America: your public diplomacy “wears combat boots”

The U.S. military is starting to come to grips with its role in public diplomacy, shaping the international view of America, according to a popular PD blogger.

Matt Armstrong of MountainRunner, in an interview with USC’s Center for Public Diplomacy, said military personnel are often at the forefront of U.S. PD, while State Department initiatives take a back seat.

Unlike public diplomacy during the cold war, which was well organized and funded, Armstrong said, “today our public diplomacy wears combat boots.”

Of course, the soldier or sailor as diplomat is nothing new.  Sailors in the Great White Fleet introduced much of the world to Americans one hundred years ago.  Doughboys helped form many Europeans’ impressions of Americans during World War I.  By the end of World War II, the American GI, whether soldier, sailor, or Marine, was known around the globe – and much of the world had a pretty positive image of America.  Americans were the people who set you free from tyranny.

As Armstrong points out, overseas basing has always put the military in a PD mission.

This is certainly something of which the military has long been aware.  I remember during boot camp more than two decades ago having it drummed into me that we all were “American diplomats,” and that everything we did reflected on our nation.

As the ship’s public affairs officer, before every port call, I had to put together training for the crew that would help them avoid cultural faux pas and be better public diplomats (although we certainly didn’t call it that).

At least once during every deployment, we would volunteer at a school or an orphanage overseas, and there were programs in place, such as Project Handclasp, to support those PD initiatives.

So it is a fact of life that servicemembers are the face of America.  Is that a good thing?

Gallop Polls rating Americans’ trust in their institutions consistently place the military at the top of the list, far above, educators, the media, corporations and politicians.  From that point of view, the military seems to live up to American values fairly well.

Clearly, more can be done.  If PD is becoming a primary skill of warriors, more training in being a public diplomat would be a great benefit in winning hearts and minds.

With an increased emphasis on strategic communication, that training should become a priority.

Technorati Tag: strategic communication | public diplomacy