Anti-Americanism and the Limits of Public Diplomacy Winning Hearts and Minds

Stephen Brooks, "Anti-Americanism and the Limits of Public Diplomacy: Winning Hearts and Minds? "
English | ISBN: 1138949213 | 2015 | 153 pages | EPUB | 1458 KB
Contrary to the view held by many who study American foreign policy, public diplomacy has seldom played a decisive role in the achievement of the country's foreign policy objectives. The reasons for this are not that the policies and interventions are ill-conceived or badly executed, although this is sometimes the case. Rather, the factors that limit the effectiveness of public diplomacy lie almost entirely outside the control of American policy-makers. In particular, the resistance of foreign opinion-leaders to ideas and information about American motives and actions that do not square with their pre-conceived notions of the United States and its activities in the world is an enormous and perhaps insurmountable wall that limits the impact of public diplomacy.