Whatever happened to the good old days of quiet diplomacy: good old boys making deals behind the curtain with winks and nods, leaving us reporters like biblical scholars or rabbis trying to decipher their meaning of holy writ?

But two international conferences on nuclear security present Ottawa and Washington with a golden opportunity to bridge the bilateral chasm by working together to bolster waning international support for the most important arms control treaty in history.

Guests will have the opportunity to see firsthand some of the outstanding photographs of the original Jazz Ambassadors, part of the traveling exhibition – Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World. The reception will also feature performances by talented young jazz musicians – the jazz greats of tomorrow.

Members of Congress have urged China, which has set up 60 cultural centers in the United States, to allow more than the four American centers it says can operate in China. However, the State Department has no funds to match what China is spending on those projects, the officials say.

Public opinion has not mobilized to make nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation a highly salient issue in any single country, including the United States. The result is a president ready to lead a long-term campaign to remove the existential threats posed by nuclear weapons, but as yet lacking sufficient followers to make it happen.

The instability highlights both Kyrgyzstan's vital role for the US war in Afghanistan and the compromises both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have made to deal with an increasingly unsavory regime.

Less talk about "Islamic radicalism" and a lot more about doing business. In the year since President Barack Obama pledged a new beginning in the relationship with the Muslim world, the White House has begun to change the U.S. focus.

Recent public diplomacy reports and testimonies released by both congress and government policy makers in Washington indicate concerns over Iran's growing cultural influence. It was a year ago when Senate Foreign Relations Committee's report warned about the growing number of Islamic Republic's Cultural Centers.