Promoting Public and Private Reinvestment in Cultural Exchange ...

the public diplomacy function throughout the government and establishing, in 2003, publicdiplomacy as a core competency of the Department of Defense indicate otherwise. In 2006, theDepartment created the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Support to PublicDiplomacy. 54 The purpose of the agency was to coordinate public diplomacy efforts and serve asthe lead agency for developing policy within the Department of Defense to counter ideologicalsupport for terrorism. While this agency was eliminated in early 2009, The Washington Postrecently reported that paid-for news articles, billboards, radio and television programs as well aspolls and focus groups had been ordered by the U.S. Central Command. The article also reportedthat when Congress asked what the Department‘s proposed budget was for strategiccommunications in 2010, the first response was reported back at $1 billion but was later changedto $625 million. 55 In attempting to verify these numbers with the Government AccountabilityOffice (GAO), we were told that the GAO hadn‘t been able to find a citable number because thestrategic communications function was dispersed throughout the Department of Defense.Nevertheless, the GAO believes that expenditures for public diplomacy (strategic communications)are in the hundreds of millions annually. 56The graph on the next page, published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, showsDepartment of State and Broadcasting Board of Governors expenditures for the strategiccommunications function for 2008. In this year, the Department of State received a totalappropriation of $879 million of which $501 million was allocated to the Bureau of Educationaland Cultural Affairs for exchange programs. Of this amount, $8.3 million was appropriated forarts exchanges which was then supplemented by $1.7 million bringing the total for 2008 to $10million. By comparison, the remaining $491 million was expended on other kinds of exchangesincluding: educational exchanges such as Fulbright fellowships, academic exchanges and Englishlanguage programs; professional exchanges; scientific exchanges and foreign visitor programs.These disproportionate allocations are reflective of a general attitude in Washington that, despiteCold War evidence to the contrary, arts and cultural exchange-based diplomacy is of little value asan instrument of public diplomacy.54 GAO Report to Congressional Committees, U.S. Public Diplomacy Key Issues for Congressional Oversight, May,2009, p. 20, http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09679sp.pdf.55 Pincus, Walter, ―Pentagon Reviewing Strategic Information Operations,‖ The Washington Post, December 27, 2009.56 Ford, Jess, Director, Government Accountability Office, February 22, 2010.20