As part of the new year festivities, Culture Posts is focusing on the relatively new concept – relationalism – and its implications for public diplomacy. Relationalism is still so new it is not yet in the dictionary. It is only beginning to make its debut in academic journals.

What is perhaps most ironic about relationalism is that it appears to have been hiding in plain sight. All that was needed to see it was a different perspective or lens.

A 3rd Dimension

Last summer, as the fighting in Syria raged and questions about the United States’ inaction grew, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred privately with David H. Petraeus, director of the CIA. The two officials were joining forces on a plan to arm the Syrian resistance. The idea was to vet the rebel groups and train fighters, who would be supplied with weapons. The plan had risks, but it also offered the potential reward of creating Syrian allies with whom the United States could work, both during the conflict and President Bashar Assad’s eventual removal.

High design, quality craftsmanship and philanthropy collide in a recent collaboration for ARZU Studio Hope, a nonprofit aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty and bringing empowerment to Afghan women weavers. It all began when Chicago architects Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry enlisted the help of other internationally-renowned designers to create custom pieces for the organization's Masters Collection.

In the past few months Vladimir Putin has terminated the work in Russia of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ended American adoptions of Russian children and, most damagingly, drastically reduced the audience and credibility of U.S. broadcaster Radio Liberty, driving a wedge between it and some of Russia’s most renowned human rights activists and journalists.

“Seeing is believing” is the philosophy behind a Foreign Ministry proposal to bring 3,000 North American non- Jewish campus influentials to Israel to show them the country and combat what ministry director-general for public diplomacy Gideon Meir called the “industry of lies” against the country.

The Department of State sponsors Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships to promote music as a global force for promoting mutual understanding. Fellows are chosen through a multi-tiered, merit-based selection process including reviews by U.S. and foreign academic leaders and area experts. The final selection is made by the presidentially-appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

South Korea has spent billions in promoting its "nation brand" via its technology and other attributes. But what has driven up the country's soft power across the world as much as anything is "Gangnam Style," the Korean rapper PSY's galloping horse dance, hipster wannabe clothes and tongue-in-cheek attitude, offset by an irresistible and simple hook that even a three year old could mimic.

U.S. Olympians Jessica Mendoza and Ruby Rojas traveled to Nicaragua today to participate in a week-long initiative to empower women and girls through sports. For the first time, the U.S. State Department—in partnership with USA Softball and the Nicaraguan Softball Federation (FENISOFT)—will hold a series of softball clinics for Nicaraguan girls ages 14-25.