22 January 2010
Private Soft Power
As illustrated by the dead-end Washington’s attempt to reform health care has reached, it will be foolhardy to rely on the government to launch and manage a soft power solution in Iran. That is an enterprise that the private sector (and not only in the U.S.) ought to undertake.
Individuals, corporations and foundations have adequate financial means and superior technical capability to accomplish all four of the tasks that Messrs. Glassman and Doran outline in their OpEd in the January 21, 2010 Wall Street Journal. A special purpose organization can be formed, like the Red Cross, to collect funds, hire professional skills, acquire and distribute equipment and materials, mount boycotts, enrich communications, counter propaganda, and otherwise undermine the Iranian regime’s tools of oppression and its freedom to pursue uncivil policies on the world stage.
Humanitarian causes have inspired the creation of effective private cross-border action associations in the past—disaster relief, racial and gender equality, worker rights, to name a few. Governments are not the best vehicle for supporting other nations’ citizens’ political rights. Our government has proven itself to be ill-suited to providing for our own welfare. It is the responsibility of private citizens to seize the initiative and adopt the measures that will provide the support that citizens of another nation like Iran need in order to gain control of their society and instill civility in its international behavior.
As illustrated by the dead-end Washington’s attempt to reform health care has reached, it will be foolhardy to rely on the government to launch and manage a soft power solution in Iran. That is an enterprise that the private sector (and not only in the U.S.) ought to undertake.
Individuals, corporations and foundations have adequate financial means and superior technical capability to accomplish all four of the tasks that Messrs. Glassman and Doran outline in their OpEd in the January 21, 2010 Wall Street Journal. A special purpose organization can be formed, like the Red Cross, to collect funds, hire professional skills, acquire and distribute equipment and materials, mount boycotts, enrich communications, counter propaganda, and otherwise undermine the Iranian regime’s tools of oppression and its freedom to pursue uncivil policies on the world stage.
Humanitarian causes have inspired the creation of effective private cross-border action associations in the past—disaster relief, racial and gender equality, worker rights, to name a few. Governments are not the best vehicle for supporting other nations’ citizens’ political rights. Our government has proven itself to be ill-suited to providing for our own welfare. It is the responsibility of private citizens to seize the initiative and adopt the measures that will provide the support that citizens of another nation like Iran need in order to gain control of their society and instill civility in its international behavior.
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