Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 3 - 2004 (mainly Iraq)
How the US could improve its image abroad from People's Daily Online How the US could improve its image abroad The international image of the US has aroused more and more concerns and discussions at home. The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has held several hearings on such issues as "the tarnished US international image and the concern on it". People responsible for the polling confirmed on the hearings that their polling conducted in scores of countries around the world showed that in the recent 2 to 3 years, positive attitude toward the US in many countries was declining sharply. Giving "the more and more serious anti-US sentiment in some areas and nations around the world", all mainstays of the Committee, either democrats or republicans, agreed that it was of utmost urgency to improve the US image in the world. Attendees at the hearings proposed a number of tactics on how to improve the US image overseas. The most important channel, they thought, was to beef up public diplomatic efforts to get their policies go through. Republican Lugar, Chairman of the Committee, said that the US should not presuppose the negative attitude of the people in other countries as lack of understanding and turn a blind eye on it when the US has to cooperate with other countries in the fight against terrorism. He added that it was necessary to interpret America's views to other countries and demonstrate America's generosity and humanity. Veteran senator democrat Biden echoed that many foreigners with anti-America attitude actually did not have much idea about the US and the US should try to help them learn the truth. The reason why the US was facing so many problems, he claimed, was that the US failed to explain well why or why not they would take an action. To this end, conference participants were busy with two must-be-done things. The first is to take more care of the public diplomacy. Aside from official communications with many countries around the world, attention should be paid to communicate with citizens in these countries. Senior official responsible for the public foreign affairs in the State Department of the US acknowledged that they had not done enough in getting in touch with people outside the upper class in foreign countries which had grown to be more powerful than they used to be. She attributed this to the insufficient input of resources into the public diplomacy. She pointed out that there were merely 1200 staff members engaged in public foreign affairs in the US embassies around the world, only a half of that in 1990s. She urged the change of the situation. Biden and other senators expressed their support by asking the State Department for more funds. The second strategy is to make the voice of America louder. Especially the "freedom of press" should be established in developing countries. They assumed that many foreign citizens did not understand the US just because there was "no freedom of journalism" in these countries. They even criticized by name that some countries had no "freedom of journalism" and interfered and controlled too much on media. Lugar has submitted a bill to the Congress calling for the State Department to earmark special funds to the US National Endowment for Democracy to help developing countries establish "free and fair journalism and media". Attendees said that they could no longer wait until others to tell the tales of the US. For example, TV stations like Al-Jazeera in the Arabic world, should be deprived of the right to do what they want. The US should reinforce its own power of publicity and compete with Al-Jazeera, etc. It seems that the US would not only attribute its deteriorating image in the world to its "insufficient efforts on the public diplomacy and publicity", but also shift the blames onto the foreign governments and media. It assumes that it is the best way to "get rid of" the TV stations like Al-Jazeera which always strikes up "something harsh" by the US ear and overseas media which is brave enough to tell the truth and refuse to speak in one voice with the US. Then, how about make the whole world dumb and mute except the US so that America's "voice of freedom" can be the only one in the world and say whatever the US wants to say? Wouldn't this be the most efficient way for the US to break a path for its idea and philosophy to sneak into the people's hearts and mind, thereby building up its images in the world? To really embellish its image, the US should first and foremost be ready to make a change of its inherent habit in which it claims to be presumptuously infallible. Especially it should give up its bossiness and never impose its concept of value on others. Instead, it should treat others on an equal footing. In addition, it should stop playing the role of a "world gendarme". Only in this way can the US refine its image in the world. By People's Daily Online |