Anti-Americanism and the Limits of Public Diplomacy

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. Rather, the factors that limit the effectiveness of public diplomacy lie almost entirely outside the control of American policy-makers. This book does not conclude that public diplomacy has no place in the repertoire of American foreign policy. Instead, the expectations held for this soft power tool should be more realistic and it should not be viewed as a substitute for hard power tools that are more likely to be correlated with American influence as opposed to the somewhat nebulous concept of American standing.