Finding America's Voice: A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy (Council on Foreign Relations

by Council on Foreign Relations (Creator)

According to this task force, President Bush has sounded the right rhetorical notes about upgrading US public diplomacy as a top priority to combat terrorism and America's shaky image abroad. While he has taken initial steps towards these ends, he must do no more. This report points to recent polls that show America's image problem is global - not just isolated in the Middle East. Negative attitudes about US policy are also pervasive in frontline states in the war on terrorism and among America's closest allies.

93 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Keith]

First off, this book is not the CFR report I actually read, but the Initiative I was looking to review is not listed in the search engine so I chose this title so I could write a summary for what I indeed have read. That being said,

'International Institutions and Global Governance Program. World Order in the 21st Century: A New Initiative of the Council on Foreign Relations'

is the report I am actually reviewing. Just enter the title in CFR's homepage search engine and you can read it for FREE. Just the title alone was enough to get me to print it out and read. To sum up, the CFR launched a 5-year program back on May 1, 2008 "to explore the institutional requirements for world order in the 21st century". "The program falls squarely within the CFR's historic mission as an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries." Whoo, that sounds like a lot of responsibility. Have you ever heard of this group or even know who the actual members are? Did you ever vote for any of these people? They arent apart of the government but they sure feel that they should be involved in the decision making process of not only our foreign policy, but the policy of the world. This is serious stuff. These people arent just some random group of optimistic nobodies. Look into who are members of the CFR and I hope you will realize why I read this stuff. The world as we know it is going to change and is changing. If you want to know in what direction it is going and why, look no further. Afterall, its a free read. This report is only a few pages long and takes very little time to get through.

Favorite Quotes: "Today's global agenda is dominated by a host of issues-from terrorism to climate change to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction-that no single country, no matter how powerful, can address on its own."

"...the principal foreign policy challenges of the 21st century are likely to be transnational threats-from terrorism to pandemics to climate change..."

(sound familiar to any political speeches you've heard recently?)

"Finally, the separation of powers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress a critical voice in the ratification of treaties and endorsement of global institutions, complicates U.S. assumptions on new international obligations."

(I couldn't help but notice that in the several pages of text, I dint see word 'Liberty" printed anywhere. Maybe it's there but I just missed it.)