Larry D. Lauer

Before I retired as Vice Chancellor I spent several years working as an advocate for higher education in Washington. I also met regularly with a group interested in exploring the potential of public diplomacy and “soft power” to improve our country’s standing in the world.  

Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in his new book Exercise of Power, discusses how we often need “soft power” more than military (hard) power. And in a recent interview with Rachel Maddow he explained that when the United States Information Agency (USIA) was abolished as a downsizing move of the Clinton administration, the responsibility for public diplomacy/soft power was given to the Department of State, where the necessary staff and budget to support it was also reduced. He further explained that programs designed to explain America to the world, such as the Voice of America (VOA) and other media initiatives, were also weakened.

As the second world war was ending, leaders from the U.S., the UK, and Russia met to imagine the peace-keeping potential of a world bank, an international monetary fund, and a “united nations” organization… and American leadership was seen as critical to making these organizations work. They all have had their ups and downs over the years, and many think that the eventual loss of the USIA made this kind of “soft-power” leadership even more difficult. And to make matters worse, the Trump administration has been taking steps to eliminate all of our nation’s soft-power leadership gains.

Regaining global leadership will require a new administration to organize the collaborations necessary to deal with the most critical international issues… and then to furnish the strategic communication and digital media talent and technology necessary to make those collaborations visible all over the world.  

In other words, what we need now is a full-speed, soft-power assault!