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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 11/03
Finding America's Voice: A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy
Peter G.Peterson, Kathy Bloomgarden, Henry Grunwald, David E.Morey, Shibley Telhami, Jennifer Sieg and Sharon Herbstman
September 2003
Executive Summary
The United States has a growing problem. Public opinion polls echo what is seen in foreign editorials and headlines,legislative debate,and reports of personal and professional meetings. Anti-Americanism is a regular feature of both mass and elite opinion around the world. A poll by the Times of London,taken just before the Iraq war,found respondents split evenly over who posed a greater threat to world peace,U.S.President George W.Bush or then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. At the same time,European antiwar protests drew millions,and several national leaders ran successfully on anti-American platforms. Americans at home and abroad face an increased risk of direct attack from individuals and small groups that now wield more destructive power. The amount of discontent in the world bears a direct relationship to the amount of danger Americans face.
What is most surprising is how quickly the tide of sympathy turned. In the immediate aftermath of September 11,2001,the United States experienced an emotional outpouring of what German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called "unconditional solidarity." The cover of the French newspaper Le Mondeproclaimed "Nous sommes tous Américains,"("We are all Americans"),and in an extraordinary move,NATO members invoked Article V of the common defense treaty,agreeing that an attack against the United States was an attack against all.
Much has changed. What seemed on September 11 to be a problem of America's image in the Muslim world has grown into a larger issue. From Paris to Cairo,from Bonn to Amman,from Madrid and Moscow to Istanbul and Jakarta,ordinary citizens actively oppose fundamental American policy decisions. An independent surveyfound that in seven of eight nations polled,at least a plurality believed that American foreign policy is having a negative effect on their country. The challenges that have resulted for American diplomacy as leaders respond to popular opinion,from thwarted access to military bases in Turkey to the inability of the United States to gather UN Security Council support for the liberation of Iraq,are serious and the consequences are real.
