I am posting my thoughts on the Year in Review for issues most relevant to Global Engagement. However, this is part 1 of 2 – Annie White will also post her thoughts. Between the two of us you should get a pretty good sense of the year just ending and the one soon to begin.
Overview: Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 was a watershed moment in many ways and offers great promise in the reform and restructuring of U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance – with special emphasis on public diplomacy. As we reach the end of the Obama administration’s first year we still do not have a USAID Administrator in place but Rajiv Shah was nominated last month and his confirmation by the US Senate is likely to come soon.
Rajiv Shah
2009 also saw the kick off of two major executive branch initiatives that have the potential to change the landscape for and structure of US foreign assistance and public diplomacy: the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) and the National Security Council’s Presidential Study Directive on Global Engagement (PSD-7). Add to that the legislation working its way through the U.S. Senate, the Foreign Assistance Revitalization and Accountability Act of 2009 (S.1524), that would add funding and policymaking capacity to USAID. Combined, these three items offer great potential for reform, but if not coordinated they could further muddle the current confusing situation with State, USAID, NSC and DOD as to who is taking the lead on defined elements of foreign assistance and public diplomacy.
Person of the Year: The single most noteworthy public diplomacy moment of the year was by President Obama himself – his speech in Cairo. It was masterful in both tone and substance. One can debate its lasting effects on US relations in the Middle East but it created a sea change in the tenor of US diplomacy in the region and beyond, no mean feat. The stakes and the risks of giving such a speech were very high yet it came off as well as could have been expected. It was not received enthusiastically by all, as is to be expected of any American president carrying the baggage of decades of US policy with him. Change in long-term US policy in the region has been much more difficult to achieve, as the second half of 2009 has demonstrated. Still, the Cairo speech was a remarkable event and showed that most powerful public diplomacy tool available to the US is Barack Obama.
President Obama at Cairo University
Most Unexpected Event: The protests in Iran in June were startling, compelling and highlighted for many both the role and limits of social media in fueling and coordinating protest movements. As people took to the streets to protest what was seen as electoral fraud and to support the challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Twitter and Facebook social media networks allowed protesters to communicate with one another and to be joined – virtually – by supporters around the world. At one point it was reported that the US State Department contacted Twitter and urged them to delay any cuts in service to Iranian protesters. Then the Obama administration sought to strike a balance and assure the Iranian government that the US was not meddling in internal affairs but that “people’s voices should be heard and not suppressed” in Iran. The diplomacy of social networking was shown to be as complicated as any other kind of diplomacy. See what one US blogger notes about the double-edged sword of social networking:
As the government began a full-scale crackdown on the protests, the reality of bullets and batons versus social networking became painfully apparent. Nevertheless, the events in Iran in June marked an important moment in Iran and in the use of social networking as a powerful tool of social protest.
- The Fingers are Green…the Thumbs are for Texting
What to Watch for in 2010: The following issues have a potentional to reshape the overall contours of US Global Engagement in the coming year:
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Inside baseball: as noted above, in 2010 we will start to see outcomes from the QDDR, the NSC review, the USAID reform legislation and the leadership of Rajiv Shah.
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Outside analysis: A new book will come out in 2010 from Janine Wedel, Confronting Corruption, Building Accountability: Lessons From the World of International Development Advising(with Lloyd J. Dumas and Greg Callman), Forthcoming, Palgrave. Wedel’s work on the intersection of foreign assistance, contractors, public/foreign policy and corruption has been hard-hitting and extremely important work. This book promises the same in a field that needs all the rigorous and unbiased analysis it can get.
- Wild Card: In 2010 Egypt will begin a two-year period of elections (parliamentary in 2010 and presidential in 2011) and it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds in terms of domestic Egyptian politics, US policy, opposition parties/movements and the use of social networking. I am not going to fall into the trap of making any predictions but I do think it will be fascinating to watch.
"Can I follow you on Twitter?"