ABSTRACT
Pop culture is arguably the most fascinating, and controversial, instrument of American soft power. It is fascinating thanks to the worldwide appeal of the American leisure and entertainment industries and their globally famous pop icons-from Madonna and MTV to McDonald’s and Mickey Mouse. Nearly the entire population of the planet has ready access, as consumers, to the symbolic universe in which these pop icons exercise their influence. Their elevation to the complex realm of international diplomacy and geopolitics is inevitably intriguing.
