It is received wisdom among those who monitor the ebb and flow of national reputations that major movements are rare. The cartoon crisis of 2005 sent Denmark into a nose-dive. The end of apartheid in South Africa lifted that country into a new league. Mostly the rankings have been surprisingly stable, with France, Germany and the United Kingdom jostling for the top slot in the leading index, the Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index.

“Public Diplomacy: Ideas for the War of Ideas,” by MIT political scientists Peter Krause and Stephen Van Evera, was published in Middle East Policy, Fall 2009. The authors' ideas follow five themes: U.S.

The title for this commentary is deliberately borrowed from Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky’s famous piano composition of 1874. It also underscores the tone for this review of a recent exhibition that has opened in Los Angeles, “The 21st Century Family of Man: Photography as Public Diplomacy,” on display in the second floor gallery of USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.

Fellow-blogger Ted Lipien makes some valid points about seemingly basic mistakes that the State Department has made in public diplomacy in the new Administration. In particular, he notes, a chance was missed earlier this month to express solidarity with the victims of terrorist attacks in Ingushetia.

TOKYO – For the first time in five years, the number of international graduate students admitted to U.S. universities has declined, according to a study by the Council of Graduate Schools.

Public opinion is often hard to measure, but it’s a safe bet that assaults on a country’s sovereignty — real or perceived — can quickly inflame that nation’s public opinion.