Culture defines the lives of Americans. Humans all over the world tend to find that common ground in points of cultural crossover. It’s a reasonable place to start. If Hip Hop has been its own diplomat until now, the logic goes, the U.S. Government shouldn’t be allowed to use it to begin build anything.

A better question to ask today is, what has really changed since Harlem Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. urged the State Department to set up the jazz tours as part of its cultural-diplomacy efforts during the Cold War?

If you’re looking to get a user-friendly visual handle on a wide range of cultural fields, Epos Festival is your package...The documentary and feature films, which include a number of debut screenings, come from more than 20 countries...

I have said that in at least a half-dozen Globetrotting entries about her becoming a U.S. Public Diplomacy envoy, a graduate of Denver University and of the master's degree program at the prestigiouus Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University.

As the Chinese lunar calendar ushered in the Year of the Dragon on Monday, Chinese artists and cultural delegations are staging various performances around the world. The year of the Dragon, marked by this ambitious and magical Asian icon, is to witness dramatic growth of Chinese culture on the international stage.

A long-delayed project to build three colossal museums on an arid Persian Gulf island will be finished by 2017, officials say, realizing the designs of some of the world’s leading architects while underlining the ambitions of this city to emerge as a global capital.

Nothing could act as a better reminder that culture is a marketing tool, as well as an organic process that grows from the ground upwards. With contributions from a host of famous names, the climax of the Cultural Olympiad aims to prove once and for all that London, not New York, not Paris, really is the arts capital of the world.

Vietnam did a great job in 2011 to promote its land and people. Various activities were held on the theme of building a shared awareness of cultural integration and combining cultural diplomacy with political and economic diplomacy. In 2012 the country will continue to use diplomacy to foster its culture.