A statue of former US President Ronald Reagan has been unveiled at a ceremony outside the American embassy in central London. The 10-foot bronze statue was specially commissioned to "recognise Mr Reagan's contribution to ending the Cold War".

...the event was organized around the launch of the U.S. studio of the Russian news service, 'The Voice of Russia.' Moreover, this distinguished group of experts gathered to discuss not how to block the Russian broadcast in the U.S. but rather to offer advice on how it might be more effective.

During the Cold War, the Eurovision Song Contest, like NATO and drum machines, was a strictly Western affair. The made-for-television fiesta featured international competition and a fireworks-laden final round. It drew tens of millions of viewers in Britain, France, West Germany, and Scandinavia...

As the Cold War was ending in the late 1980s and early '90s, Western nations, confident of a lasting peace, began to neglect the tools that had sustained them in the ideological war against communism. In the US, institutions of public diplomacy and strategic communications were disbanded...

WASHINGTON -- From events of the past three weeks a number of lessons can be drawn, some old and some new:

First, the phrase "the Arab street" has been redefined by Tahrir Square. We don’t need acute listening agents or polling to see what the Arab world wants.

Larry Schweikart, co-producer of the film "Rockin’ the Wall": "Rock music was blasted to through the Iron Curtain through government-subsidized Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and we interviewed the legal counsel for VOA who described the debates inside the Reagan administration about the appropriateness of sending 'degenerate' rock music eastward. But even the advisory boards came to understand that it was the structure of rock, as much as the lyrics, that counted.

During the Cold War — when the U.S. and the Soviet Union raced to find allies — you were viewed as a way to exert soft power and build friendship with countries susceptible to communist influence.

The Russian political class cringed last Wednesday morning on learning that U.S. President Barack Obama had suffered a humiliating political defeat in the mid-term elections, losing Democrat control in the House and barely hanging onto a razor-thin Democrat majority in the Senate.