Phil Taylor's papers
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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 4 - 2005
Bush turns to Hughes to improve diplomacy by Julie Hirschfeld Davis 
Bush turns to Hughes to improve diplomacy Adviser nominated to fix nation's image problems By Julie Hirschfeld Davis Baltimore Sun National Staff Originally published March 15, 2005 WASHINGTON - When President Bush needs help honing a policy, dealing with a crisis or trumpeting an important message, he has long turned to Karen P. Hughes. So with the United States suffering lingering image problems abroad - particularly in Arab countries - and the president determined to show the world that his efforts to spread freedom are paying dividends, Bush chose Hughes, a loyal adviser and confidante since his early days in Texas politics, to burnish America's reputation. The pick, announced yesterday by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, signals Bush's desire to demonstrate a new, heightened commitment to improving the United States' global image and its communication with the rest of the world. The move comes as Bush intensifies his effort to promote his vision for spreading democracy in the Middle East - a theme he hopes to make part of his legacy - even as his administration faces serious foreign policy challenges that include continued violence in Iraq, the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea, and growing unrest in Lebanon. Bush, in a statement yesterday, said his strategy of spreading liberty as an antidote to terrorism "will require an aggressive effort to share and communicate America's fundamental values while respecting the cultures and traditions of other nations." He said Hughes "has the experience, expertise, and judgment to lead this critical effort." By naming Hughes - whose value to Bush may be best captured by her presidential nickname, "High Prophet" - as the nation's public diplomacy chief, the president signaled that he wants to revive what up to now have been largely unsuccessful efforts to reach out to foreign capitals. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, numerous reports have concluded that public diplomacy has failed miserably, in some cases heightening animosity toward the United States rather than diffusing it. "When it comes to public diplomacy, we simply must do better," Rice said yesterday as she introduced Hughes. "Our nation must engage in a much stronger dialogue with the rest of the world." Rice said Hughes, who would have the title of undersecretary of state for public diplomacy if confirmed, would undertake "a broad review and restructuring of our public diplomacy efforts." It is a reassessment that foreign policy analysts and administration officials say is long overdue. Hughes, 48, an Army brat and a former television news reporter known for her sharp instincts and unflappable message discipline, acknowledged the daunting challenges. "This job will be difficult. Perceptions do not change quickly or easily. This is a struggle for ideas," she said in an appearance at the State Department with Rice and Dina Powell, the head of Bush's personnel office and his pick to be Hughes' deputy in her new position. Sending Hughes and Powell, a 31-year-old Egyptian-born Arabic speaker who also enjoys Bush's trust, to join Rice at the State Department is the president's way of saying, "I'm putting my biggest brains on this," said Mary Matalin, a Republican strategist close to the Bush White House. "The president is making a very clear statement about how seriously he takes this era of diplomacy," Matalin said. "He's putting not just his most talented, but his most trusted people" in charge of the effort. The nomination brings Hughes back from Austin, Texas, two years after she left Washington to spend more time with her husband, Jerry, and son, Robert, who is to head to college this summer. It throws her into a job that few would have expected Hughes to take. "Karen Hughes as an undersecretary of state would have surprised anybody in town a month ago," said Patrick M. Cronin, a foreign aid official during Bush's first term who now serves as director of studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But the pick has generated "a lot of excitement" among those who see a chance to repair the tarnished U.S. image. "If this is handled well, it could be the best thing for public diplomacy in a number of decades," added Cronin, who called past efforts "lackluster." A bipartisan, 13-member advisory commission called in 2003 for a new approach to public diplomacy, including a new White House office to manage it. The panel, chaired by Edward P. Djerejian, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria, reported that the United States "lacks the capabilities in public diplomacy to meet the national security threat emanating from political instability, economic deprivation and extremism, especially in the Arab and Muslim world." Last fall, a report by the Defense Science Board concluded that U.S. "strategic communication" was "in crisis," and called, among other things, for a redefined, elevated role for the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. Efforts to shape the perception of the United States around the world have languished for decades, foreign policy analysts say, starting in the early 1990s with the end of the Cold War. The deterioration culminated in 1999, when the U.S. Information Agency, which had been in charge of public diplomacy, was folded into the State Department. "Governments lost control of what they wanted their message to be, and we were not as aggressive as we could have been in making sure that they were processing information that was correct about us," said Margaret D. Tutwiler, who served as undersecretary for public diplomacy from December 2003 until June of last year. Hughes' job, she said, "is about making sure that people in a different culture get an accurate understanding of what our culture is, and our values and our people and our country." The task is a notoriously difficult one. Tutwiler's brief tenure in the post came after the departure of Charlotte Beers, a Madison Avenue ad executive who weathered criticism that her slick promotions of good works by Americans around the world were not enough to improve the nation's image. Despite Bush's stated enthusiasm for stepping up public diplomacy, he has not proposed substantial increases in its relatively small budget. Under Bush's plan, such programs would receive $333.9 million next year, up less than 4 percent from this year. They make up just 7 percent of the State Department's overall budget. Still, after elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, some analysts said Hughes has a chance to improve U.S. standing around the world. To do so, Cronin said, Hughes will have to rebuild public diplomacy as "an instrument of policy," rather than "a presidential campaign-style approach oriented toward saying the same thing over and over again very slowly." Hughes suggested yesterday that she plans to do just that. She said she would pursue "more creative public diplomacy programs" and seek to "defeat propaganda with truth." |