TRANSCRIPT:
And the Chinese are filling the space that we’re leaving. So, we’re allowing China to be on the information offensive during the information age. I mean, it’s critical that you play in the information space smartly. Not through propaganda, not like being authoritarians, but smartly by re-upping on the American brand of facts and news. But [if] you retreat from the battlefield others see that China is playing, it makes China look strong and America look weak. And I think it hurts us.
The second related point is the one, you know Joe Nye, many of your viewers will know that Joe Nye coined the term “soft power” and he just passed away. But the idea of soft power, attractive power, where other countries look at other, you know third countries, and say “We appreciate those values, we are attracted to what they’re about.”
Therefore we build some trust and that has a certain power of its own. That is being lost.
[The] American brand and American attractiveness becomes soiled and I think that becomes also a blot on American power and influence in the world which is very difficult to recover from. Trust is hard to gain and easy to lose. And I think if we move further in this direction — with an OAN [One America News] direction — we’re going to lose that trust and the brand of VOA will be soiled immeasurably.
Published
Mitchell served as U.S. ambassador to Myanmar from 2012–2016, appointed by President Barack Obama. He was the first person to fill the role after more than two decades, part of a U.S. effort to bring Myanmar out of isolation. Mitchell later served as the president of the National Democratic Institute and as a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.