Is It Too Late For The United States To Restore Its Reputation?

Kouchner

Barack Obama's message of change is, in large measure, echoed across the world by those who are tired of what they perceive as U.S. heavy handedness in its foreign policy.

There are those who are hopeful that a new administration will result in improved relations between the United States and the rest of the world. But some are pessimistic, saying, as B.B. King sings, "The Thrill is Gone."

Count French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner among the latter. In a speech this week before the Forum for New Diplomacy in Paris, Kouchner suggested "the magic is over." That the United States' tarnished image will never be restored.

The Cato Institute's director of foreign policy, Justin Logan, says, all the image changing attempts in the world will not change the perceptions of others in the United States.

Writing on a Cato blog, Logan says, "until our foreign policy itself is fixed, all the public diplomacy in the world won't fix our image problem."