The idea behind U.S. in the World was to create a space in which leading participants in those conversations -- and others interested in similar questions -- might work together on a project that would potentially benefit them all and give concrete form to some of their deliberations about shared values and strategies. The nearly two-year process that led to the publication of this guide involved at its core a Task Force of about 50 individuals representing many different areas of foreign policy expertise; in addition, the process incorporated advice from hundreds of experts on U.S. foreign policy, public opinion, and communications, collected through meetings, surveys, interviews, literature reviews, and other means. Some of the Task Force members had never met before, and most of them -- development advocates, energy and environmental organizers, nonproliferation and arms control experts, foreign policy scholars, youth activists, faith-based leaders -- had never rolled up their sleeves to collaborate on a common task. Together they worked to identify some of the key elements of a shared, nonpartisan vision of how America should engage with the world -- a vision that would combine the common sense and common decency that has characterized U.S. global leadership at its best and most effective. They winnowed from their expertise the top-priority themes and arguments that they wished more Americans were hearing about a number of critical issues. And with extensive input from communications experts, their deliberations produced practical recommendations about how to articulate those key themes and arguments, and connect them to big ideas about what kind of global citizen America should be.
The goal was to create a practical guide that would enhance efforts to build constituencies on specific global issues, while also reinforcing for the public some core elements of a shared, positive vision of America's role in the world. The creators of this guide hope it will help communicators to meet the short-term objectives of today's policy debates while also advancing the long-term objective of creating a broad-based, well informed, and active constituency for principled and constructive U.S. global engagement. To put it another way, we hope that communications informed by this guide will make a set of individual foreign policy issues clearer and more compelling to citizens, while also providing citizens with some overarching ideas and assumptions they can use to assess other global issues and policy options.
The project aims as well to create a flexible framework within which experts and advocates might help one another across issue lines, talk with one another about the implications of their communications choices, and lay the foundation for future dialogue and learning. The participants in this project have been inspired by a belief that public opinion is most likely to be crystallized and mobilized when a diverse and growing community of messengers begins to coalesce around shared themes and messages, even if they can't find common ground on every detail of their policy prescriptions.
What are the broad, cross-cutting themes on which this guide is based? They are principles that reflect convictions held by diverse experts and by the majority of non-expert American citizens, who consistently tell pollsters that they want the U.S. to do what works and what's right, and that they prefer to find peaceful solutions to global problems in cooperation with others. Principles such as building strength through teamwork and mutual respect; seeing the big picture; looking ahead and planning ahead; keeping our promises and practicing what we preach; using comprehensive strategies to address complex problems; and investing in the future. These are the kinds of big, nonpartisan ideas that are referenced throughout this guide, in the arguments and facts associated with each topic, in the messaging recommendations, in the suggested responses to tough questions, and in the quotes from thoughtful policymakers and policy analysts -- of all ideological persuasions -- that appear at the end of each section.
U.S. in the World offers a consistent, coherent vision. But it is a scaffolding, not a script. Few users will be comfortable with every single messaging recommendation or sample argument in these pages; none of the issue experts or communications experts who offered advice in this guide's creation will find it reflects all their recommendations. Because it is intended for use by those who are already knowledgeable about their particular issue focus, it is not an issue guide. It does not address every important global challenge that the United States confronts. And while the guide's techniques are meant to help users get a better hearing for their own insights and viewpoints, it does not seek to replace them. It does aim, however, to encourage the emergence of a shared sense of purpose and broad unifying themes across issues and among diverse messengers.
We invite you to become part of a growing network of communicators who are committed to inspiring more U.S. citizens to care about a broad range of global policy challenges and to educating Americans about the global issues that affect our own and future generations. The users of this guide constitute a network of communicators who are determined to equip American citizens for reflection and debate on this country's foreign policy choices, and to encourage citizens to play a role in solving today's and tomorrow's global challenges. These goals cannot be achieved on a meaningful scale overnight, or without patient and sustained effort. We hope this guide enables such an effort.