Whether your goal is to educate citizens generally or to win public support for specific policy changes or actions, a key challenge is to define the issues in ways that allow people to see solutions. Do this successfully and you can equip listeners with a framework for continued learning and inspire them to get involved. They may think, "Now I get it ... I know the trade-offs ... It makes sense that we try to do X so we can make a dent in this problem." If you don't help people understand what can be done, you may leave audiences confused and apathetic: "I can see how important it is to address this problem, but I don't get it, it's way too complicated ... I guess I'll leave it to the experts."

Help people see the big picture about what is happening, not just a snapshot that captures a moment in time and space. Provide enough context to help listeners understand causes and effects; describe how problems came about and how certain actions can make a difference. Point to systemic factors that have exacerbated problems and to systemic solutions (i.e., not just plucky individuals or heroic rescuers) that could change things for the better. Make sure you leave listeners with a clear sense of your judgment about the levers we need to pull to create the kind of change you advocate.

Americans get mostly bad news every day about the rest of the world (see "Where the Public Is Coming From,"), given the media's disproportionate emphasis on wars, conflicts, and humanitarian and natural disasters. It can seem that global problems are too big and too numerous to handle -- from the spread of biological weapons to biodiversity loss, from escalating violence to rising sea levels. There's plenty of blame being thrown around for what isn't working, but no one seems to have a positive vision of what can be done. Not surprisingly, many Americans report feeling overwhelmed and powerless, which hardly encourages them to think more about global issues, let alone act on them. "Oh no, another huge problem we can't do much about. How depressing..."

If Americans are to be inspired to care about and support your ideas for U.S. global engagement, they need new and positive pictures in their minds about the possibility of being effective and doing good in the world. They need to believe that it's possible for the United States, working with others, to actually help solve serious global problems.

The next time you talk about big, complex problems, try not to start out with scary statistics to grab attention. Try leading with a positive vision of what can be done. Instead of starting with images of border-crossing pollution and terrorism, try talking about the steps we can take to create a healthy environment or to reduce the frustration and resentment on which extremism feeds. Rather than leading off your PowerPoint presentation with pictures of hundreds of AIDS orphans, start with images of kids who now have opportunities to learn and thrive. Don't ignore the drama and scale of the problem ... just don't make it the dominant frame for your message.

A positive vision and problem-solving attitude will carry more listeners with you. And it's what most Americans would like to hear -- for a change.

The vast majority of Americans want our nation to be helpful to others around the world and believe we should contribute our share to solving global problems. But they don't want us to have to do it all or to be the world's police force. The misperception also persists among large portions of the public that America is doing it all, paying more than other nations to help poor countries, contributing the most peacekeeping troops, putting out all the world's fires, and so on (see "Where the Public Is Coming From").

Given a lifetime of reinforcement -- images in the media, rhetoric from politicians, patriotic books at school -- most Americans' strong belief that we're doing everything won't be shaken by mere facts. If citizens are to respond to your calls to do more, they also need to see that other actors on the world stage are sharing the burdens of problem solving. They need positive images and stories of countries working alongside one another in pursuit of shared goals -- whether ensuring that all children have a chance to go to school, tackling global warming, promoting democracy and peace, cracking down on weapons proliferation, or preventing terrorist attacks.

Talk about international teamwork in ways that highlight the contributions of multiple players. Include NGOs and other nongovernmental actors that are lending a hand. Avoid solutions and success stories that are exclusively America-centric, which may only reinforce the suspicion that we are doing more than our fair share.

Time and again, Americans have shown a willingness to respond to needs around the world and to rise to challenges. But for sustained engagement, results matter; we want to know that we're investing resources and energies wisely, not pursuing pie-in-the-sky dreams or flawed strategies. If we want more citizens to take more of an interest in the world, to support initiatives that could bring us a better energy future, lock down loose nuclear materials, alleviate poverty, curb global warming, and so on, we need to be telling them more about what's going right around the world, more about what we have succeeded in doing. Without such stories -- and faced with an onslaught of media coverage devoted to everything that's going wrong -- we can hardly expect citizens to believe there is much reason for America to try harder.

Introduce solutions early in the narrative to head off the assumption that none exist. Try to choose stories that show America working with others to make a difference. Choose examples that show durable results. Describe successful models that have been, or could be, applied in other countries or regions or used to address other problems. Favor wide-angle stories that demonstrate the potential for systemic change (e.g., how investments in health care and education transformed an entire region by giving local people the tools and resources they needed to improve their communities) over those with a narrow lens (e.g., how an individual in an African village borrowed $50, started a successful business that helped her family, and paid back her loan). When possible, explain progress as lifting all boats, not solely for America's advantage, to reinforce the notion of our interconnectedness (see recommendation 2 above).

As caring, generous, can-do people, Americans instinctively want to help. Communicators who talk to citizens routinely report back from face-to-face encounters with citizens that "people want to know what they can do." Research for the U.S. in the World project showed, however, that few communicators have or offer good answers to this question. And when it comes to foreign policy issues, citizens often have no idea how to keep track of issues, let alone make a difference.

In your comments, try to incorporate ideas -- both general and specific -- for how citizens can get involved in working toward solutions. Talk about basic yardsticks citizens can use to interpret what they read and hear -- in the news or from policymakers and candidates -- about international affairs and foreign policy. See "Engaging Citizens" for ideas.