Many governments spend heavily on public diplomacy, but clear evidence about what works is scarce. This study evaluates whether high-level visits by national leaders change how foreign publics view the visiting country.
📊 What Was Compared
- A dataset of international travels by 15 leaders from 9 countries across 11 years was combined with public-opinion surveys administered in 38 host countries.
- The analysis focuses on 32,456 respondents who were interviewed just before or just after the first day of each visit, allowing a clean comparison of opinions around the visit event.
🔎 Key Findings
- Visiting leaders can increase public approval among foreign citizens.
- These approval gains do not fade away immediately after the visit.
- Effects are particularly large when the visit and related public-diplomacy activities receive news-media coverage.
- In most cases, differences in military capability between the visiting and host country do not provide an added advantage for influencing public opinion.
🌍 Why It Matters
- The results show that high-level visits are a viable tool of public diplomacy with measurable effects on foreign publics.
- Because media coverage amplifies these effects, investments in both visits and publicity can strengthen a country’s soft power and its ability to shape international perceptions.
