Taking off, from Jakarta this Saturday, US Under Secretary of State, Karen Hughes, will make what can be considered an 'emergency' landing.

For in her tow, she will carry the bad press and undeserved barbs the United States has endured since the beginning of its war on terror in 2001.

That included, it will also mean for Karen a valiant, credible attempt on her foreign policy initiatives, that should take into account the interests and grouses of the nations on her itinerary.

In Aceh, on Saturday when she receives whatever residue of mistrust still remains of the United States in that country, she will probably use that data as a valuable sounding board to burnish deteriorating perceptions of Washington when she meets Malaysian leaders.

Looking at what lies ahead, nobody will deny that Hughes has an immeasurably humongous responsibility.

To begin with, the United States these days is viewed 'less of a beacon of hope than a dangerous force', according to her very own senior colleagues.

Whether rightly or wrongly, the United States is blamed, especially in the Arab world, for every global misfortune, from poverty and pollution, to provoking terrorism and instability in the Middle East.

The trip to Southeast Asia, which is no coincidence, can be viewed as a desperate US government attempt to shore up battered images, and importantly get accurate feedback on perceptions of the US.

To this end, the resourceful Hughes in understanding the urgency of her mission, pioneered the creation of 'rapid reaction' media teams to refute anti-US stories. She also encouraged US ambassadors to deal more with local media and academics.

All these and more, is part of the steely Texan's no-nonsense approach to view her job of protecting the US with the urgency it demands of.

Soft power

Even as Hughes comes to the job with undisguised verve and determination ironically, those very qualities may just be what are doing her in.

For example when facing hostile crowds in Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, her typical Texan demeanour of giving short answers and being unapologetic, created an aura of combativeness around her the very attributes someone in the business of public relations ought to be avoiding.

But even despite those occasional slip-ups, there is no denying to Hughes's prescience to where the problems of international terrorism actually lay.

If poverty is the cause of terrorism, the US, she avers is not responsible for the poverty of Arab countries with huge oil reserves.

Yet conversely, most of the Sept 11 hijackers came from educated, prosperous families.

However, these observations do not add to what Hughes urgently needs to address.

The question of sinking US popularity perhaps could also be the failure of Washington, the subtler aspects of its power projection namely soft power.

If the victory over the Soviets was any clue, the United States in trying to defeat the appeal of communism should engage in more cultural, sporting and academic exchanges with Muslim states as a means tested policy to defeat terrorism.

In that experiment a few decades ago, some 50,000 Soviet writers, journalists, musicians, officials, dancers, athletes and academics visited the United States between 1958 and 1988.

With the knowledge and insights they garnered of the United States, they took these home to become leading proponents of human rights and liberalisation inside the Soviet Union.

Dance and Coke

Yet what is ironic is that Hughes's boss, George W Bush oversees a very cumbersome programme of visa exchanges with Muslim countries that bears no relevance to what the undersecretary is planning to accomplish this Saturday.

Though many intellectuals loathe popular low culture music because of its crude commercialism, there can be no denying that subtle messages of individualism, consumer choice and other values have tantalising political connotations.

For in music as well in Western films, the US could use these as instruments to show visiting Muslim scholars of the positive aspects of the US and see to deflecting all those negative views advocated by radical states xenophobic of the US.

Periodically released polls, point to that despite the unpopularity of America they are largely the result of unpopular US policies.

It in no way is an abnegation of common US films, music, dance, theatre or Coca-Cola for that matter.

This is something that the Bush administration does not see, and will be to the credit of Hughes when she relays the message to her boss in Washington.

JAYA PRAKASH lectures in journalism at Beacon School of Technology in Singapore.