The Foreign Service Journal, October 2005

University’s Public Diplomacy Insti- tute ( http://pdi.gwu.edu/ ) an d at USIAAA’s Public Diplomacy Web Site ( www.publicdiplomacy.org ). New Index Tracks Rise of Foreign Policy As a Popular Concern In January 2000, only a minority of Americans wanted the U.S. govern- ment to place more attention on inter- national issues. Today, even with greater public attention paid to global concerns in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, more than half of the American public wants the govern- ment to place still more emphasis on international issues. This is among the findings of the Confidence in U.S. Foreign Policy Index, a joint venture of Foreign Affairs magazine and Public Agenda, with support from the Ford Founda- tion, released Aug. 3. Public Agenda, founded in 1975 by former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and social scientist Daniel Yankelovich, is dedicated to nonpartisan policy research. To be issued regularly, the Index is designed to explore the public’s long- term judgments and beliefs about America’s role in the world. It covers more than 25 issues through some 80 different survey questions. Americans see relations with the Islamic world as the fundamental for- eign policy problem facing the nation, the current Index shows — but there is no consensus concerning what to do about it. Three-quarters of Americans worry about losing trust and friend- ship abroad and about a growing hatred of the U.S. in Muslim coun- tries — and fully 40 percent “worry a lot.” The Index also reveals that the public cares deeply and more unani- mously about the problems of illegal immigration and protecting American jobs in a global economy than leader- ship attention to these issues suggests. Full survey results can be found at www.publicagenda.org o r www. confidenceinforeignpolicy.org . A Focus on Fixing Failed States In August, the barely-year-old Center for Stabilization and Recon- struction Studies at the Naval Post- graduate School in Monterey, Calif., launched its first “prevent new Afghanistans” exercise. Members of humanitarian-aid groups joined mili- tary officers and U.S. Defense and State Department officials to find ways to work together to help turn around failed or failing states — in this case, the fictional country of Aliya, which has suffered an invasion and domestic revolt followed by years of warlordism and civil war. “The world has changed,” declared Carlos Pascual, head of the State Department’s newly established Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, addressing the opening ceremonies of the unusual game. “We need to secure our nation and provide for global security. This is what the game is all about.” The Office of Coordinator for Re- construction and Stabilization was opened in August 2004. The coordina- tor reports directly to the Secretary of O C T O B E R 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 15 C YBERNOTES Site of the Month http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection , an outstanding resource for researchers, is unusually user-friendly. The University of Texas at Austin’s main library has a general collection of more than 250,000 maps from all over the world. Most are listed in the library’s online catalogue, UTNetCAT, and some 5,000 are available directly online. The site’s up-to-the minute “online maps of current interest” include such things as neighborhoods, levees and landmarks in New Orleans and highways in Mississippi; changes in Gaza; the current distribution of bird flu; wildfires in Portugal, and more. And its Cartographic Reference Resources is a goldmine of useful material, including explanations of all of the different map projections. The site not only guides visitors to the library’s own maps, but goes a long way to making the map resources of the entire Web accessible. One can find all different types of maps — country, city, state, historical and outline — depicting the different regions of the world; links are provided to the library’s collections as well as to other sites for particular maps. At the same time, the site’s helpful FAQ includes “Where can I find a map of … on the Internet?” and a comprehensive answer with links.