America needs to polish its image abroad. That was the ultimate recommendation by a special task force sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The group released a report this week stating that the international image of the United States is dangerously low, even among its closest allies.

The CFR task force recommended that the White House set up an Office of Public Diplomacy to co-ordinate international PR-improvement efforts. Reform the State Department, increase spending on changing the American image, and cultivate foreign journalists as “highly credible messengers” for Brand America.

But is an international image make-over what America really needs? Can low global public opinion be changed with positive press? Or is the problem not the foreign interpretation of US policies, but the policies themselves?

This hour: Polishing America’s International Image

Guests:

David E. Morey ~ Co-chair of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on Public Diplomacy, Chief Executive Officer of DMG, Inc., and Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University, specializing in media and politics.

Michael Moran ~ Foreign Affairs columnist and senior producer at MSNBC Special Reports

Husain Haqqani ~ Visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, syndicated columnist for The Nation and The Indian Express, former advisor to Pakistani Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto