A recent email from a reader in Belgium gives some of the flavor of the problem:
“[In] the months before the [Iraq] war there were a lot of debates on the issue. Almost never, and I have seen them all, was there someone from the American embassy in Brussels or another official on these Belgian TV shows to explain the American position. So the people on the debates (politicians, professors, journalists) were always against the US. It’s not really a surprise then that people are against the US, if the public diplomacy is nowhere.”

Versions of that story can be multiplied a hundred-fold. But the problem is not just languages – it is interest and commitment....It’s not enough to give good or even a great speech. You have to come back every day – and offer too something more than pre-digested talking points.