Waiting for 'smart power' – Marc Lynch, Foreign Policy

Waiting for 'smart power' – Marc Lynch, Foreign Policy: "The Obama administration came in with a unique promise to transform America's public diplomacy and global engagement. Obama himself captivated international attention and created a fresh start to reconfigure American relationships. His conception of a global engagement rooted in 'mutual interest and mutual respect' beautifully captured this potential. The people around Obama really seemed to understand the appropriate role of public diplomacy and strategic communications -- from Hillary Clinton's 'smart power'

and Robert Gates's call to build State Department capacity to key actors at the NSC. Obama's personal interventions have been fantastic -- the interviews, the speeches, the key symbolic gestures (such as promising to end torture and close Gitmo). But this makes it all the more baffling that the government as a whole has so often failed to capitalize on the openings these moves have created. … I don't know why it has proven so difficult for the U.S. government to mount public diplomacy and strategic communications campaigns in support of key administration policy goals. Is it something about the organization of the government, leadership, or the allocation of the resources? Is it that deeds have not kept up with words, harming the credibility of such communications campaigns? Is it the cultural clash between traditional public diplomacy and the demands of goal-oriented strategic communications? Is it that the State Department hasn't stepped up as the Pentagon's strategic communications operations have been scaled back? Is it a backlash against the over-selling of stratetic communications in recent years? Or is it something else?"

http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/09/27/the_missed_public_diplomacy_opportunity