James K. Glassman, undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy under President George W. Bush, has an Op-Ed in the Financial Times where he expresses concerns about the future of public diplomacy. He admits that President Obama has had some success improving America’s image in the world but warns against confusing public relations for diplomacy:

The future of public diplomacy, in my view, is in doubt. It is not currently being taken seriously  by policymakers as a tool of national security. Furthermore, when officials do focus on strategic communication, they often turn to American brand-burnishing, which ignores the unresolved question of whether a better-liked America can more easily achieve its national security goals. . . .

Much of the public diplomacy effort in the past has focused on America’s own image, on how Americans are seen by others. But today, in the war of ideas, our core task is not how to fix foreigners’ perceptions of the United States but how to isolate and reduce the threat of violent extremism. In other words, it’s not about us.

We began to develop such an approach during my tenure in government, calling it Public Diplomacy 2.0. The approach begins with research on America’s image. We found three reasons for low favorability — differences with U.S. policies, a lack of understanding of those policies and beliefs, and a perception that the United States does not respect the views of others, does not listen to them, or take them seriously. These last two subjects — lack of understanding by foreigners and lack of respect by the United States — cannot be addressed by preaching or by telling the world how wonderful America is. In fact, the technique of standing in one place and spraying a message widely to others is not very effective in today’s world.

A better way to communicate is through the generation of a wide and deep conversation. The U.S. role in that conversation is as facilitator and convener. We generate this conversation in the belief that our views will be heard — even if U.S. government actors are not always the authors of those views.

The most urgent task confronting this new concept of public diplomacy is to dispel the pernicious idea in Muslim societies is that the United States wants to destroy Islam and replace it with Christianity. Vast majorities in many countries believe this narrative, and it is the prism through which they view almost all U.S. activities. But to try to refute this narrative head-on is not easy. A better approach is to promote a different narrative — one that reflects the truth. . . .

America needs to do all it can to increase communications within Iran, as well as between Iran and the outside world — and help Iranians get the technology to overcome regime attempts to block and censor. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has often stated that he believes the Islamic Republic is engaged in a soft war with the West. As pointed out by Mehdi Khalaji and J. Scott Carpenter, he believes “all new telecommunication, Internet and satellite technology are Western tools to defeat him in this war.” The United States should be furnishing that technology.

The task ahead is to tell the world the story of a good and compassionate nation and, at the same time, to engage in the most important ideological contest of our time — a contest America will win.