USDA Marketing Assistance Project/Armenia “US in the World” - A New Communications Tool

1. USDA Marketing Assistance Project/Armenia “US in the World” - A New Communications Tool January 19, 2005 - Carol Radomski

3. Objectives for Today • Understand purpose, contents and uses of USITW guide • Review key concepts and recommendations • Discuss core messages • Practice answering tough questions

4. Click here to launch the movie.

5. TASK FORCE • Energy: Energy Future Coalition, National Commission on Energy Policy, National Environmental Trust, Apollo Alliance, National Religious Partnership for the Environment, NRDC… • Development: InterAction, Better Safer World Campaign, Seattle Initiative, Center for Global Development, Global Justice, Global Interdependence Initiative, Population Action International… • Security/Peace: Security Policy Working Group, Directors’ Forum, Carnegie Non-Proliferation Project, Peace & Security Initiative, Win Without War, CSIS, Stimson Center… • US Role in the World - general: National Council of Churches, Center for American Progress, Campaign to Preserve US Global Leadership, Brookings Institution, MoveOn, National Voice Campaign, New America Foundation, Foreign Policy in Focus, Council on Foreign Relations…

6. TASK FORCE • What do we stand for? • What do we want to say? • How do we want to say it?

7. Goals SHORT-TERM: provide tools for • issues education • policy changes LONG-TERM: • develop an engaged and informed public • create a movement for positive change • promote principled and constructive U.S. foreign policy

8. Develop a tool 1) Factor in HOW the public thinks and reasons about these issues 2) Draw on multiple types of public opinion and communications research 3) Consider the implications of messaging choices for various issues and purposes

9. COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLIC OPINION EXPERTS • Celinda Lake • Robert Boorstin (incl. Greenberg/McInturff research) • Greenberg Quinlan Rosner • The Frameworks Institute • Cultural Logic • Steve Kull/ PIPA • George Lakoff/ Rockridge Institute

10. Introduction to the Guide 1. A communications tool 2. Has a point of view - positive, global engagement is good 3. “Preach to the unconverted” 4. Reach diverse audiences 5. Assumes you know the issues 6. Offers user-friendly support

11. Insert PDF of Getting Started and Top Twenty Recommendations tabs Or show PDF page 33 (book page 32)

14. Troutman Sanders The basic premise: Global issues affect us all. Everyone one of us should have a stake in shaping “our” foreign policy.

15. US in the World is “About” • Democratic participation • Justice • Equality • A better world for future generations

16. Photo by Ilan Kelman

17. Photo by JQ Jacobs

18. Photo by Rick McCharles

20. “‘Born in conservation’ if you don’t mind, ‘captivity’ has such a negative connotation”

21. Sijke

22. and now the news...

23. AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis Global mayhem... MTPE

24. …and only the Americans are there to help. Photo by Thomas Hartwell, USAID (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Daniel T. Dark) World Vision US

26. REUTERS/U.S. Navy/Jacob J. Kirk/Handout

27. AP Photo/Nikolas Giakoumidis Museums Teaching Planet Earth Another day…same stories.

28. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

29. “Most people killed by the tsunami died because they are poor. Even with much improved warning systems, little can be done to prevent natural disasters from becoming massacres as long as people’s livelihoods, infrastructure, and public health conditions are precarious. To minimize the death toll in future disasters we need to do a much better job of supporting long-term economic development in these countries.” --Michael Clemens Research Fellow, Center for Global Development:

31. USDA Marketing Assistance Project / Armenia

32. “From up there all the trouble spots in the world seemed rather small… The first day or two you try to recognize the countries… Then you keep missing the countries and look only at the continents. By the sixth day, the whole world becomes a beautiful blue and white and yellow painting. So fragile. Those boundaries really disappear.” • Prince Sultan ibn Salman al Saud of Saudi Arabia, Shuttle astronaut, 1985 Source: The NASA Earth Observatory

33. It’s an interconnected world... Use “Big Ideas” that - • resonate with your audience • reinforce what you are “about” • keep your audience on the right path

34. WHAT’S THE “BIG IDEA”? U.S. ACTIONS SHOULD BE… • Pragmatic/smart/effective/realistic • Far-sighted • Comprehensive • Collaborative • The right thing to do/trustworthy/principled • Mutually Beneficial

38. “I will suggest to you that the challenge of U.S. dominance, which none of us fully appreciate yet, is that we are like a 12,000 pound elephant in the world’s living room… and we shake our head…and our trunk breaks five pieces of family china. And the entire planet stares in horror, and we have no clue.” — Newt Gingrich

39. TOP 20 RECOMMENDATIONS Personal Favorites: 2. Talk about the interconnected world. 7. Give examples of other countries and NGO’s working alongside the US 15. Use numbers sparingly and put them in context. 19. Don’t repeat negative big ideas - that only reinforces them.

40. US in the World is... • A scaffolding for more effective messaging — not a script to recite • A user-friendly tool, not a magic bullet • Designed to help us communicate more effectively in the short-run and... • Promote collaboration across issues and organizations • Help us all be part of a “bigger story” in the long-run

41. This Guide Is Your Guide • Ultimately, the Guide belongs to you • Order the book, share your ideas or sign up for more training at www.usintheworld.org • Join listserv on communications strategy at gii-moderator@aspeninst.org. • It’s one world and we’re all in it together…