Defense Secretary Gates supports diplomacy

During my U.S. Foreign Service career I never heard a defense secretary ask for more money for the State Department in order to solve intractable world problems through diplomacy, but that's exactly what Defense Secretary Robert Gates did late last year when he urged Congress to boost State's relatively meager budget.

Finally, someone in the Bush administration acknowledged that it will take more than military power to win the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also will require the "soft" power that American diplomats can exert in those countries in an attempt to rebuild political infrastructures and the civilian institutions of government. In a speech at Kansas State University last November, Gates stressed the need for "nonmilitary capabilities to meet new threats that are fundamentally political in nature," and lobbied for a substantial increase in State's budget to meet nonmilitary threats and challenges.

On a related topic, Gates observed that "public relations was invented by the United States, yet we are miserable in communicating to the rest of the world what we are about as a society and a culture, about freedom and democracy ... ." That was a reference to the importance of public diplomacy, the effort to communicate American values and explain U.S. policies to foreign audiences, which was my diplomatic specialty for nearly 30 years. As I've written many times, however, our PR is no better (or worse) than our policies. That's why I'm glad I'm not out there these days trying to explain why we invaded Iraq five years ago at a cost of nearly 4,000 American lives - more lives than were lost in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

President Bush followed-up on the Gates speech by requesting an $8.2 billion budget increase for the State Department for fiscal 2009 including a call for more than 1,000 new American diplomats. "They must be pinching themselves at the State Department," the prestigious Christian Science Monitor commented. "Can it be that the White House wants one of the largest increases ever in the diplomatic corps?"

"Many embassies are staffed at only 70 percent," the Monitor continued. "A new Foreign Service officer might arrive in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, with nothing more than one morning of training ... and no predecessor to help in the transition." This is a key point because of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's emphasis on "transformational diplomacy," which focuses on partnering with, rather than coercing, other countries to respond democratically to the needs of their own people. Our diplomats need language and sensitivity training in order to carry out such delicate cross-cultural assignments.

In other words, we're now trying to work with other countries to promote democracy rather than attempting to force them to do it our way. As the Houston Chronicle noted, "Plenty of states ... haven't the slightest interest in partnering with the United States in any context, especially since the launch of an ill-planned war in Iraq." That's true and it's a daunting diplomatic challenge for the next American president.

PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

As Secretary Gates spoke in Kansas last November, President Bush's good friend and top PR adviser Karen Hughes resigned as Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and returned to Texas. In early January she was succeeded by James Glassman, former head of the International Broadcasting Board, who has maintained a low profile.

In assessing Hughes' tenure at State, the New York Times recognized that she "brought strengths to the job of public diplomacy," but added that "the United States is hated more than ever in the Muslim world." Although she got off to a slow start, Hughes eventually managed to increase public diplomacy budgets and institute some beneficial changes such as regional media hubs to counter hostile Arab propaganda and new cultural exchange programs. But "the issue isn't who has the job of (chief) public diplomat," the Times concluded. "The best hope for defusing anti-Americanism ... lies in a renewed commitment to the values that make us great, including respect for civil liberties and international law."

Writing in the Washington Post earlier this month, secretaries Gates and Rice recognized the importance of "soft" power as they reviewed the current situation in war-torn Iraq. "Our troops and diplomats have made untold sacrifices to help put Iraq on the road to self-sufficiency," they wrote. "A crucial phase in this process will unfold in the coming months when our ambassador in Baghdad ... begins negotiating a basic framework for normalized relations with the Iraqi government," including a status of forces agreement.

"There is little doubt that 2008 will be a year of critical transition in Iraq as our force levels decline," Gates and Rice wrote. "But to continue the success we have seen in recent months, the Iraqi people and government will continue to need our help."

That's a veiled warning to those who are calling for a precipitous withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, including Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Meanwhile, diplomacy will become increasingly important as the U.S. transitions from "hard" to "soft" power around the world. No matter who is elected president in November, he or she must confront the urgent need to support our front-line diplomats and rebuild a broken public diplomacy structure at the State Department.

• Guy W. Farmer, a semi-retired journalist and former U.S. diplomat, resides in Carson City.