Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were jointly interviewed by Frank Sesno, George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs director, and Christiane Amanpour, CNN chief international correspondent, Oct. 5 at GW’s Lisner Auditorium. CNN broadcast the interview Oct. 6.

Clinton and Gates touched on public diplomacy a couple of times. The full transcript is also available.

Clinton gave a couple of examples of how public diplomacy can be waged and how the State Department can facilitate the effort:

CLINTON: “[A] battlefield conflict zone requires the military to respond to, you know, rumors, attacks.  They have to have a strategic communications effort.  But it must be part of a broader national public diplomacy outreach effort.

“I’ll give you two quick examples.  We were just talking about Iran.  We learned that during the height of the demonstrations about the election that Twitter was a major force of information for people who were protesting.

“And we — and we felt that was a good vehicle, but we were told that Twitter just was going to have to shut down for 48 hours to do some upgrades to the software.  So we called and said, ‘Please don’t shut down, because this is a major communications loop for people on the streets.’

“In Afghanistan, what we’ve learned since we got in there — and these great young civilians who work for me in the State Department working with these great young military leaders working in the — in our armed forces, they realized that we didn’t have a secure environment for cell phones to operate.

“So we began looking for places we could put up cell towers.  We began looking for how we would incentivize businesses in Afghanistan to spread their cell phone coverage.  Why?  Because the Taliban and their allies use cell phones to intimidate people.  We found out that they were running FM — illegal FM stations literally off the back of motorcycles.
And they were telling people, ‘We’re going to behead this person, we’re going to do that.’

“So we are competing in that space.  And, you know, obviously, we have to work together, but we have the lead on it, because it needs to stand for more than just our military might.  It needs to represent all of our national interests and values.”

Gates was asked about the fact that troops in uniform are often times at the frontline of communications  and diplomacy:

SESNO:  “One of the concerns in the strategic communications field is that, in the conflict situation, in too many cases, it’s the man or the woman in the uniform with the gun who is the — in a sense, the frontline communicator and also the diplomat at times.  So though you say you want her and State and the diplomats, the civilians to be in command of that, of necessity, our military, our men and women in uniform, are placed in — in that — in that role.  What should change?”

GATES:  “Well, I think, in the battlefield — on the battlefield, not much can change.  And I think one of the most extraordinary things that we have seen both in Iraq and Afghanistan is the extraordinary innovativeness and sophistication of NCOs and junior officers in terms of interacting with the populations and in terms of trying to build trust.  I don’t think it can be any other way on the battlefield.

“Once — once security is established, then I think that’s the place where the civilians come in and — and — and take the lead in this. But — but I think one of the things Americans can be incredibly proud of is — is how well young men and women who are not professionals in the communications world and — and, frankly, who in many cases don’t have the language and — and haven’t studied the culture and so on established personal relationships in these — in these countries that matter a lot and that create a tremendous foundation on which we can build.

“We’re doing a lot in the department in terms of language training, in terms of cultural education and so on, for troops that are going out, so that they’re sensitive to the different cultures that they’re dealing with, but in terms of the first-line operators, they’re quite extraordinary.”

Gates also addressed the need for a wide variety of tools for conducting diplomacy as well as Congress’s tendency to look at diplomacy and military matters as separate issues:

GATES: “Well, first of all, my — my view is the American toolbox should contain something other than hammers, OK?

“And — and I — my view is that the challenge that Secretary Clinton faces is not so much within the Department of State, but rather the willingness of the Congress to give her the resources that are needed to conduct these activities.  And — and the truth of the matter is — and I’m really on thin ice here…”

SESNO:  “Oh, but keep going.”

GATES:  “[T]he Congress is structured in such a way that our committees of jurisdiction tend to look at things in stovepipes.  So Hillary’s committees look at foreign policy in terms of diplomacy and so on and AID.  Ours look at it in terms of the military.  The intelligence folks have their committees.

“And — and so, except maybe at the very top level of the Congress, I think there are not people who have the same integrated view of the challenges facing our country and the opportunities we have to deal with them that we do sitting in the Situation Room.

“And the question is, how do you — how do you build a constituency in the Congress over a period of time not only to grow the civilian national security part of our government, meaning the non-DOD part, but to provide the tools that are necessary and that take years to build, in terms of talent and — and capacity, to be able to conduct America’s relationships abroad?  And I — I think that’s a challenge. . . .”

AMANPOUR:  “Well, I was just struck by what the Secretary said about I think there should be parts left of the hammer.  And I want to go back to Afghanistan, because…”

GATES:  “Well, I’m all for hammers.  I just want something other than hammers…”

One of the audience members asked Clinton specifically about new media’s role in public diplomacy.

KATELYN DOWNS:  “My question is for Secretary Clinton.

“On your first two foreign trips as secretary of State to the Middle East and Asia, you embedded local bloggers in your traveling press corps from each country that you visited.  You also participated in Web casts where you answered viewers’ questions.  You were cast in Beijing and over 10 million viewers, where you discussed climate change.  We were just discussing Twitter.

“My question to you is, how do you see new media in the future of public diplomacy?

“And what types of strategies do you think would be most effective in the future that use new media?”

CLINTON:  “Well, that’s a great question because I think that new media is the reality.  And part of what we’re trying to do is to bring that into public diplomacy and make it one of those tools in the toolbox, to try to not just have government to government contacts and official sorts of communication, but really try to reach out to the people in countries to have a better idea of who we are and what we stand for.

“I think there has been a tremendous opportunity because of President Obama, where people really have opened up to America again.  And we’re trying to fill that with content.  We’re trying to make it as interactive as possible, give people around the world the idea that we really care what they think about.  I mean we may not always agree, but
we’re back to listening.  We’re back to engaging.

“Because in today’s world, there’s too many sources of information coming at people and we need to be part of every possible approach that can be taken.

“So I think it’s — it’s critical and we’ve got some great young people at the State Department who are designing this for us.  And I feel very good about the — the start that we’ve made.  But we have a long way to go.”