"Post-9.11" American Public Diplomacy In The Arabian-Islamic World

Since Joseph Nye advanced the theory"soft power"in the 1990's,"soft power"has been given more and more attention. As a form of soft power, public diplomacy has been attached greater importance to since then. The development of public diplomacy reflects pluralism of actors and complexity of competition in international relations and represents the development of contemporary politics and innovation of diplomacy. Thus improving public diplomacy is of great importance to the role of one nation in international society. The United States has a profound tradition of public diplomacy, which ranges from information programs to educational and cultural exchange programs. American public diplomacy has been playing a significant role in promoting American culture and values since the Cold War. Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, the U.S. has attached great importance to rebuilding its image around the world, esp. in the Arabian-Islamic world. Therefore, as an important strategy in the international anti-terrorism war, American public diplomacy has entered a new strategic period ever since.Since the"9.11"Attack, public diplomacy as an important strategy of the U.S. government to counter international terrorism has drawn the attention of the American political circles and scholars. Over the past few years, many studies, reports, and assessments of American public diplomacy have attempted to diagnose the US image crisis, and issue recommendations on how to remedy the deteriorating of the international image of the U.S.. Yet there have been few in-depth studies on"post- 9.11"American public diplomacy in the Arabian- Islamic world. This paper seeks to examine the evolvement and major developing trend of American public diplomacy in the Arabian-Islamic world after the 9.11 terrorist attacks and to further explore the underlying strategic thinking of the U.S. global war on terror by analyzing official documents, archival materials, annual reports of the think tanks and policy counseling commissions as well as academic literature.