Travel to and from the United States and Foreign Leader Approval

Abstract

A growing literature examines the motivations and outcomes of high‐level public diplomacy, the international visits of top‐level leaders. That literature looks primarily at the impact of visits from major leaders, like U.S. presidents, on their approval from voters in the host country. This article asks, instead, whether visits to and from the United States can affect the approval of the foreign leader among their voters back home. Using monthly data from the Executive Approval Project for 32 nations from 1991 to 2020, results suggest that foreign leader travel to the United States improves their approval, but neither presidential nor secretary of state visits impact foreign leader approval.