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What Russian and Georgian Diplomacy?
By Moira Whelan
Democracy Arsenal
August 14, 2008
It seems the Bush Administration is now trying their hand at diplomacy in the Caspian region. I wanted to give note to something told to me by a friend of NSN.
Earlier this year, the Voice of America, one of America’s leading arms of public diplomacy in the world, made the decision to cut service in Georgia as of September. It had also made an earlier decision to decrease service into Russia to just a bit of tv and internet. This means basically that when US officials have weighed in on the latest developments, there is no US agency able to carry that message to the Georgian or Russian people.
Why would the US government do this even as we knew tensions in the region were growing? As with most other things, the answer is simple: money. The $7 million for service to former Soviet states was cut in order to give priority instead to Alhurra and Radio Sawa designed to provide influence in the Middle East, a program described as “a huge boondoggle” by folks that work at VOA, since basically no one listens to it or watches it and yet we’re spending $500 million a year on it.
That's right folks, save $7 million on effective programs in order to waste $500 million on programs that are failures, but failures in a popular part of the world. If $500 million is what was needed for an effective program, than we should do it, but apparently internal VOA discussion shows significant disappointment with programming: individuals who lack cultural and religious credibility have been hired dooming broadcasts to irrelevance. Broadcasts are not adequately translated because of a lack of individuals who speak specific dialects. Little things like this mean that basically, it's not money well spent.
Apparently VOA skated through the latest developments in Georgia just fine, mainly because most of the employees of the Georgia service where actually in Tblisi at the time looking for work.
But when basic mistakes like cutting an inexpensive and yet effective diplomatic tool are made, it strikes me as a continuation of a major complaint people have had for years: incompetence is not only not prevented, it seems to be the governing principle in the Bush Administration.
Senator Tom Coburn's activity on the Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security
340 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2254 Fax: 202-228-3796
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