The Council on Foreign Relations has issued this report calling for changes in US "public diplomacy."

A consensus is emerging, made far more urgent by the war on terrorism, that US public diplomacy requires new thinking and decision-making structures that do not now exist. We must make clear why we are fighting this war and why supporting it is in the interest of other nations as well as our own. Because terrorism is considered the transcendent threat to our national security, it is overwhelmingly in the national interest that the United States formulate and manage its foreign policies in such a way that the war on terrorism receives the indispensable cooperation of foreign nations.

We must make clear the US government's commitment to public diplomacy as a central element in US foreign policy. Significant reform is urgently needed to bring strategic planning, focus, resources, and badly needed coordination to this effort.