Values And National Interests: Rhetoric And Reality In America’S Public Diplomacy

The paper argues that United States (US) post-war strategy to dominate and interfere in the internal affairs of other countries has continued to be the core of its foreign policy today. While this is camouflaged with euphemisms like providing leadership for expansion of humanitarian values, national interest has been the foundation of its foreign policy. Wars were fought and political settlements were made in accordance with pragmatic principles of international relations. After the destruction of the World Trade Centre, USA unilaterally decided to attack Iraq and forge ties with several countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America in tune with its ‘global grand strategy’. Strategic objectives define commercial tie-ups, technology transfer, joint military exercises, space and high-tech cooperation with India. The moral bases of its values affirmed in public diplomacy are apparently in conflict with its national interest. However, reiterating these values has become convenient especially after the economic integration roped in many countries into the American fold. Concomitantly, reference to its foreign policy has become imperative for almost all countries in the world including those who were in the former Soviet Union. But in practice, the rules and norms attached by the US to such integration are interventionist, through soft and hard power approaches. The Obama Administration will not deviate from the ‘pragmatic internationalism’ put in place by his predecessor with necessary changes in order to maintain its primacy. That is the bottom line.