U.S. Public Diplomacy In The Islamic World After 9/11: Reshaping And Challenges

U.S. public diplomacy lost the admirable aura and left behind a glorious past after the end of the Cold War and the Gulf Crisis. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 changed the course of U.S. public diplomacy. The U.S. government, in response to the question"Why did they hate us so much?"decided on a sweeping reshaping of its public diplomacy in the Islamic world with a view to improving U.S. image. However, U.S. public diplomacy efforts in the Islamic world did not yield the desired results. The thesis makes a tentative analysis and evaluation of U.S. public diplomacy in the region and looks at the challenges facing its practice after 9/11. The author argues that the gap between the reality and expectation of U.S. public diplomacy in the Islamic world is partly explained by the inherent weaknesses of U.S. public diplomacy system itself and the challenges to the overall communication effect of U.S. public diplomacy in the special and complex context of the Islamic world. In the final analysis, that U.S. public diplomacy met its Waterloo in the Islamic world was predetermined by the essential inconsistency between public diplomacy with its mission to promote American values and the U.S. foreign policy that alienated and enraged the Islamic public.