With the presidential campaigns nearing its final days in 2004, I have repeatedly been reminded that no matter how good your policies, your intentions, your operating principles are - it doesn’t make an impact unless you are able to convince the masses that your views are the right ones, and that people should act on them. In a nutshell, it takes good PR - communicating clear goals/visions, enumerating clear benefits, to rally the troops behind you.

Maybe troops is not the best word here as the commander-in-chief could simply issue orders, without need to convince constituents why they want to do it. Not surprisingly, this fails for entities outside the particular chain-of-command, both at the corporate and national level. Applying Eisenhower’s notion of leadership to the international arena, it all comes down to convincing nations around the world that your course of action is the right one, is the sensible one, and is of benefit to them. Has the Bush Administration succeeded at this?

On a parallel track, Linda Tischler examines in a recent Fast Company article entitled Brand That I Love the following issue: As global affection for American brands wanes, can business do what government can’t: Make Brand U.S.A. cool again? Not surprisingly, a big part of any solution would be better PR.

“Nobody’s saying the love affair is over, but it’s clear that the world’s affection for American brands is on the wane. The war in Iraq, with all its geopolitical side battles, has made Nike shoes and Coca-Cola anathema in certain corners of the globe. But the erosion is also an amalgam of the side effects of globalization, resentment of the ubiquity and values of American popular culture, and — oh, how to put this gently? — our boorish personality.” That, at least, is what Keith Reinhard, CEO of the global advertising agency DDB Worldwide, found in a study he commissioned in 17 countries. [..]

Later in the article, author Linda Tischler looks at possible solutions: Brand U.S.A. needs a makeover. For that matter, it needs a new stylist, too. “The United States government is simply not a credible messenger,” Reinhard told the 9/11 Commission in hearings last August. Whatever efforts the Bush administration, or any other, takes to counter this problem will inevitably be dismissed, particularly in the Arab world, as simply propaganda.

Reinhard points out that people still love a lot of things about America: our can-do spirit, our optimism, our creativity, and even our business acumen. But in the commercial world, people don’t buy things from sellers they don’t trust. And Brand U.S.A. has lost foreign consumers’ trust. To restore that faith, American companies must use “soft” power skills to do what military might cannot.

That will mean outreach. Reinhard envisions corporate internship exchange programs, best-practice sharing among companies, and corporation-funded English language programs in Arab countries. Other projects focus on addressing the “ugly American” issue — programs to teach top officers at American multinationals what they need to know to be kinder, gentler global citizens, plus a World Citizens Guide for students and another for adults.

Some would disparage this as a girlie-man approach to a problem that will resolve itself once we succeed in whipping Iraq into shape. But Reinhard argues that leadership by influence and example will beat brute strength — and such thinking is winning traction in some unexpected circles. “We can’t fight an ideology with force,” says William Parker, a political adviser to General James E. Cartwright, commander of U.S. Strategic Command. “We’re going to have to focus a great deal of attention on engaging people in the global struggle of ideas. It will impact everything we do.”