I’m going to try. America is a nation with strong principles and purpose. We’re a country whose strengths lie in individual resourcefulness and national resilience. We tend to proceed from the notion that each individual has the potential to achieve his or her individual dreams or desires, while also contributing to the common good.

Tara D Sonenshine is the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the US Department of State. In an interview with Forbes India, Sonenshine discusses initiatives to promote public diplomacy with India and how the Indian diaspora in the US is an important voice in this process.

“I always begin with, well, what is this nation about?” she said. Most people hesitate to go there, presumably for fear of offending this group or that, or because in a nation as diverse as America definition is not easy. However, reaching for a definition based on ideas and national principles, Sonenshine gave U.S. public diplomacy a basis for a strong mission statement:

Ms Sonenshine has been using her new office of Public Diplomacy to engage groups of Pakistani and American media people in a series of joint outreach seminars with Ambassador Rehman over the last few weeks in Washington.

Just two months into her tenure, the savvy social media under secretary can be found on Twitter @Tsonenshine. Using @StateDept with hashtag #AskState or @USAenEspanol using hashtag #AskUSA, interested followers can ask Sonenshine questions about the State Department and her responsibilities.

The United States intends to use its public diplomacy efforts in Pakistan to bridge the differences between the people of the two countries, newly-appointed US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine said on Friday. She was speaking to a gathering at Kinnaird College University during her day-long visit of the city.

Addressing the students at KC, she spoke about the role of public diplomacy in building bridges between people of both the countries. She said that as citizens of the globe, everybody faced a combination of shared challenges and opportunities. She discussed how US public diplomacy empowered, engaged, and supported citizens around the world.

Under Secretary Sonenshine’s goal was to better understand how public diplomacy can bolster US-Pakistan relations and build a sustainable future for the generations to come....Speaking to students from various universities at Kinnaird College, the under secretary spoke about the role of public diplomacy in Pakistan in building bridges between the people of both countries.