The Public Diplomacy Of Obama Administration In Southeastasia

With the development of international situation, public diplomacy as a main indicator of highlighting"soft power", is becoming to be an important choice for external relations. When Obama took over the White House of America in 2009, the U.S. government started to improve the image of the United States in Southeast Asia with more flexible and pragmatic public diplomacy measures, aiming at resolving the problem of missing influence of America in Southeast Asia because of the former Bush administration's"goodwill neglect". The thesis combines the methods of historical analysis and empirical analysis to analyse the main contents, reasons and influence of the new public diplomacy measures of Obama administration in Southeast Asia, which aims to provide the oretical and practical basis for China to take effective measures.The origin and development of public diplomacy are introduced, the concept of public diplomacy is elaborated clearly, and several related concepts which are easy to be confused with public diplomacy are analyzed. Combined with the characteristics and political structures of Southeast Asia, the paper analyzes the characteristics and the role of the major political forces in Southeast Asia– the ASEAN, and elaborates the new public diplomacy measures carried out by Obama administration in Southeast Asia in details, including public diplomacy carried out by American leaders in"return to Southeast Asia", new media diplomacy, and cultural and educational exchanges between the USA and the ASEAN. Because the United States is the first nation that proposed and implemented public diplomacy, the philosophy, implementing agencies and institutions of U.S. public diplomacy in recent years are elaborated, and the objectives of the U.S. public diplomacy are analyzed. Then, the main motivation of U.S. public diplomacy in Southeast Asia is analyzed in details.The influence of America's public diplomacy in Southeast Asia to the countries of this area, the attitude of the ASEAN towards America's"return", and the influence to America and China must be considered. Some suggestions about China how to deal with the public diplomacy measures of America in Southeast Asia are proposed in the end.