| Diplomat Needs Some Southern
Steel Magnolias
Published November 4, 2003 in The
Birmingham News
Margaret Tutwiler, like Condoleeza Rice, is
a Birmingham girl raised in the South (GRITS) who needs our
help. Tutwiler knows her way around Washington as former
assistant secretary of state for public affairs under “41”
(George Herbert Walker Bush) and has just returned from her post
as ambassador to Morocco. She has a solid knowledge base in
business, foreign policy, and public relations, but she’s facing
a public diplomacy task that is almost insurmountable without
the help of her neighbors and friends.
You cannot pick up a newspaper these days
without reading the latest difficulties facing America’s image
problem in the world—the rise in anti-Americanism and global
public opinion polls that show many ready to blame the United
States for all the world’s ills.
Tutwiler is soon to fill the position of
undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, a sort of “Welcome
Wagon” meets “Putting One’s Best Food Forward” approach to
informing, influencing and engaging citizens overseas. Don’t
Southerners know a thing or two about making people feel at home
and at ease? It’s called Southern hospitality, and it is one of
the many charming features of our region that should be put to
practice in public diplomacy efforts. Tutwiler is replacing
Texan Charlotte Beers, who with her Madison Avenue background in
touting Uncle Ben’s Rice, never had a chance to overcome the
guffaws that marked her 18-month tenure.
During Tutwiler’s confirmation hearings
last week, Senator Joseph Biden, D-Del., wondered aloud how the
United States continues to be “all thumbs” when it comes to
public diplomacy. This echoed the sentiment expressed from
Representative Henry Hyde, R-Ill., two years ago at the time of
Charlotte Beers’ confirmation hearings: “How is it that the
country that invented Hollywood and Madison Avenue has such
trouble promoting a positive image of itself overseas?"
Political leadership in Washington keeps
scratching its head in wonder why the leading country in the
world in advertising, public relations and marketing cannot seem
to do an effective job on itself.
It is precisely because U.S. public
diplomacy is being conducted from an uptown, top-down, and
inside-the-beltway perspective that we aren’t making headway.
Packaging public diplomacy in commercials, slick packaging,
fancy language, or status reports won’t improve America’s image
in the world and will probably just reinforce negative
perceptions.
We need to get back to basics that people
hold in common--friendliness, openness, and putting people at
ease—a Southern charm offensive. It needs to be based on
discussion and dialogue with those people who are at times
skeptical toward the United States and with others who are
downright hostile. We need to listen and learn, more than
dictate and declare. As Tutwiler herself pointed out in her
confirmation hearing: “Much of what I learned about our
country, from listening, engaging and interacting with Moroccans
from all walks of life, was troubling and disturbing. I would
never have known how our country is really viewed, both the
positives and the negatives, had I not been serving overseas for
the last two turbulent years.”
Tutwiler needs to call on not only the
South but all private citizens who are willing to help to get
involved in a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” campaign that builds
upon the well-intended but poorly run “Shared Values” campaign
of the Beers’ tenure. The United States holds no patent on
democracy or freedom, but we are part of a larger and majority
neighborhood of global and civic-minded nations that cherish the
democratic process and democratic ideals over tyranny and
dictatorial control. We need to roll out our welcome sign of
inclusiveness that what the world most admires about us
(productivity, entrepreneurial spirit, education, freedom to
practice religion, free speech) is what we want to share and
help them build on in their own community. This means our
public diplomacy in Iraq must be led with an attitude of respect
for individual dignity that we are guests in the homes of the
Iraqi people, not the other way around.
I’m confident in the expertise of Margaret
Tutwiler and am relieved that in her congressional hearing she
said that when it comes to tackling the complex reality of
winning hearts and minds, “There is not one magic bullet, magic
program or magic solution. As much as we would like to think
Washington knows best, we have to be honest and admit we do not
necessarily always have all the answers.”
Tutwiler is absolutely right. Washington
does not have all the answers about public diplomacy. Why don’t
you enlist some Steel Magnolias to help?
Nancy Snow’s family lives in Birmingham,
Alabama. A former USIA/State Department official, she is part
of a public diplomacy initiative at the University of Southern
California where she also teaches communications and
persuasion. Reach her at
nsnow@usc.edu
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