The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2005

ment-oriented Radio Farda has replaced the Iranian Service of RFE/RL. In the first of three contributions, Alan Heil, former VOA deputy direc- tor, recalls the rich history of VOA Arabic, which operated at much less cost than Radio Sawa, and calls for its revival. Norm Pattiz, the BBG mem- ber most responsible for the creation of the new broadcast media and him- self a very successful commercial broadcaster, argues in contrast that a new market research-based approach reaching a much larger audience is needed, and cites BBG studies that claim large audiences for both Radio Sawa and TV Alhurra. But Mark Lynch, a professor at Williams College who has written widely about Arab public opinion and media, cites other data to argue that TV Alhurra has only a small share of a highly competitive market and will prove to be a costly white elephant. He judges that Radio Sawa, despite its large audience created by clear FM signals and first-rate music, has had only mixed success, since its primary focus remains on its “quite attractive, but politically irrelevant, music.” In the fourth section Barry Ballow, former director of academic ex- changes at USIA and State, outlines the achievements of international vis- itor programs, many of whose partici- pants have gone on to important responsibilities (including 32 Nobel laureates). He deplores the program’s woeful underfunding and the impact of new, post-9/11 security procedures. Former ambassador Crescencio Arcos, now directing international affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, explains the department’s efforts to balance security with facili- tating visitors. In the fifth part, Howard Cincotta, a former USIA and State expert, analyzes the State Department’s print media, including the daily Washington File , magazines, e-journals and book translations. The study closes with Dr. Rugh’s conclusions and action plan. He iden- tifies three causes for public diploma- cy’s decline: increased security mea- sures, decreased funding and the merger of USIA into State — all fac- tors that preceded 9/11. As other ana- lysts before him have done, he urges a broad-gauged expansion of public diplomacy in the region: more staff with greater training; more use of J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 5 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 79 B O O K S u