Joe Lieberman and Gordon Humphrey
When Xi Jinping visits Moscow next week, Vladimir Putin will doubtless ask for weapons to replenish his badly depleted arsenal. Whatever scheme they concoct will further endanger U.S. national security and that of our allies.
A broader danger confronts us in the new axis of evil that spans Europe, the Middle East and Asia. China and Russia have combined with Iran. All three are determined to replace U.S. leadership in the world and to destroy freedom wherever it exists. China’s threats to take Taiwan by force, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Iran’s threats to “annihilate” Israel raise the possibility of simultaneous aggression. Together, this axis may confront us with one of the most serious challenges ever to our security, values and prosperity.
The threats to global stability and the US homeland are growing. How will the war in Ukraine end? Can China and the US develop a less combative relationship? Join historian and Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead and editorial page editor Paul Gigot for an interactive conversation on the threats to US security.See more...
To prevail, the U.S. must employ every tool of national power. Regrettably, one of the most forceful and inexpensive weapons has withered over the last 20 years: advocacy—the marshaling of truth and fact to persuade foreign audiences. Recall the important part played by the U.S. Information Agency in winning the Cold War. Its Voice of America broadcasts persuaded Soviet citizens that life on our side of the Iron Curtain was better than theirs.
VOA didn’t rely on news alone; it employed editorial writers and even contracted for made-in-Hollywood films. If sole reliance on news sufficed, today’s war criminal and serial violator of human rights, Mr. Putin, wouldn’t stand high in Russian polls. Instead, the U.S. must bring back advocacy meant to persuade. That’s where wits come in.
Defeating propaganda with truthful advocacy is more difficult than in USIA’s heyday. Our adversaries outspend us by orders of magnitude and, using bots and social media, dump disinformation into millions of computers, eyes, ears and brains every day. They have massively stepped up their game. So must we.
Overtaking adversaries requires the president to order explicitly the development of a long-term program of advocacy surpassing that of our adversaries in budget, creativity and technology. Leading such an effort requires an official who is highly experienced in communications and public relations and who has the heft to overcome bureaucratic timidity and inertia. President Biden has nominated precisely such a person, Elizabeth Allen, to be undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs.
Ms. Allen served as deputy communications director at the White House when Mr. Biden was vice president. That background indicates she’ll have the ear of the president whenever the bureaucracy needs a push. That’s vital to success.
The office is charged by law with “detecting and countering disinformation emanating from abroad” and actively advocating the “values and policies of the United States.” The Senate would serve the nation well by speedily confirming Ms. Allen with a bipartisan vote.
While public diplomacy is on the minds of senators, they should join with their colleagues in the House to review thoroughly all aspects of our messaging of foreign citizens. To quote a recent Heritage Foundation paper: “The State Department’s public diplomacy programs abroad are skewed toward fringe aspects of U.S. domestic social issues and away from core, enduring U.S. values. ‘Woke’ diplomacy does not fit within the State Department’s own strategic plan and does not advance U.S. national security.”
As a prototype demonstrating the kind of advocacy that should be produced at scale, consider the first-of-its-kind video made recently by the undersecretary’s office, “To the People of Russia.” It echoes Mr. Biden’s assurance to the Russian people: “You are not our enemy.”
It’s a masterpiece of advocacy, richly illustrated, that begins by recalling the time when as allies the U.S. and Russia won World War II. It speaks of our cooperation in space and compliments the Russian people for their great contributions to the arts and sciences. Toward the end, a clip of Mr. Putin’s war appears, accompanied by the words: “We do not believe this is who you are. We stand with each of you who seeks to build a more peaceful future.” The video played on Telegram, the platform widely used by Russians seeking alternatives to Moscow’s propaganda.
Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian president and now deputy chairman of the Security Council, was outraged after viewing the video, labeling the U.S. government “sons of bitches” for what he called use of the techniques of Joseph Goebbels. That Mr. Medvedev found the video offensive attests to the Kremlin’s fear of a popular uprising like that in Iran.
The office of undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed occupant in more than five years, which speaks volumes about the neglect of the power of advocacy. To leave so important a national-security post filled by a series of short-term, temporary acting officials is unacceptable.
The U.S. invented the internet and virtual private networks that defy most censorship. Until it gets serious about advocacy it will continue to lose the information war by default. The price is the continuation of a 17-year-long decline in the number of free nations and, ultimately, a sharp decline in the West’s security, freedom and prosperity.
No comments:
Post a Comment