History Of U.S. Public Diplomacy Toward Latin America: An Analysis Based On Behavior And Effectiveness

Ever since the early days of independence of the United States, it had considered theLatin America as its own sphere of influence. From the Monroe Doctrine which led tothe idea of "Pan-Americanism" to the "Big Stick" policy at the beginning of the20thcentury, the U.S. concerns and efforts paid to western hemisphere were far more thanthose in any other regions. As a vast continent which had special and importantrelationship with the U.S., the American government had tried a variety of ways toexpand its influence in Latin America, including defending its national interests aswell as promoting the image of the United States. From the interventionism policy inthe early20th century to the "Good Neighbor Policy" in the1930s, the graduallyincreased educational, cultural exchange activities during this period of time could beconsidered the beginning of U.S. practice of public diplomacy in Latin America. Fromthe Anti-propaganda against the Nazi Germany during WWII to the fierce competitionagainst the soviet power after the war in this region, even to the comprehensive aidprogram offered through the "Alliance for Progress", these activities all had their vitaland profound impact to the mechanism establishment and implementation pattern ofthe U.S. public diplomacy. After the911event, when the United States decided toregain public diplomacy as a way to promote its image, it once again chose LatinAmerica as its proving ground and applied the Civil Society2.0theory to this regionfor the first time. Researching the policy-making and executing process of U.S publicdiplomacy toward Latin America is helpful for the studying of the overall pattern ofU.S. public diplomacy strategy. The author tried to focus on two period of time: ColdWar and post-Cold War era, to study the decision-making process and theimplementation as well as the effectiveness of U.S. public diplomacy efforts towardLatin America, trying to sum up a more coherent history of U.S public diplomacystrategy toward the Western Hemisphere, and to enrich the case study content of thisfield.