The political gamble has paid off as Qatar, perhaps the richest country in the world, emerges as a player able to deploy more than the soft power of TV channel Al Jazeera, which has fanned most of the region’s revolutions.

Tags: public diplomacy, al jazeera, libya, qatar, gaddafi, al jazeera effect, communications

The diplomats are learning how to use the advantages of online media in such networks as Facebook and Twitter as well as PR activity in campuses. They are also learning how to use search engines to increase the exposure of Israel's messages.

Tags: public diplomacy, public opinion, social media, israel, twitter, diplomats, foreign ministries

THE mass media, including interactive social-networking tools, make you passive, can sap your initiative, leave you content to watch the spectacle of life from your couch or smartphone. Apparently even during a revolution. That is the provocative thesis of a new paper by Navid Hassanpour, a political science graduate student at Yale, titled “Media Disruption Exacerbates Revolutionary Unrest.”

Tags: united states, middle east, government pd, public diplomacy, social media, egypt, new technology, crisis coverage, internet diplomacy

Digital diplomats broadcast messages and multimedia, attract commenters to specially designed forums in foreign languages and monitor trending topics in an attempt to take the world’s pulse. But whether conducted online or off, public diplomacy has always been an inexact science. how do diplomats know whether their efforts are paying off?

Tags: united states, government pd, public diplomacy, new technology, twitter, us department of state, facebook, digital diplomacy, public diplomacy evaluation

As one of the first countries to recognize the National Transitional Council, Qatar supplied the rebels with arms, uniforms, and $400 million in aid, while also helping the rebels sell their oil. Not least, Qatar provided invaluable moral support with its exhaustive coverage of the rebels on the Al Jazeera TV network, the emir’s powerful public diplomacy wing.

Tags: arab spring, public diplomacy, al jazeera, libya, qatar, arab media, arab revolutions, natural resources

An important asset that New Delhi has failed to exploit vis-à-vis its neighbours is its soft power. Sports, economy, Bollywood, education, infrastructure, healthcare, tourism, history and heritage — there is so much that can be used by the country to influence its neighbourhood.

Tags: china, soft power, Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacy, india, sports diplomacy, south asia, bilateral relations

Our foreign policy should be directed at supporting resistance groups to dictators and funding radio, TV stations and the internet, in the same way the CIA did in the Cold War to undermine communism. Where is the Middle East equivalent to Radio Free Europe?

Tags: soft power, arab spring, united kingdom, foreign policy, nato, libya, democracy

Using sports as a means to build stronger people-to-people connections and empower young people worldwide, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that NBA legends...will travel to Africa as sports envoys

Tags: united states, africa, sports diplomacy, democratic republic of the congo, sports exchange, sportsunited, nba, wnba