and accountability within the public diplomacy family, as well as the status of public diplomacy at the table of policy development.

Where do we turn for programs that a better trained public diplomacy team, reaching out to a larger audience, can implement with confidence?

We have one proven program -- international exchanges -- that can generate nothing less than a total transformation.  Let me illustrate.  We just had a brave woman, a Saudi novelist and journalist, who dared the rejection and anxiety that surrounded her when she said she was coming to visit the United States. 

These are her words once she returned to Saudi Arabia:  "Everyone says that Westerners are bad and mean, but it isn't true.  People here are telling a bunch of lies about the West.  The people I met are nice; they're friendly; they smile.  Nobody stares at you or follows you around.  They don't waste money.  They don't leave food around.  They respect limits.  Their customs are nice.  In America, men and women cooperate together to make their lives better.  They help each other.  They're organized, and they plan for the future.  They like to have real dialogues on many subjects.  The women are strong.  Older people are active and engaged."

And she said about the people with whom she lived in the home for a period of time: "There were three generations in the house, and they have been close to their neighbors for years.  Why do we get told these stories about how the family is broken in the West?"

Believe me, we have countless stories of such transformations.  So how can we magnify this experience -- from 25,000 a year to 10 times that?  We can activate some of the 700,000 exchange visitors we've hosted plus the countless hundreds of thousands of other foreign students who have come to our universities on their own to help spread a more balanced picture of the U.S., its governance, and its people.

We are creating our American Room that will use virtual reality to depict American culture on one wall, computers linked to databanks, and a street in a typical American city on another wall.  Finally, we will connect viewers to someone like them in the U.S.  We hope to place these "Rooms" in universities, libraries, malls, and in buses traveling to smaller towns.  We hope that they will act as catalysts for more open dialogue.

We can greatly increase visits from journalists, newspaper writers, and television producers who can go home and offer their insights from a totally different perspective. 

We need to establish a media center to train Muslim journalists and reporters in the region and to help them get direct interviews with U.S. officials.  We can turn the proven practice of English teaching into a story with even greater value through the use of pictures and music.

We can ask or aid third parties who are authenticated to carry our messages -- like Muslim Americans who are forming speaker groups or organizing conferences and forums for dialogue.

We can also work with the leading satellite TV stations such as the Middle East Broadcasting Company (MBC), Lebanese LBC, Al Jazeera, and Future Television, which are keen for new programming and assure us they are open to new material.  Hollywood, PBS, and Discovery have offered to help us acquire such programs.  We can create completely new programs like an Arabic magazine for young adults as well as Internet programs that include training and equipment (by far the most efficient way to assure a two-way communication).

We already have a number of "proofs" against the frequently repeated distortions that we are a materialistic and greedy society.  They are in the USAID programs you've supported steadfastly over the years.  But these are largely unsung stories that must be brought to bear on negative attitudes.  We have uncelebrated stories of victories for the democratic process in job creation and enterprise-building from many countries.

Even at this moment, when it is so popular to dislike facets of the U.S. -- particularly in the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia --  we've uncovered potent common values.  Both groups, here at home and overseas, rank faith, love of family, education, and a respect for generosity among the top six attributes worthy of respect.  All of this can actually be as important a topic for conversation as our foreign policy. 

Even those youths who rail against us one minute will the next minute readily admit they would like to study American science and technology.

So, to me, the picture is promising.  But the need to prepare, test, and field these programs is urgent.  Granted, they are necessarily long-term and must be consistently supported to bear fruit.  That's why this time with you is so important to us in public diplomacy -- to ask you to consider aggressive support of such longer-term programs now, as we move to prove their merit. 

Our three strategic goals, detailed in my remarks for the record, are:

• Re-presenting American values and beliefs -- to create an exchange of common values;
• Demonstrating the opportunities that result from democratization, good governance, and open markets; and
• Supporting the education of the young.

It is the third goal, however, that I believe is the most likely to improve our relationship with the Islamic countries.

Ultimately, educating these populations of young men and women can save them from fanatical interpretations of Islam and give them access to science, technology, books, and a broader view of the world.  Every experience we have tells us they will then not settle for limitations, biases, or hatred.  And they will lead us.

This Saturday I heard an eloquent address from Ehud Barak about his journey as prime minister of Israel.  He referred to a signature moment, when his great friend, fighting by his side 30 years ago, was shot by an Egyptian soldier.  A young graduate student in the audience -- from Egypt -- addressed this question to former Prime Minister Barak:  "My two friends seeking to marry were told they couldn't because their parents had feuded 30 years ago.  They did marry though and are very happy - and have two children and a small new house.  Why can't we, rather than destroy homes, build them?"

Thank you.