“Why do they hate us?
They used to love us!”
Report of the Panel Discussion: Continued
Charney summarized three problems hampering U.S. public diplomacy efforts that revolve around information. First, there is a great deal of information disseminated in these countries that negatively portrays the U.S. Second, the U.S. is failing to publicize actions that would be perceived positively by many. Charney found that respondents knew very little or nothing about the aid and development activities funded by the U.S. in their countries. For example, Egyptians were unaware that the U.S. had funded mother-child health clinics in Egypt, but they knew that Japan had funded the construction of a new opera house in Cairo. Charney said that this is a departure from the past when people knew what the U.S. was doing in their countries. He added that American actions could be perceived positively, as with the improvement of the U.S. image in Indonesia in the aftermath of the tsunami.
Finally, Charney found a great deal of misinformation about the U.S. in the countries where he conducted his research. He cited as an example many Egyptian respondents' dramatic overestimation of the Jewish population in the U.S., putting it at between 10% and 80% when the actual figure is 2%. He also found widespread belief that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad had attacked the World Trade Center, among other misconceptions.
In conclusion, Charney summarized the following necessary conditions for enhancing perceptions of the U.S.: 1) The U.S. must pursue respectful partnerships on a bilateral basis; 2) The U.S. must strive to present itself not as a driver of change in these countries, which is perceived negatively, but rather as supportive of change; and 3) The U.S. must accept the need to agree to disagree on certain issues.
Craig Charney turned the floor over to Farhad Kazemi, who began with the definition of public diplomacy agreed upon by the U.S. Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World - the promotion of national interests by influencing and engaging people around the world. Kazemi stressed that policy underlines public diplomacy. Public diplomacy, he said, is a bridge that can bring people together; it is a tool for crossing barriers and overcoming boundaries.
The U.S., Kazemi pointed out, has failed to showcase even those American values that are universally admired. He attributed this failure in part to the merger of the U.S. Information Agency with the State Department in 1999, a move that pushed public diplomacy to the backstage. He called the appointment of Karen Hughes as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy the right move to reinvigorate American public diplomacy.
Kazemi summed up the reality of the geopolitical situation today with the U.S. as the world's only superpower with unprecedented hegemony and a political will of its own. This condition has given rise to envy, frustration, resentment, anger, and perhaps most of all, powerlessness among many, especially in the Arab and Muslim worlds, he said. There is a deep feeling in the Arab and Muslim worlds of cultural invasion for which there are no weapons save religion and religious values. Moreover, he added, there is a widespread perception in Muslim countries that the U.S. is trying to weaken the Muslim world.
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