As we stress in the preceding sections, there is a lot that experts on communications, messaging, and public opinion agree on -- and much that they don't. Though a great deal of research data are available on public attitudes about international affairs and ways to advance particular arguments, the science of crafting communications and messaging recommendations is inexact. Pollsters with specific goals -- for example, helping a group achieve a particular legislative victory -- offer advice based on one perspective and methodology; pollsters with longer-term time horizons offer different advice based on other techniques. Cognitive linguists bring a unique lens to interpreting data. Public relations professionals draw on different experiences. The same goes for sociologists, focus group leaders, advertising executives, political campaigners, advocacy leaders, grassroots organizers, politicians who have gone on bus tours, and so on. The answers are rarely cut-and-dried. The U.S. in the World process is based on a belief that everyone has something to contribute to the search for better communications choices.

We hope that you will connect with others who share similar interests and goals -- challenging your communications choices, talking about them with others, and continuing to track research. To that end, we offer selected resources to help in the "Keeping Current" and "Community Resources" sections of U.S. in the World's Web site, www.usintheworld.org.