America's fading image

Texans Leave Bush

President George W. Bush's ally from his Texas circle , Karen Hughes, is leaving her post as Deputy Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in mid-December . Announcing Hughes' resignation the other day, her boss, Condoleezza Rice, said she was "saddened by the separation" as much as she was happy with what her subordinate had achieved: "Public diplomacy has moved to the center of US foreign policy." Standing nearby, 51-year-old Hughes (she is returning to her native Austin to devote herself to her family) responded that improving the international image of the United States is “a long-term task that will take years to resolve.”

George Bush, in his own words, two years ago “thrown” Hughes “into the most critical area”: raising the authority of his administration abroad. Then Hughes outlined her goal as follows: “to combat the negative opinion of the United States that has developed in the world, especially the Arab world, after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.” Yesterday she said she had "done everything the Secretary of State and the President have asked to do to make public diplomacy a national security priority."

Despite criticism from Democrats, Karen Hughes has achieved something: for example, almost doubling the budget for public diplomacy programs to $900 million a year. The money was used to create three foreign “quick response” press centers and train diplomats who gave interviews to Arab media in good Arabic, four times more than in the previous two years. Hughes herself participated in many teleconferences. She allowed US ambassadors in various countries to move away from dry instructions and directly influence the public opinion of the host countries through the press. In addition, America was glorified on foreign tours by cultural and sports stars, in particular baseball player Cal Ripken and figure skater Michelle Kwan.

But the effect was not so impressive. According to the American Pew Research Center, in the largest Islamic countries (Indonesia, for example), the number of people who have a “favorable view of the United States” has dropped by more than half, to a third of the population. In a survey conducted in September by the British Broadcasting Corporation, more than half of the world's respondents said the influence of the United States was "generally negative."

Hughes herself, in the habit of a former reporter for the Texas affiliate of NBC, sometimes spoke out very frankly. So, in the summer, she admitted to the press that for her foreign audience, the war in Iraq comes in second place, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict comes first: “Two years ago, I advised the president and the secretary of state to end the 60-year confrontation over Israel, which would probably strengthen the international position of the United States more than any other step."

Now Bush will have almost none of the closest aides he brought to the White House seven years ago. This year, chief political adviser Karl Rove and Attorney General Texan Alberto Gonzalez left amid scandals. “Hughes did her best to save America’s image. A complete catastrophe did not happen to him, partly thanks to her, although Hughes’ task was practically unsolvable and it is unknown who will take on it now, Nikolai Zlobin, director of Russian and Asian programs at the Washington Institute of World Security, told Vremya Novostei. He recalled that in next year’s presidential elections, “for the first time in 80 years, a representative of the current administration will not participate, so the evacuation has begun in the White House”: “Substantial figures are leaving, they are being replaced by people with the task of making the transition to the next administration, whatever it may be.” " Our interlocutor explains: “This is a technical task, and people like Hughes are not interested in doing this - they are arranging their future life. The change of key individuals, which began with the resignation of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld in November 2006, will continue.”

Alexander SAMOKHOTKIN