Layalina Productions, Inc. | The Layalina Review: "Obama's Popularity Yet to Improve US Image"

The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 15, July 05-July 16, 2009

Obama’s Popularity Yet to Improve US Image

Real diplomatic change demands follow-up, amplification and explanation, comments former editor John Hughes for the Christian Science Monitor. Foreign audiences require interpretation of US government policies and insight into the American way of life and love of freedom, he continues.

How best to reinvigorate public diplomacy became a critical discussion after 9/11, and the need to project accurate information about the US to Arab countries and others became urgent again. Hughes remarks that during the Bush Administration, public diplomacy suffered from a procession of undersecretaries; State Department officials say the office has been vacant about 40 percent of the time since 2001.

Optimistically, the Obama Administration succeeded in getting its choice for Under Secretary confirmed by the US Senate: Judith McHale. She inherits an operation sadly understaffed and short on resources, according to a recent report on public diplomacy by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Complaints that bureaucratic tasks disrupt actual public diplomacy remain a challenge to be met by this incoming undersecretary.

While theoretically, the State Department is the lead agency in public diplomacy, the Obama White House has set-up the Global Engagement Directive to "leverage diplomacy, communications, and international development," explains Hughes.

In light of these strides toward transparency and outreach, President Obama has become one of the most popular world leaders, while America still fares low in world public opinion polls, according to Howard LaFranchi for the Christian Science Monitor.

The annual WorldPublicOpinion.org survey, coordinated by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA), which represents about two-thirds of the world’s population, found that as popular as Obama may be, “overall views of the United States and its role in the world remain about as negative as before his election.”

Throughout his campaign for the presidency, Obama often cited mending America's global image as a key task for any incoming administration.

Unfortunately, the poll finds a more "nuanced" picture. "General views of the US are still mixed," says Steven Kull, PIPA director and the poll's manager. Contrasting Obama's overall positive rating of 61 percent to a 39 percent "mostly positive" score for the US, he adds, "Putting it all together, there's only modest movement" upward for America's global image.

Kull finds evidence that Obama's strategy of making major speeches to selected global audiences on their turf is having an impact. He points to Turkey, where opinions of the US remain very mixed, but noticeably improved after Obama's April speech in Ankara.

Randa Slim, a visiting scholar at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, says she suspects only a "pause" in generally negative opinions on the US in Muslim countries. It will take actual deeds – in terms of settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and promoting democracy in Arab countries – for the pause to translate into wider confidence in America's intentions and policies, she adds.

"If [Obama] cannot deliver in a short period of time at least a minor success," – she offers a freeze on Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories as an example – "this period of time is not going to last long."

But on average, only one in four people agree that the US is "an important leader in promoting international laws and sets a good example by following them," while two-thirds say "the US tries to promote international laws for other countries, but is hypocritical because it does not follow these rules itself,” according to the survey by World Public Opinion.

Despite Obama's speech in Ankara in early April, 72 percent of Turks say the US is playing a mainly negative role in the international community. Majorities in Pakistan (69%), Egypt (67%), Iraq (53%), which are countries that remain pivotal to US foreign policy, agree.

To reverse such negative opinions of the US, the Obama Administration must not only rely on its leader's name, but on his ability to follow through on tough policies aimed at improving US relations with Muslim-majority countries.

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