FOREIGN POLICY: SEN. LUGAR URGES THE U.S. TO SEEK TO WIN HEARTS AND MINDS AGAIN WITH PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

In an Op-Ed for Foreign Policy Magazine, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana analyzed the deterioration of the opinion of people around the world for the United States and Americans.   

Reaching out to the man or woman on the streets of Jakarta or Caracas or Cairo is the practice of public diplomacy, and the United States does it in a number of ways, from the Peace Corps to the Voice of America to the Fulbright program. But the United States doesn’t have a worldwide equivalent to what Britain and France have, namely, facilities in major world cities with libraries, reading rooms, outreach programs, unfiltered Internet access, film series, lectures, and English classes that enable people to meet with Americans of all walks of life and hold two-way conversations on issues of mutual interest.

Global public opinion towards the U.S. is alarmingly low and while we complain about this, our allies as well as our enemies us public diplomacy such as cultural centers to boost opinion of themselves around the world.  Lugar urges the United States to push their best and brightest to be more involved in public diplomacy.

Question to the Blogosphere:  How can public diplomacy help boost world opinion of the United States?  How is the Obama administration different from the Bush administration in this regard?  What would you consider an American cultural center abroad?  Is cultural imperialism, for example the globalization of McDonald’s, American pop music, and American films, a form of public diplomacy?  What can the average American do to try to increase contact and understanding between themselves and foreigners?