America's cultural diplomacy towards China 2001-2012

This article investigates the cultural diplomacy of the United States towards china post 9/11. The cultural diplomacy has been growing in importance in the US foreign policy due to the increasing development of communicational tools and technology as well as the September 11 attacks. The US government used a variety of tools in the context of its cultural diplomacy to restore its soft power and deliver an ideal picture of itself. As the United State's soft power and reputation in china, its greatest trade partner, had declined after the September 11 attacks and Afghanistan and Iraq invasions in 2001 and 2003, respectively, it tried to compensate its own reputation in that country. Accordingly, the present study tries to examine the concept, background, methods and approaches of United State's cultural diplomacy during 2001-2012. In this regard, we are to answer this main question that "what components do constitute the United State's cultural diplomacy structure?" The hypothesis of this paper focuses on three components. These three components are: Fast food industry in terms of two McDonald and KFC brands; promoting culture and values through English Language learning; Hollywoodism which is referred to as the Hollywood's strategy to secure the United State's national interests and disseminate the American way of life; The descriptive-analytic method has been applied in this paper. This research approach is based on the concept of public diplomacy and its subcomponents namely the cultural diplomacy, because the cultural diplomacy is one of the main components of public diplomacy. Results show that the public diplomacy and, in particular, cultural diplomacy had grown in importance after the September 11 attacks, so that US used cultural diplomacy tools to restore its reputation in global public opinion especially Chinese people. The above mentioned three components had a linchpin role in implementing cultural diplomacy in the United State's foreign policy towards china, because they didnt have an importance place in the US foreign policy before the September 11 attacks. September 11 events are among the main requirements of the international system the turned the way of using soft power by the United States upside down.