Though Thai food has been gaining traction in the US since the Vietnam war, the most impactful push for Thai cuisine was in the early 2000s through a strategy called gastrodiplomacy, which is when a country uses food to raise their global perception. According to Food Republic, Thailand's government created an initiative named Global Thai to "increase interest in Thai cuisine, cast a positive light on Thailand, generate tourism, and scale up the country's food and labor exports." Thailand awards restaurants around the world that meet their standards with a "Thai Select" label.

There are positive and negative effects to the Global Thai initiative. While more people have access to Thai food, the restaurants are only allowed to use Thailand's government-approved ingredients and methods, which includes just a small piece of the country's complex culinary traditions. However, as Americans become more familiar with Thai food, restaurants can remain successful even without Thailand's funding, turning down the "Thai Select" label to showcase more of what Thai cuisine has to offer. Plus, this increased love of Thai food allows operators that don't specialize in Thai cuisine to serve Thai-inspired dishes that bring in flavors consumers now want to see in cafeterias, snacks, and fast food.