Public Power

At the very top of the mountain of superpowers the United States of America has attained a rather prominent position. Accordingly, initiatives concerning public diplomacy would often have only weak tools at their disposition without American participation, which is why I argue that the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), launched by Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, formulates the important prospects and essential ambitions of public diplomacy.

The QDDR is an acknowledgement of the crucial necessity of international cooperation to combat the global challenges with an engaged American public which has led to a comprehensive structural rebuild of the agencies within the United States such as the State Department and the USAID.
The mutually reinforcing roles of diplomacy and development call for fundamentally changing roles of US ambassadors as these will now need to approach not only foreign governments but engage in activities that will strengthen the appeal to the civil society, the pivotal pawn in advancing development efforts.
I believe that this kind of diplomatic approach to development propounds positive aims and sustainable goals as it reflects a shift from the top-down strategy that has often characterised diplomatic relations. But with a strong and energetic civil society that enhances American efforts in foreign states, public diplomacy reveals its initial objectives and most positive sides.

Procedures familiar in the Structural Adjustment Programs embrace only economic aspects of development and fail to reach the public and the circumstances in which they operate better. Furthermore, SAP’s may quickly generate attitudes that the United States only concern is to create markets that favour the American economy rather than an establishment of sustainable economic efforts in the given country, which easily undermine the use of soft power that is also employed.

The QDDR enables US diplomats to get the necessary understanding of the needs in every corner of civil society and, most importantly, show that these are equally important for development.
The cultural comprehension of legality and economic growth is rarely achieved with top-down policies, because these exhibit no understanding of the political and social context.in which they take place.
NGO’s and local expertise provide these tools of understanding and it is, thus, essential that US ambassadors get involved with them to build sustainable bridges between civil society and the government.
Furthermore, a civil society that embraces US efforts and recognises the genuine concerns of the American government and public are, in future aspects, more likely to favour American values and can work as a pressure on its own government to accept US foreign policies.
In this respect, the United States’ national security and stability priorities appear more realistic due to a global public opinion that will protest against rather than support hostile governmental attitudes towards the US.
This was for instance the case in Liberia where the cooperation between military forces and civilian power produced adequate pressure for Charles Taylor to resign. The effort paid off and resulted in peace agreements that ensure the continuation of UN and US focus on Liberian stability.

The democratization of nondemocratic states has never been an overnight task but is, nevertheless, extremely important for the recognition of American values and the expansion of the capitalist market economy.
When the United States experiences successful attempts in reaching publics abroad with what looks more like a bottom-up policy, the QDDR and public diplomacy will have fulfilled its duty as cooperation at all levels operate in conjunction.
http://www.state.gov/s/dmr/qddr/


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66799/hillary-rodham-clinton/leading-through-civilian-power


http://www.modernizingforeignassistance.org/blog/tag/qddr/


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/state-department-should-h_b_739041.html