S. HRG. 107–692 AMERICA’S GLOBAL DIALOG: SHARING AMERICAN VALUES AND THE WAY AHEAD FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION JUNE 11, 2002 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 81–880 PDF WASHINGTON : 2002 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:31 Oct 15, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 81880 SFRELA1 PsN: SFRELA1 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware, Chairman PAUL S. SARBANES, Maryland JESSE HELMS, North Carolina CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin GORDON H. SMITH, Oregon PAUL D. WELLSTONE, Minnesota BILL FRIST, Tennessee BARBARA BOXER, California LINCOLN D. CHAFEE, Rhode Island ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey GEORGE ALLEN, Virginia BILL NELSON, Florida SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming ANTONY J. BLINKEN, Staff Director PATRICIA A. MCNERNEY, Republican Staff Director (II) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:31 Oct 15, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 81880 SFRELA1 PsN: SFRELA1 CONTENTS Page Beers, Hon. Charlotte, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Department of State, Washington, DC ..................................... 7 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 Responses to additional questions for the record ........................................... 61 Biden, Hon. Joseph R., Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware, prepared statement . 4 Feingold, Hon. Russell D., U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, prepared statement .. 64 Gingrich, Hon. Newt, former Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives; senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC .................................. 33 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 36 Ginsberg, Hon. Marc, former Ambassador to Morocco; CEO and managing director, Northstar Equity Group, Washington, DC ......................................... 39 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 42 Hoffman, David, president, Internews, Arcata, CA .............................................. 45 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 48 Keith, Amb. Kenton W., chair, Alliance for International Education and Cul- tural Exchange and senior vice president, Meridian International Center, statement submitted for the record .................................................................... 73 Kennedy, Hon. Edward M., U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, prepared state- ment and a series of letters in support of the Cultural Bridges Act of 2002 ....................................................................................................................... 65 Pattiz, Hon. Norman J., Governor, Broadcasting Board of Governors, Wash- ington, DC ............................................................................................................. 13 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 16 Surroi, Veton, chairman, KOHA Media Group, Pristina, Kosovo ........................ 50 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 53 (III) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:31 Oct 15, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 81880 SFRELA1 PsN: SFRELA1 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:31 Oct 15, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 81880 SFRELA1 PsN: SFRELA1 AMERICA’S GLOBAL DIALOG: SHARING AMER- ICAN VALUES AND THE WAY AHEAD FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2002 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:55 a.m., in room SD–419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (chairman of the committee), presiding. Present: Senators Biden, Dodd, Boxer, Bill Nelson, Lugar, Hagel, Chafee and Brownback. The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will come to order. As I just ex- plained to our first panel and I will say to the audience, we apolo- gize for getting started late. The Foreign Relations Committee had a private meeting with Prime Minister Sharon and it ran a little late, but in fact what we are about to speak to today quite frankly will have some serious impact on how well we do on many various issues we discussed with Prime Minister Sharon today. As we consider public diplomacy in the 21st century, we are very mindful that our voice competes amidst the cacophony of voices shaping global opinion in a way that has never occurred before. Today, with the Internet, satellite, radio and TV networks pro- viding instantaneous and often unfiltered and selectively unfiltered information, public diplomacy is more important and more difficult than it has ever been before, in my view. No matter how powerful our military, we will not be able to achieve all of our foreign policy objectives if we lose the war of ideas. In public diplomacy we must use our most powerful tool, truth. Truth, credibility and openness. As the legendary journalist and former USIA Director Edward R. Murrow said, and I quote, ‘‘truth is the best propaganda, and lies the worst.’’ I cannot emphasize that enough. What we are about here today, what we have been about, and what the Secretary has been about, is not about trying to shape an incorrect image of our views or ideas and our people, but the truth, openness, and credi- bility which will flow from the former truth and openness. We are going to have to reach out to people in their own lan- guage and in their own terms, and we must foster the free flow of ideas, even if it is sometimes critical for the United States of Amer- ica. We do not expect anyone to like us, or everyone to like us, I should say, but there is no good reason for us to be so misrepre- sented and misunderstood. We are one of the most advanced cen- ters of communication in the world. We should be more successful (1) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 13:31 Oct 15, 2002 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 81880 SFRELA1 PsN: SFRELA1 2 when we reach out. We should be better able to get the facts out, and if we do a better job, those who question our motives and rein- terpret the facts will have a much tougher time getting traction in public opinion in other parts of the world. Today, I hope to explore what we can do to explain ourselves better and promote under- standing, and I hope we will learn what more we can do, and how we should organize to do it. All we want is a real chance for the facts to come before the peo- ple of the world, particularly, I would say at this moment, the Mus- lim world, 1.2 billion people, and let them make up their own mind. I am not asking to be loved. I am not asking to be embraced. I am just asking that we have a fair chance to be understood. There are countless examples of where we do this well. I know the State Department’s Web site, for example, offers content in Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, French, Russian, in addition to English. It gets more than 4 million hits a month, I am told. After 9/11, the United States and our allies set up coalition information centers in London, Islamabad, and Washington to coordinate messages, com- bat misinformation, and to stay ahead of the 24-hour global news cycle. USAID worked with NGOs like Open Society Institute to support the development of independent media organizations in the former Yugoslavia in the Milosevic regime, which I am now happy to say he is in jail and being tried. The now-famous Radio B–2 in Bel- grade played a critical role in forming the opposition to and the eventual ouster of and arrest of Milosevic. The U.S. Government’s assistance to the American NGOs search for common ground helped create multi-ethnic versions of Sesame Street that has pro- moted tolerance between the children of Macedonia and Cyprus. Despite these successful programs and others I could mention, the hard work of people like Under Secretary Beers and her prede- cessor, Evelyn Lieberman, America’s public diplomacy still falls short of where it needs to be. Four years ago, this committee led the way in devising a merger of the former U.S. Information Agen- cy into the Department of State. The goal of this reorganization was to integrate the policymakers and public diplomacy specialists. The merger of two different cultures has taken time, and is not yet complete. Public diplomacy considerations are still not, in my view, fully in- corporated into the public formulation process. There is still not adequate interagency coordination, although it is much better, and we still do not have a national information strategy providing the long-term vision of where the American public diplomacy needs to be, and we are still doing public diplomacy on the cheap, with fund- ing cuts half what it was in 1994 and today. As I always say, if you want to know what we value, follow the money. Take a look at the budget. Today’s hearing will look at what