America's reliance on hard power has done its international image irreparable harm I believe. Harm that will take decades of altruistic intervention (who am I kidding, right?) to undo. But the food-for-peace program, where the U.S. sends food as a form of aid is a wonderful step in the right direction. While it often seems that the U.S. talks out of both sides of its mouth with regards to its moral righteousness, providing aid to malnourished and impoverished children is a great thing for U.S. PD.
Naomi Leight, over at USC blog, -http://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/index.php/newswire/cpdblog_detail/food_diplomacy_and_school_meals_for_peace/
disagrees. She claims that America no longer is the only nation capable of aiding those in need and the fact that we're all obese (sadly true) says that we can't even take care of our own children. Perhaps she's right. With the advent of factory farming and fast-food, fried chicken and french fries are now some of the cheapest foods available. No wonder America (and other nations) are fat. However, that is an issue all together different than what she is writing about, I think she's wrong about the food as a source of soft power. While we refuse to disband our innumerable military bases and continue to occupy sovereign nations, the least we can do is help counteract our bully image via something good. Something altruistic. Perhaps, something yummy. Since foreign aid is such an insignificant amount of the budget, it makes no sense to do anything but augment these types of programs. While America's greatest export is war, perhaps this food aid is a soft power step in the right direction...
I agree Conor, and as we discussed in our presentation, food diplomacy is a big part of South Korea's overall public diplomacy strategy. I don't get the connection Leight makes between our own problems with obesity and food aid to other countries either. We may have our problems, but that doesn't lessen the importance and universality of food to our common human experience. Maybe there are more innovative public diplomacy strategies, but we need food to survive, and if people in these countries can connect positive feelings about the US to the food that we offer, then so much the better. Considering how critical people are of some of our other PD programs, I think this one is a no-brainer and a win-win for everyone.
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