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.

Kris Kam, a 28-year-old advertising executive in Singapore, tells me, for example, that when his mother asked him to buy her a new smartphone, she requested a Samsung Galaxy S3 “just like the white one she saw in her favorite Korean drama, My Love, Madame Butterfly.”

The U.S. Consulate General Mumbai, in association with the Department of Culture, Madhya Pradesh, proudly presents “The Fastest Feet in Rhythm” in Bhopal, featuring the Kathak dancer and maestro Pandit Chitresh Das and Emmy award winning tap dancer Jason Samuels Smith. Part of a nation-wide tour sponsored by the U.S. Government, the visit of the artists is designed to promote mutual understanding and cultural exchanges.

Not long ago I attended an interesting conference in Washington DC organized by the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy. A lot of very different viewpoints were expressed, very stimulating presentations were given by scholars from the DC area...Cultural diplomacy or public diplomacy cannot be effective when coupled with acts of war. This is a lesson which major powers keep learning and also keep forgetting.