In honor of the New Year (both West and East), I would like to share a relatively new lens for viewing relations in public diplomacy. Many may have heard of the terms individualism, which privileges the individual, and collectivism, which favors the collective or group. What they may not have heard about yet is relationalism, which privileges personal relations. At the time of this writing, relationalism literally “isn’t in the dictionary” – at least the most prominent one in the English-language.

Beyond our understanding of how America officially engages globally, many Americans lack basic awareness of history, governance, geography and current affairs. With the extreme focus in recent years on science, technology and math, I fear much is getting lost, and never is this more evident than in an election cycle.

Like Bollywood, ayurveda, yoga or curry, cultural design has the potential to be India's next unique soft power for the rest of the world. While everyone agrees that design, in today's context, plays a very important role in seamlessly integrating various factors like new technology, innovative materials and brand values, celebration of local cultural heritage is equally important.

Amy Zalman recently proposed that “soft power” – as a conceptual frame for understanding global politics – is too narrow and has outlived its usefulness. Her provocation generated fruitful responses and suggests that we might be ready to stop treading water and move beyond our decade-long fixation with the term to new and more constructive places.

The cultural common points between China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the Arabic world will provide better opportunities to strengthen Sino-Arabic ties and promote development in various aspects, according to an Egyptian cultural official in Yinchuan on Wednesday.

As South Korea and the United States mark the 130th anniversary of establishing their diplomatic relations this year, South Korea plans to stage a month-long campaign to burnish its image among the American people, a related government agency said Sunday.

As part of the celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and New Zealand, two Te Papa exhibitions will be heading to the National Museum of China in November 2012.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced today that musicians from 21 countries will travel to the United States to engage audiences as part of One Beat. Beginning September 10 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, OneBeat, a cultural diplomacy initiative, will connect international musicians with American musicians and audiences, especially underserved youth.