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The Layalina Review

VOL. V NO. 8, March 27-April 09, 2009

Broadcasting American Identity

Debates about the merits and limitations of strategic communication have featured prominently recently in the media. Specifically, the State Department's new media liaison Dana Shell Smith made a presentation at the University of Delaware entitled, "Dousing the flames: Public Diplomacy in action," reports UDaily.

In her capacity as liaison, Shell Smith "will be one of the select few US officials who will appear regularly on Arab television, radio and regional newspapers to present the US point of view on key Middle East issues," continues the site.

"While diplomacy happens at official levels, the relationships built between people give a better understanding of the US and who Americans are as people," remarked Shell Smith during the presentation.

Shell Smith suggested three ways the US can be most effective in public diplomacy efforts in the Middle East: 1) policy changes, 2) not talking over or ignoring other opinions, and 3) speaking the indigenous language to show respect for indigenous culture, continues UDaily.

After highlighting the "continuous, violent images that people in the Middle East encounter daily in practically every media outlet," Shell Smith clarified that "US public diplomacy cannot and does not try to counter this emotional imagery."

Shell Smith said she instead will use "several outreach tools to communicate with the public overseas," including Al-Hurra and Radio Sawa, adds UDaily.

In response, Kim Andrew Elliot remarked on his blog, "I hope that Shell Smith has been sufficiently briefed to know that Radio Sawa and Al-Hurra are not State Department public diplomacy 'tools,' but autonomous news organizations under a separate entity, the Broadcasting Board of Governors." Elliot further emphasized that "the Secretary of State has one seat on the BBG, but is not its CEO."

In a separate strategic communication discussion, former Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith argued in the New York Times, "The US may be able to help Pakistan prevent [the rise of fundamentalism], by supporting Pashtun opposition to the extremists." Specifically, Feith suggests Pashtun radio programming.

"If it had the equipment and personnel for the job, the US could broadcast radio programs for the Pashtuns commemorating Rahman Baba’s life and poetry, thus helping to revive the collective memory of Sufism and inspiring opposition to the Taliban," writes Feith. Rahman Baba, born around 1650, is the most revered Pashtun poet, he notes. The shrine of Rahman Baba was recently bombed by the Taliban.

Reacting to Feith's argument, Patrick Barry of Democracy Arsenal decries the former Under Secretary as a "font of lazy thinking." Barry writes, "Strategic communications directed at the Muslim World, patterned after Radio Free Europe? Sorry Doug, maybe you should have gotten involved with Al-Hurra, the Bush administration's attempt to replicate the success of Cold-War era public diplomacy, but which has been widely regarded as a sham by the Muslim world."

In response, Kim Andrew Elliot suggests in a separate blog post that while "Al-Hurra is not up there with Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, it has too many viewers to be dismissed as a 'sham.'"

Nevertheless, Elliot also criticizes Feith's argument by noting that he "overlooked the fact that Voice of America's Deewa Radio already broadcasts in Pashto to that very part of Pakistan." Elliot adds that Deewa's output includes programs about poetry. "Apparently the US does have 'the equipment and personnel for the job,'" he concludes.

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