This groundbreaking event brought together live studio audiences and government officials in Kabul and Islamabad to discuss the way forward for Afghanistan and Pakistan as the U.S. prepares to withdraw its troops in 2014, as well as the role Pakistan should play in the reconciliation process.

As the date for the drawdown of NATO forces from Afghanistan approaches, an atmosphere of optimism is being created, mainly in the Western media, about the prospects of a reasonably successful transition to a stable and eventually prosperous Afghanistan.

India’s policy towards Afghanistan is the embodiment of the ‘soft power approach’. Soft power, in the crude sense, is the capacity of a state to influence others without twisting arms, threatening or compelling; in other words, it is the capacity to attract the target people and make them do your bidding.

The Indian Council of Cultural Relations, which has brought the play to India, said in a statement: "The Afghan actors in the play are hoping to redefine Shakespeare - and public perception about theatre in Afghanistan by performing the play."

The Marine Corps decided their own public diplomacy strategy in Afghanistan (though they call it psyops, and other refer to it as propaganda) needed to be evaluated by a third party. They hired the Rand Corporation to review their programs, and then ...published the results, good and bad, for the world to see. Some takeaways...

Using bombast, nostalgia and sentimentalism, they hoodwinked Canadians into electing a government of hawks. In the process, Canada turned its back on its true heritage of Pearsonian diplomacy, soft power and peacekeeping...

In Afghanistan and across the Arab world, U.S. public diplomacy and coalition-building efforts seek to distinguish between the religious traditions of Islam and archaic tribal practices that oppress women — like honor killings, genital mutilation, denial of education and property rights.