The Strong, Silent Type.(US perception in the Middle East)(Brief Article)

The perception of the United States overseas isn't exactly sparkling nowadays. According to a recent report issued by the Council on Foreign Relations, many nations, especially Islamic ones, view the United States as "arrogant, self-indulgent, and hypocritical." The council urges an entirely new approach to selling America, including using polling, creating a "Corporation for Public Diplomacy" and establishing a new White House office to coordinate efforts. It may sound outlandish. But the U.S. Congress is also considering the issue, and more funding for some type of campaign is likely to follow.

How could America polish its image overseas? NEWSWEEK asked the advice of a premier Hollywood image shaper, filmmaker Barry Levinson. In addition to directing such classics as "Diner" and "Rain Man," Levinson made the political satire "Wag the Dog," which showed how a president could successfully manipulate public opinion and avoid fallout from a sex scandal by hiring Hollywood to stage a fake war in Albania. He spoke by phone from a movie set in Los Angeles. Excerpts:

If you were to write a movie for George Bush and create a "Wag the Dog" scenario that would work in the Mideast, what would it be?

"Wag the Dog" was about manipulating the press by using staged images. It's really about manipulating images. But the reality of it is, we don't have a very good sense of ourselves or a good idea of what our image is or should be. We don't understand the image our presence is creating in the Mideast. As a nation, we don't seem to realize how strong we are, so we have a tendency to act like the bully. If you have strength, you can have a certain kind of reserve. And it's sort of ironic because the entire region is ruled by repressive governments. Yet somehow suddenly we've made it look like they're being placed under the thumb of this great superpower, which is obviously not true. We lead the world in freedoms and yet the world resents us.

So how would you sell the United States overseas? What image should we project?

Right now we're in a hard-sell mode. I don't think anybody responds to a hard sell. It's a little bit like we're doing commercials that are full of themselves. When we watch a commercial in the U.S., we like sleight of hand--where you're not exactly sure of the commercial, there's some clever mystery, but it gets to you. We're not charming enough, we're not disarming enough. I think if you were to apply it to characters in the movies, what characters do you respond to? It's the ones you have to reach out for, the ones you're curious about. Any character in ...