Two Hopeful Signs

Two Hopeful Signs Among All the Gloom Over Public Diplomacy

In the past couple of days two hopeful harbingers of better times ahead for public diplomacy took my eye. The first was Senator Lugar’s wonderfully lucid and much needed statement on the importance of American Cultural and Information Centers as a means to engage the world in a meaningful dialogue. If you have not read Senator Lugar Foreign Policy piece you should. Here is a link: http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/02/26/to_win_hearts_and_minds_get_back_in_the_game

The other hopeful words were expressed by one of America’s finest diplomats, Career Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering,. In a statement before a Congressional Committee, Pickering called for a doubling of funding for America’s exchange programs and with good reason—they work! Even more important perhaps, his assertion that we either “pay now or pay later” for the rebuilding of our diplomatic corps was supported by both Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Ranking Member Kay Granger (R-TX).

Imagine—a legendary U.S. Senator with expertise in foreign affairs and a long-time much-admired State Department diplomat come forward in the same week with well thought out, logical and important statements on how we can help to restore American public diplomacy to make it an effective component of American national security. My head is spinning! Perhaps now someone famous might just propose that we resurrect USIA or its 21st century equivalent to make the picture complete. Perhaps there is hope for “change we can believe in” after all.