In an article in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Arthur Bardos wrote how public diplomacy was born out of the Cold War and that the U.S. saw itself in a struggle for the hearts and minds of the people in much of the world. The U.S. is once again in a battle for the hearts and minds of the people of the world, especially in the Middle East. The time for effective public diplomacy in the Middle East has never been more important. Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment activities and its refusal to end their nuclear programs has positioned the country as a threat to the world. Now is a very crucial time for the U.S. to increase funding for public diplomacy programs in Iran.
Given the history between these two countries, it will be a very difficult process; however, something happened this fall that changed the course U.S. public diplomacy. Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, and a movement swept through the entire country, blazing a path toward rebuilding the U.S. image abroad. The rest of the world began to take notice and the stigma attached to Americans has slowly begun to diminish. The bridge between the U.S. and the rest of the world is being mended. Now is the time in our nation’s history that is crucial for our national security to walk across that bridge, generate goodwill and rebuild relationships. The world is watching, waiting to be engaged, ready to listen and open to persuasion.
Although post 9/11 efforts of public diplomacy have not been very successful, the political atmosphere is changing and Iran is no longer a lost cause. Iran is a unique case in the Middle East, because while the Iranian government is anti-American, the Iranian people are not. The opposite is true of the Arab nations in the Middle East. This provides the U.S. a great opportunity to win the trust and respect of the Iranian people.
In order to have a successful public diplomacy program with Iran, the U.S. needs to focus on the younger generation of Iran, because 75% of the population is under the age of thirty. The U.S. needs to study trends of the Iran’s youth in order to more effectively reach this demographic. The U.S. must focus its efforts on finding ways which will make Iranians more receptive to the U.S. Another way to create public diplomacy with Iran is to increase cultural exchange programs to encourage more Iranian students to attend American universities. Iranians are at the forefront of every major industry and their talents should be recognized and enriched. The U.S. should also invest more money into creating Iranian studies programs at American universities, just as they did during the Cold War.
Even though the Iranian government is anti-west, the Iranian people are pro-democracy and it would be mutually beneficial for the U.S. to fund pro-democratic organizations and NGO’s in Iran. The most important and challenging step to achieving an effective public diplomacy program in Iran is to gain the trust of the Iranian people who hold a cynical outlook on U.S. foreign policy. With a history of U.S. betrayal, it is going to take a lot of persuasion for the U.S. to gain credibility with the Iranian people. The only way to gain that trust and change the Iranian sentiment is through open and honest dialogue. Edward R. Murrow said, “To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.” The U.S. must recognize that Iran is not susceptible to propaganda, and the only way to win the hearts and minds of the Iranian people is through honesty and diplomacy.
