11/18/2004|||110079724150656305||||||

HEARTS AND MINDS

Max Boot, in his LA Times column (reg required), looks at the woeful state of American diplomacy.
Incidentally, can you recall the name of the last US Ambassador to London? It took me a while to remember it:

"In the age of satellite television, no nation can afford to have striped-pants diplomats whose activities are limited to cocktail parties. The model should be Oprah Winfrey, not Dean Acheson.

Unfortunately, public diplomacy has been emasculated since the end of the Cold War. American libraries abroad have been shut down. Resources have been shifted from the U.S. Information Agency, which was merged into the State Department in 1999 by the unholy alliance of Madeleine Albright and Jesse Helms.

The problem is compounded by the choice of ambassadors to high-profile postings. The appointments go to big campaign donors — wealthy businessmen who usually lack either the skills or the inclination for the rough and tumble of public debate. The last U.S. ambassador in London was more interested in talking about horse racing with the queen than talking about the Iraq war with the average bloke in the street."

|||Clive|||http://clivedavis.blogspot.com/2004/11/hearts-and-minds-max-boot-in-his-la.html|||11/18/2004 04:47:00 pm|||||||||

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