Last year, the Public Diplomacy division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) began an experiment....[W]e see social media not just as a tool for disseminating information; it is also valuable for getting feedback, listening, engaging with people, so that a relationship is built.

Castoff American t-shirts, which have flooded African markets for years, are starting to trickle back to the United States as part of a non-profit initiative spearheaded by two young American social entrepreneurs. This supports local markets in places like Kenya while supporting non-profits.

After a page calling for a mass march by Palestinians on the borders of Israel on May 15 was taken offline by Facebook, mirror sites with more than 3.5 million followers sprung up... Will the so-called "Facebook Intifada" tip the Middle East into further turmoil?

In Egypt and Tunisia, Facebook helped foment democratic uprising. But on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, US soldiers are now, with increasing frequency, turning to social media for an equally pressing purpose: To save their lives.

Faith-based Engagement as a Tool for Public Diplomacy

A global public diplomacy portal by the State Department launched during the Bush years has been shut down, as the State Department recalibrates its efforts towards social media.

The Arab Uprising has shaken the way we understand politics, communications and public diplomacy. Social media may have played a role in the unrest, but pretending that the uprising is a social media revolution is as imaginary as the existence of the Empress of Mancha.