According to a press release, the International MANGA Award, as part of the active use of pop culture in public diplomacy, was established to share Japanese pop culture and to help promote understanding of Japan among overseas cartoonists.

As part of the active use of pop culture in public diplomacy, the International MANGA Award was established to share Japanese pop culture and to help promote understanding of Japan among overseas cartoonists.

In the grinding rut of Israeli-Palestinian relations — no negotiations, mutual recriminations, growing distance and dehumanization — the illicit trip to the beach was a rare event that joined the simplest of pleasures with the most complex of politics. It showed why coexistence here is hard, but also why there are, on both sides, people who refuse to give up on it.

A long-planned exhibition of nearly 70 pieces of Buddhist art from Pakistan will finally open at Asia Society on Aug. 9, after political intrigue in Pakistan and a breakdown in American-Pakistani relations delayed it for six months. Anti-Americanism, which soared in the aftermath of the killing of Osama bin Laden, helped put the show in jeopardy.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will host over 125 participants for the inaugural Around the World in an Afternoon, a cultural and academic festival. This is the largest ever gathering of Study of the U.S. Institute participants who represent 30 countries. More than 115 undergraduate student leaders from 20 countries will share information about their countries and cultures.

Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) Coordinator Dawn L. McCall travels this week to Seoul, South Korea and Jakarta, Indonesia to meet with social media researchers and senior Embassy officials to discuss social media trends, public opinion of the United States, and public diplomacy programs.

Few in the West have heard its authentically Persian sound, but now the classical, Persian stringed instrument known as a kamancheh is being heard in an unlikely place - the mid-western U.S. state of Ohio. An Iranian-American musician is resurrecting the kamancheh’s ancient sound - the hard way - and introducing it to a whole new audience.

In Norway, to speak negatively about any aspect of the Muslim faith has always been a touchy matter, inviting charges of "Islamophobia" and racism. It will, I fear, be a great deal more difficult to broach these issues now that this murderous madman has become the poster boy for the criticism of Islam.