So what is public diplomacy all about? The basic idea is that in order to achieve a wide range of goals—­from economics to military—you need to get support of ordinary people. Whether the goal is to convince foreign publics that the rise of China poses no threat to the international system, or to persuade the so-called “Arab street” to shed its anti-Western beliefs, public diplomacy is called upon to work its miracles.

Tourism, a buttress of the economy upon which an estimated 15 million people depend, remains in a tailspin. Desperate to reverse the trend, the tourism authority even test-marketed the uprising.