Dubai Expo 2020, a first for Middle East, needs a US presence

July 29, 2019, was a day of celebration at the Department of State, a 230th birthday party for the department with guests who included Secretary Mike Pompeo and former secretary Henry Kissinger. But even as the department took stock of its past, Pompeo was obliged to take time out to attend a second event that day, at an impressive venue — the so-called “Jefferson Rooms” — replete with antiques and offering panoramic views of the National Mall from the eighth floor of the Truman Building. This event marked not past U.S. foreign policy but an element of its future: participation in the upcoming Dubai Expo 2020 and future such events.

Though most Americans probably don’t know it these days, international expositions —  sometimes called world’s fairs — remain an important feature of the global struggle around ideas and international image. Just as excellent exhibits were one way the U.S. came to command the world’s imagination during the Cold War, so today nations wishing to mark their emergence, re-emergence or simple presence on the global state frequently seek to do so by hosting an expo.

The big events of recent years include reunified Germany’s Hanover Expo in 2000, rising China’s Shanghai Expo in 2010 and new-kid Kazakhstan’s Astana Expo in 2017, just as Chicago did back in 1893 or Seattle in 1962. Each of these welcomed innovative, well-funded contributions from around the globe, telling their stories to fairgoers in immersive pavilions.  Germany, France, Switzerland and Russia all have invested artfully in expo work. The formula for success requires not only outstanding design and imaginative content but a supporting infrastructure at home to guarantee a budget.  

The United Kingdom, for example, has experienced excellent results from pavilions developed through its cultural diplomacy agency, the British Council. The United States, in contrast, not only dissolved the standing expo unit within the executive branch at the end of the Cold War (it was part of the late United States Information Agency) but also imposed crippling restrictions on budgets, insisting that expos be funded only by private donations absent a special appropriation. The result has been either U.S. absence (as at Hanover) or a succession of well-meaning but ultimately underachieving U.S. pavilions — shadows of what was accomplished in the glory days of Montreal in 1967 or Osaka in 1970.

With the next expo opening in Dubai in fall 2020, a plan for a U.S. pavilion is overdue and construction needs to begin now. The first iteration of the U.S. contribution alarmingly fell through because of the organizing consortium’s failure to raise funds. Pompeo’s meeting in July, therefore, was partly an appeal to potential supporters and partly a rallying cry to the major players within the department that the time has come to unite behind this — and future — expo plans.

A few weeks after Pompeo’s appeal, the Trump administration requested federal funding for the U.S. pavilion in the 2020 continuing resolution. Apparently there are not enough private-sector contributors interested in telling America’s story for its own sake. This is not the first U.S. pavilion to face funding challenges; in fact, fundraising for seven of the past 10 pavilions has fallen short. The U.S., for the first time in decades, was looking to fund this tool of information and economic statecraft, as it had done during the Cold War when the U.S. found itself competing in a global diplomatic arena.

The issue is significant. The Dubai Expo 2020 presents a unique opportunity for U.S. public diplomacy. As the first expo in the Middle East or within reach of East Africa or South Asia, it will be a direct line to the youth of a strategically vital region as they form opinions about the world. The organizers predict 25 million people will attend, and if the 150 years of expo history are a guide, we can expect a cascade of media and cultural coverage emanating from the event to those who aren’t physically present.  

Expos are the catalysts of knowledge and technical development — and the Dubai expo promises to be all the more so, given that its theme is “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.” And yet, a U.S. presence is not guaranteed. Pompeo has acknowledged that the U.S. contribution to Dubai needs to be a true cross-sector partnership that includes a federal appropriation of funding. 

Hopefully, the House and Senate will come to the same conclusion and provide the funding necessary for the U.S. to be present at Dubai and expos yet to come.

Nicholas J. Cull is professor of public diplomacy and founding director of the Master of Public Diplomacy program at the University of Southern California-Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He is the author of “Public Diplomacy: Foundations for Global Engagement in the Digital Age.” Follow him on Twitter @NickCull.