Transcript
JAMES STEINBERG: Today we're fortunate to have as always a very distinguished group of analysts to talk about one of the most important issues facing our country which is American's standing in the world.
with him as we go forward.
As you know, many of us have been talking for a number of years about the importance of what our good friend Joe Nye calls soft power and to which the United States is seen as a positive force in the world, as a force multiplier in our ability to achieve our national objectives. There has been a considerable debate over the last 4 years about how U.S. foreign policy has affected either positively or adversely that soft power.
We've seen a lot of debate about unilateralism, multilateralism and the U.S. role in the world, and there have been a number of polls over the past several years over this question, and nobody has contributed more to that debate I think than Steve Kull, our neighbor next door, and the director of Center on Policy Attitudes in the Program on International Attitudes at the University of Maryland. Steve is going to share with us today the results of his new poll looking at some of these questions about how the United States stands in the world and how we've stacked up against other important national players.
For those of you who read your "Washington Post" this morning, it's clearly a timely policy issue. Al Kamen has told us that the issue about the whole question of U.S. public diplomacy is going to be an important one and we now have Karen Hughes appointed to the position of being in charge of public diplomacy at the state department. So the results that Steve is going to be reviewing with us today are going to be an important part of the challenge that Karen Hughes and others are going to be facing in the president's second term.
As we were talking just coming up here, I think it's fair to note that this poll was taken right after the election but before the administration's latest charm initiative and we'll have a chance perhaps to reflect on the question of whether recent news by the administration might have any impact on the results that we're going to hear about today.
After Steve presents the results of the poll we're going to look at the perceptions from two very different parts of the world. First of all, from Europe where we have Phil Gordon, the director of our Center on Europe here at Brookings. And then from the perspective of East Asia, I'm happy to welcome for the first in a semi-official capacity Jeff Bader who is the new director of our China Initiative here at Brookings, a Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program and perhaps one of the most astute and keenest observers of China and East Asia through an extraordinary career in public service in the state department abroad and in his last position at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. So I'm glad to have Jeff here and look forward to many more briefings.
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