USA World Trust... Worth the Hassle?

As Lord mentions in her policy brief on the power of network diplomacy, even the Sec of Defense along with the Sec of State have recognized the need to strengthen civilian institutions of diplomacy in order to respond to the security challenges of our age. This recognition is a great first step towards making changes in the right direction, especially when public diplomacy experts such as Chris Dufour note how the bureaucratic and illegitimate nature of government driven diplomacy efforts are not nearly as successful as private acts of public diplomacy. But how can we strengthen civilian institutions? What would this look like? Lord discusses the intricacies of a new agency called USA World Trust that she believes can be a successful way to articulate the new vision of network diplomacy.

This new organization would use the power of the private sector to pursue the objectives of the State Dept more credibly and help create an environment of mutual trust. It would be given five core missions and serve as a "hub of collaboration between government agencies and private sector." However, shouldn't these missions of building relationships, creating trust, amplifying the US voice and strengthening public diplomacy be what the State Department is already doing? Even if this new organization is private in order to be perceived as more legitimate and credible, it's ideas must still be reflected by the US government anyway or else it too will lose legitimacy.

Lord does a good job of covering all bases however, and recognizes that this organization must be supported by the government without being soiled by it so that it does not lose its power among foreign audiences. She also gives a good explanation why creating this organization may be more useful than strengthening the State Department, using other organizations and their governmental 'counterparts' as examples of how they may work together to accomplish more.

While this all seems like a good idea on paper, my thoughts are that instead of running to create something new when government agencies prove dysfunctional, the reasons of dysfunction should be analyzed instead and improved upon. Instead of creating the USA World Trust, why not send State Dept workers through more training that will teach them the core concepts of network diplomacy and allow them to work with the private sector to better accomplish objectives? To me the bottom line is that the US simply needs to work more on its image and proving itself credible around the world, because without that, anything it touches will be tarnished and new organizations may not prove to be successful in the long run.


Sources:
Lord, Kristin M. Engaging the Private Sector for the Public Good: The Power of Network Diplomacy. Policy Brief, Center for a New American Security (CNAS), January 2011