Soft Power to Help US Restore International Respect
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
A Washington-based progressive think tank has proposed that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama should pursue initiatives using ``soft power,'' referring to the ``ability to get what you want through attraction, rather than coercion or payments'' as defined by Harvard University Professor Joseph S. Nye Jr.
``The new president will have to work to restore, recruit, and retain a quality corps of skilled public-diplomacy practitioners and give these men and women the credibility they need to engage with skeptical or hostile foreign public,'' the Center for American Progress Action Fund said Thursday.
The think tank, along with the New Democracy Project, put forth a set of guidelines in four major policy areas including diplomacy and economic policy for President-elect Obama in a 657-page policy recommendation book, titled ``Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President.''
Experts said that Obama will have to use new exchange and communication tools to convince public opinion leaders around the world to listen to the United States, and to help the world better understand its values and motives.
They suggest that he should select a professional to serve as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy to conduct a comprehensive review of public diplomacy missions.
The report also stressed the need for multilateralism as a direction of U.S. foreign diplomacy, saying it would help the new government restore international respect for the United States.
With regard to disarmament, the experts proposed the new government conduct ``a threat assessment unbiased by ideology, an integrated and comprehensive strategy, the full power of presidential persuasion and the cooperation of many nations large and small.''
``With the right strategy aggressively implemented, the president could prevent nuclear terrorism, block the emergence of new nuclear states, reduce toward zero the risk of nuclear weapons use, and restore powerful global barriers to their spread,'' the report said.
In addition to national security policy, the publication offered possible policy measures and directions in three other areas ― the White House, and economic and domestic policies.
Michele Jolin, co-editor of the publication and senior fellow at the think tank, said the institute aimed to ``bring together the best progressive policy minds to jump-start the transition process and help steer the new government in a new, more progressive direction.''
The progressive organization characterized the presidential transition period this year as ``one of the most challenging and sensitive ever, given the current financial crisis and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.''
A total of 67 policymakers, scholars, authors and former government officials, including Harold Koh, Greg Craig and Christopher Edley, contributed their recommendations to the publication.