Karen Hughes

Through the video we watched in class, we were able to see the use of public relations from the eye of Karen Hughes, former advisor of President George W. Bush. In fact, she explains how she has tried to promote a good image of the United States of America, and calls herself the "U.S's Dialogue with the world". From this latter point, we can understand she has been using the spoken word to reach her goal; yet somewhat missed her point when talking about public diplomacy and only giving one side of it. In the end, she brings up the topic of the role of the US towards Iraq; about whether it tried to occupy it or liberate it.

Concerning the latter point, the idea seems quite foggy. In fact, the role of the US cannot be clearly stated since we don't want to put labels on any action, but on the other hand, some actions seem to link to each other. In other words, the US could really have as a purpose to help the Iraq, just as it could simply be a way to get their trust in order to better reach them (keep your friends close and your enemies closer). All in all, the US's communication effort cannot be labeled as useful or useless in any way.

To come back to our main point, Ms Hughes talks about public diplomacy and it having a primary role in both fighting terrorims and promoting the US image. On that point, it appears that public diplomacy sure has an important role, yet it is only a tools among others for the US to preach their ideas to the rest of the world, and make them follow their path. Reaching the population rather than the government is a subtler way of reaching their target, considering Hughes' definition of public diplomacy. In sum, we can also say that the way she puts the concept itself seems more balanced than some other definitions that only put public diplomacy as a simple matter of bringing people to one's side by any means. In fact, her approach tries to touch every person rather than groups.