J. Biden’s First Term: Renaissance of U.S. Public Diplomacy?

Since the end of Cold War, U.S. public diplomacy (PD) has displayed signs of a systemic crisis, largely due to a lack of political will to regard PD as one of the key foreign policy instruments. At the beginning of J. Biden’s presidency, it seemed likely that under his administration American PD would finally undergo significant modernization. Indeed, during the period from 2021 to 2024, there have been numerous changes within U.S. PD. The author analyzes the most prominent changes using principles of historic approach, systemic approach, as well as structural-functional approach. The article classifies these changes into three categories: institutional reforms, practical reforms, and methodological reforms. Reforms from the first category aim to optimize the organization of PD institutions and improve staff qualifications. Those from the second category focus on revision of the old practical methods and development of the new ones. The third category is defined by scientific analysis of the current U.S. PD system, its target audiences as well as the possible ways PD can be used to advance American foreign policy goals. All indicators discovered through the research conducted for this article suggest that J. Biden’s presidency has indeed become a starting point for major modernization of the U.S. PD and its re-emergence as one of the key foreign policy instruments.