Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GLOBAL 'WAR' ON TERROR (GWOT) Years 1 and 2, ie 9/11-2003
Teach Them the Real America by G Wasserman 
Teach Them the Real America By Gary Wasserman Washinton Post, Saturday, December 20, 2003; Page A21 It's possible for a country to be both globally dominant and globally misunderstood. That point was brought home this fall by a report from the United States Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, which focused on the many inadequacies of American image-making in those regions and called for more and better public relations. But it's important that such an effort go beyond just seeking favorable headlines. Aside from the real policy differences this country has with most of the world nowadays, it confronts a persistent dilemma: America is both as familiar to the world as the neighborhood movie theater and as much of a mystery as a distant planet. As a result, many of its explanations of itself to foreign countries -- its history, politics, society and policies -- have met with resistance, apathy and incomprehension. In an era of CNN news, Hollywood stars and DVD players, foreign audiences believe that they are already familiar with this country. Unfortunately, this international image -- courtesy of our own mass media -- has overshadowed the reality of America. TV programs and movies are not designed to educate; worse, they may distort and drown out serious discussions overseas. Viewing the president as a Texas cowboy provides an easily understood image that may well obscure the fact that there is a national consensus in this country behind the hard-line foreign policy measures that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. This gap between America's media image and reality won't be bridged by throwing a few bucks at public relations. The problem goes deeper, and so do any solutions. Take, for example, the difficulty in explaining American politics to a foreign audience. Comprehension of how we operate is complicated, because, while a foreign country's political institutions (legislature, president, party, courts) may seem to resemble those in the United States, our institutions have their own home-grown peculiarities. America's political parties are middle-of-the-road, decentralized, voluntary and weak, and they are usually less important in policymaking than their foreign counterparts. Its vigorous and widespread commercial media not only shape issues but, by their coverage of elections, often influence who wins. A virtually autonomous Congress, protected by constitutional checks and balances, controls government finances and may rip apart the programs of the president even when he is their party's leader. An independent judiciary enforcing constitutional liberties and able to cancel the actions of elected officials is both unique and hard to explain. Communicating all this abroad is a challenge. One answer lies in more teaching, more studying and more research on America in universities overseas. Certainly the students and faculty populating the campuses of the Arab and developing worlds are among our most important audiences. Yet there appears to be surprisingly little study of U.S. history and politics by the rest of the world. A check of the Internet shows that, outside of universities in Europe and including the former Soviet Union there are few American studies programs at graduate or undergraduate levels. The ones that do exist are mostly in China, Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand and Australia, and they emphasize nonpolitical subjects such as ethnic groups, literature and culture. While these are important subjects, they seldom provide the background for understanding American actions, policies and views on the issues. Of course universities abroad offer courses on American economics, history and politics under those disciplines. But integrated approaches at foreign universities for students who wish to concentrate on teaching or researching American studies appear surprisingly limited. This truth was reinforced recently when a university in Washington was approached by the national university of a small Asian country that wanted to start an American studies program. Concrete help was hard to find. Questions without ready answers included: Where could resources be found to support such a program abroad? Who had experience setting up similar programs? What government agencies or private nonprofits were interested in being involved ? There appears to be no federal agency with the mandate to encourage the study of America at universities abroad. In our post-Sept. 11 world, making the case for foreign study of America ought not require a great leap of imagination. Beyond a wider understanding of U.S. history and society, foreign universities could gain resources and institutional ties with their U.S. counterparts. Foreign faculty and students could acquire a global perspective, as well as learn from our history of democratizing political and economic systems. These programs might encourage both appreciation and informed criticism of American democracy. Nor should America's famous parochialism obscure the advantages that come to us from studies by others. The study of American institutions by foreigners has a distinguished parentage -- witness the early 19th-century French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville and the late 19th-century English diplomat and author James Bryce -- that added brilliantly to Americans' grasp of their political culture. If we can reach out to foreign universities in the 21st century by encouraging their study of America we might improve on a public relations approach yet again, by benefiting from the insights of our audience. The writer is an adjunct professor of government at Georgetown University and author of "The Basics of American Politics." |