Quotable: Schmitt and Gedmin on using soft power to “end Putinism”

Donald M. Bishop, publicdiplomacycouncil.org

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Extract:

In an article in the August 17, 2015, issue of The Weekly Standard and a paper on the website of the American Enterprise Institute, “How to End Putinism,” Gary J. Schmitt (AEI Resident Scholar and Co-Director of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies and Director of the Program on American Citizenship) and Jeffrey Gedmin (Senior fellow at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, senior adviser at Blue Star Strategies, and codirector of the Transatlantic Renewal Project) urged “a robust, forward-leaning US policy designed to revitalize the transatlantic relationship—and create a community resolute about standing up for our common interests and principles” in order to “stave off the machinations of the Kremlin.” ... 

Soft power ... includes information and media policy. We’ve now entered a seemingly endless debate over how to counter Kremlin-directed disinformation. Russian propaganda is proving successful in large part because we’ve left an open field. It’s time we turn the tables and see to it that Kremlin officials are spending more time fretting how Moscow ought to block our own public diplomacy and media campaign. There’s no need to answer Russian propaganda tit for tat. But we need to work closely with our European allies to tell the truth and, in turn, remind our own media that “balanced” reporting is not to be confused with “objective” reporting, especially when Moscow and its media surrogates are filling the Internet and airwaves with misleading stories and blatant lies.