At the end of last year, I decried the lack of a coherent propaganda offensive, and suggested that “We have an amazing marketing and PR machine in the US. You would think that we could sell the country a bit better.”
A recent Slate article (Bad Information) lays the blame at the doorstep of Charlotte Beers, the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy. It seems that with the end of the cold war, public diplomacy got tangled up in red tape in the US. Why wasn’t it made a priority?
For all the criticisms of JETRO and similar organizations, the aggressive combination of advocacy and trade seems like a far better solution than speaking softly and carrying a big stick.
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You should check out this Salon article. Be sure to click for the free pass to read the whole thing.