“[Obama’s] strategy would be much more inclined to figure out a cooperative effort with China and the UN instead of telling others what to do,” Zweig said. He noted that a soft-power approach concerning diplomatic relations rather than outright opposition would allow for progress on both sides as diplomatic engagement would enable a more cooperative relationship.

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The New York Times reports that Hillary Clinton, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to head the Department of State, wants to expand the role of U.S. diplomacy. And after years of limited money for new hires, the Foreign Service and the U.S. Agency for International Development are hanging out the "help wanted" sign. So are the diplomats ready to take on the heavy lifting under the new administration?

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This is one version of "soft power," a foreign policy concept that is increasingly en vogue in the Pentagon -- "These countries are inviting us in; where we see Pax Americana, they're seeing an opportunity not only to help their own people but to form a stronger alliance with the United States," said someone familiar with the USS Kearsarge mission. "We're trying to make good relations throughout society and the political structures instead of a top-down approach; we're hitting all areas of influence, which is indicative of soft power."

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The Pentagon said the new U.S. military command for Africa will not have responsibility for security in the Gulf of Aden, where pirates have been menacing merchant ships. Three months after fully establishing Africa Command, the U.S. Defense Department published its first map outlining the borders of the command's responsibilities. As expected, the official map shows Africa Command has responsibility for U.S. military activity throughout the continent except for Egypt, which remains part of Central Command's area.

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Just a few years ago, democracy’s march across Africa seemed unstoppable. These days, it seems stalled: vote rigging in Nigeria, a convulsion of ethnic violence after disputed elections in Kenya and outright theft at the polls in Zimbabwe are among the most recent signs. That may be why those looking for reasons to be hopeful about democracy in Africa have their sights set on Ghana, the first sub-Saharan country to wrest independence from colonial power, and now a nation that appears to be bucking the antidemocratic trend.

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The latest report on how to improve America’s public diplomacy has its merits, but overall it inspires deja vu. We’ve been in this place before, trying to figure out how the world’s most influential culture and most powerful government might finally achieve a public diplomacy organization that operates at the same level.

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The Chinese in October suspended military exchanges for the rest of the year because of outrage over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, but Woo said he expects them to resume next year. Still, regional experts and PacAF officials disagree about the value of such military-to-military relations. Woo and Chandler maintain they are essential to U.S. strategy in the Pacific, but some analysts argue they yield little of value to the U.S.

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Glassman's emphasis on the "war of ideas," for which he advocates the use of Internet social networking to discredit "violent extemism," has received, on the whole, a positive reception in the United States, with some exceptions; but should a "war of ideas," on or off cyberspace, be part of how we Americans determine our country's role in the world during the new millenium?...In the long term, a crude propaganda campaign thinly disguised under the term "war of ideas" may in fact discredit the U.S.

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