Let's play connect the dots. After the US midterm elections, President Obama will visit India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan. Trace a line between the nations, noting how it loops down through the Indian Ocean and back up through the South China Sea and East China Sea, forming a semicircle around China.

Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira has said Pak-US strategic dialogues will bring good news for Pakistan. Talking to Radio Pakistan from Washington, the minister said ways of implementing various proposals agreed between the delegations of the two countries in previous meetings will be discussed during fourth meeting of Pak-US strategic dialogues...

The announcement Thursday that President Obama will visit Pakistan in 2011 has further sapped enthusiasm in India for Mr. Obama’s visit here next month.

The peace process has been major news in almost all Arab media before, during and after direct negotiations started between the Palestinians and the Israelis. In broadsheet newspapers it is front page news; in broadcast media it usually comes first or second. The mood of the commentary and analysis was quite ambivalent.

Before the 2008 election, two former national security advisers recommended that the next president should craft a foreign-policy strategy to align the United States with a "global political awakening" that was transforming the world.

When US President Barack Obama lands in India next month, his itinerary will include a visit to the Golden Temple here, the holiest Sikh shrine. This is being seen as a recognition of the importance and influence of the large Sikh community in the US.

For the US the war seems to have intensified from Afghanistan to a public diplomacy initiative in a West vs Islamdebate. Whether the US public diplomacy initiatives can resolve this larger cause to marginalise the radical Islamic elements across the globe is a tough ask at the best of times, especially now.

“Smart power” is supposedly the Hegelian synthesis of soft and hard power instruments of foreign policy. In reality, though, it usually means downgrading hard power in favor of soft power, which is precisely what is happening in America today.