Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 3 - 2004 (mainly Iraq)
US panel faults outreach to Muslims by Bryan Bender  #
US panel faults outreach to Muslims Coordination of efforts urged By Bryan Bender, Boston Globe Staff, September 25, 2004 WASHINGTON -- US efforts to win over the world's Muslims via news broadcasts, cultural exchanges, and other initiatives to explain American policies to skeptical audiences abroad are uncoordinated and underfunded, and risk sending contradictory messages about US intentions, according to a report by a bipartisan review panel appointed by President Bush. The report, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe yesterday, criticized the administration and Congress for not adequately funding the communications aspects of the war on terrorism, and noted that one successful initiative -- exchange programs between US and foreign students -- has been burdened by ''redundant" security measures and ''excessive" visa fees. The report also offered a mixed critique of public relations efforts to promote the United States abroad -- some launched three years ago when Bush recruited advertising executive Charlotte Beers to publicize US interests. New radio and television networks seem to be attracting audiences, but need to expand. Beers left the administration last year. ''The agents and structures of public diplomacy need to be properly coordinated to achieve maximum efficiency," the report said. ''Public diplomacy messaging must become more strategic and responsive, and at the same time must properly reflect the values and attitudes of target audiences." The advent of satellite television and the Internet have provided unprecedented opportunities in the war on terrorism for the United States to engage in international dialogue, according to the report. This is especially so in the Middle East, where the dearth of alternatives to government-controlled news is swiftly being reversed by greater access to outside information, the panel said. But the Bush administration and Congress, while making some progress, have not elevated the public diplomacy mission to the ''national security" status it requires, according to the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a bipartisan State Department panel appointed by the president. More than a fifth of US Foreign Service officers responsible for explaining American policies to foreign media overseas lack necessary language skills or cultural training, the report said. Funding for cultural exchange programs, considered key to fostering long-term relations with future leaders, is ''stagnant," the report said. The budget for the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Exchange went from $242 million in 1993 to $245 million last year, ''a contraction of funding in real terms," it said. And because of restrictive entry requirements, the number of foreign students studying in the United States, which in the 1990s had been increasing more than 10 percent a year, grew by less than 1 percent between 2002 and 2003. The number of students from the Middle East studying in America was down 10 percent in the same period, the report said. A State Department spokesman declined to comment on the 44-page report, which she said will be released Tuesday. Specialists in international communications said they worry that unless the US government takes a more aggressive approach in engaging young people abroad, especially in the Muslim world, Islamic extremism will continue to spread. Craig Brown, vice president of AYUSA, a group based in San Francisco that brings foreign students to study and live in the United States, said that during the 1990s the United States cut back on many of the programs it relied on during the Cold War to attract people to the United States, maintain American libraries overseas, and provide fellowships. ''I am very concerned that the Al Qaedas of the world are trying to . . . take huge segments of the world out of dialogue or discourse with the rest of the world," he said. ''If that happens, then we truly have a dangerous situation. We have to make people part of the world community." Still, there have been some advances, according to the State Department report, noting that ''significant progress has been made in many areas." For example, Bush and other top officials, previously criticized for using terminology that alienates the Islamic world, have moderated their language over the past year. A State Department official who asked not to be named said Bush's statements are often the most effective way to deliver America's message to the world, and it seems the president's advisers are relying on a ''more skillful use" of language. The report said Bush's use of the term ''evildoers" to describe terrorists is more effective than words like ''jihad" or ''mujahideen," which have positive connotations in much of the Muslim world. The report also said recent US-funded broadcasts in the Middle East have overcome some initial suspicion that they were propaganda mouthpieces for Washington and they seem to be making some inroads. Radio Sawa, launched in March 2002 to provide a mix of music and news to the Middle East, draws a large percentage of adult listeners in some countries: 73 percent in Morocco; 42 percent in Kuwait; 41 percent in Qatar; 35 percent in the United Arab Emirates; 27 percent in Jordan; and 11 percent in Egypt. The newest US broadcast initiative in the Middle East, the Alhurra television channel, was found to be ''very or somewhat reliable" by 53 percent of viewers in a recent poll, according to the report. During one week, 29 percent of respondents indicated that they had tuned in. Among some of the encouraging e-mails from listeners cited in the report: ''You are much needed to balance biased news controlled by those full of hatred to the Western world," and ''This is the first step to fight the 'hate culture' that feeds terrorism." |