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President Clinton's 1995 defense budget, which allocates $1.29 trillion for defense from 1995 through 1999, continues his Administration ,s systematic dismantling of the nation's defenses so painstakingly rebuilt by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s., In the Clinton plan, the Department of Defense will fall short of its funding re- quirements-as outlined in the Administration's own "Bottom-Up Review"-by nearly $ 100 billion. The Ad- ministration and Congress must stop looking for "savings" in the defense budget, which has paid more than its share in cost-cutting eff...

Section 501 of the U.S. Information and Educational Exchange Act of1948 (Smith-Mundt Act) prohibits domestic dissemination ofinformation designed for foreign consumption, ostensibly to ban"domestic propaganda." In the war on terrorism, this amounts toself-sabotage. Until Congress relegates this piece of legislationto the dustbin of history, the U.S. cannot expect to conduct publicdiplomacy effectively.

China is building a military capable of projecting power throughoutAsia and the Western Pacific and could become Asia's economic,trade, political security, and human rights rule-maker as theUnited States recedes from the region. Washington needs to makefundamental changes in its Asia policy and engage allies andfriendly countries in the region to meet this challenge.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, leaders in both the legislativeand executive branches essentially discarded public diplomacy as aCold War relic. Since 9/11, the situation has improved onlymarginally if at all. To restore America's voice, governmentleaders should draw on the nation's Cold War legacy to lay thefoundation for the next generation of public diplomacy.

The Bush Administration and Congress have made progress in someareas of public diplomacy, but the United States will lag inforeign outreach unless bureaucratic structures are streamlined,better coordinated, and focused on tasks at hand.