US Public Diplomacy in the Modern Era: A Review of Battles to Bridges

Abstract

Chapter 1, America’s Communication Problem, opens with the now-forgotten outpouring of support the US received right after the 9/11 attacks and then traces the political events that gave rise to the decline of this worldwide support. Zaharna first depicts the general atmosphere of the critical period and provides compelling and comprehensive details of the political moves as follows. Most of the world, including all Middle East countries, from Jordan to Indonesia, all the Arab and Islamic world, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia showed their verbal and symbolic support following the attacks, and more than 100 countries vowed to grant military, political, economic and legal cooperation to America in a true international war on terrorism, which started in Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 against al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. As America’s diplomatic campaign for a full-fledged attack in Afghanistan became more aggressive and the rhetoric began to switch from “terrorism” to “radical Islam,” concerns grew in the Islamic Arab world, and anti-American demonstrations from Pakistan to Indonesia started under the unifying banner of Islam. Reactions spread throughout the international community after the 2002 declaration of the expansion of war against terrorism to comprise the Arab Gulf region and with the growth of US public diplomacy rhetoric such as the “axis of evil”, “you are either with us or with the terrorists,” and wanting Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” Such moves strengthened stereotypes of America as being

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US Public Diplomacy in the Modern Era: A Review of Battles to Bridges

Abstract

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References

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