An Analysis Of American Cultural Diplomacy In Islamic World After 9/11

This thesis is intended to explore American cultural diplomacy efforts in Islamic world after the 9/11 attacks.Culture diplomacy refers to the government-sponsored cultural activities (such as the exchanges of education, ideas, information, art, and other aspects of culture), aiming at communicating with foreign publics in an attempt to influence foreign attitudes and bring about mutual understanding, which are helpful for creating a more favorable climate for a nation to achieve its national interests. In this thesis, the author will not only expound the history of American cultural diplomacy and its new efforts in Islamic countries, but also analyze the causes of the failure of American cultural diplomacy in post-9/11 era.The U.S. is a nation that attaches much importance to cultural diplomacy. American cultural diplomacy was born in two world wars and flourished during the Cold War, but it gradually lost its conspicuous position as the United States became the sole superpower in the world. However, the 9/11 terrorist attacks rekindled America's new interest in cultural diplomacy. The attacks shocked American people, and made them realize that they were suffering from a serious image problem on the international stage, especially in the Islamic world. In order to counter the anti-Americanism, the U.S. government took cultural diplomacy as an effective weapon to repair its deteriorating image and to "win hearts and minds" of the Muslim people. Enlarged resources and a series of new programs of cultural diplomacy were launched in Islamic countries. Moreover, the development of information revolution and globalization brings a shift in political paradigm. The accelerated circulation of ideas and information enlarges common people's influence in political arena. Power in such environment no longer stems solely from military and economy, but increasingly from cultural influence and attraction. So, soft power becomes more and more important. This new international background provides an unprecedented opportunity for U.S. cultural diplomacy to develop.Nevertheless, in spite of great improvements, American cultural diplomacy efforts in Islamic countries after 9/11 failed to achieve the goal of countering the high anti-American sentiment. From the analysis of this thesis, readers could find the fundamental causes hindering the effects of American cultural diplomacy in Islamic world: different cultural backgrounds between America and Islamic countries; limitations of cultural diplomacy itself—long-term engagement, lack of independence; weaknesses in the policies of American cultural diplomacy—being based on a false premise, being concealed from domestic citizens; and weaknesses in the practice of American cultural diplomacy—being excluded from foreign policy making, lack of cooperation and integrated strategy, lack of financial and human resources, adoption of one-way communication, contradictions in American behaviors. To be effective, U.S. cultural diplomacy still has a long way to go to tackle these challenges.