While aid organizations, governments, and local communities are involved in emergency responses, it is defense forces that often have the capabilities to offer logistical support, medical care, damage assessment, communications and imagery. Ultimately, military forces are particularly well-placed to provide life-sustaining assistance quickly.

From Nov. 8-16, Ripken will take participate in a diplomatic mission through Japan, where he will conduct baseball and softball clinics in Tokyo, Takarazuka and Kyoto. Officially, Ripken will be functioning as a U.S. Public Diplomacy Envoy, a State Department position that allows him to assume role of sports diplomat.

Aid's limited impact on public opinion usually applies even when the aid is specifically focused on winning converts. Aid is likely to be a more effective foreign policy tool when it comes to persuading governments to do things that lack popular support. Creating that popular support in the first place is much harder.

Turkey’s public diplomacy has gained increasing prominence in the news over the past month, even in the weeks prior to the earthquake that hit Eastern Turkey. Changes in the political landscape have resulted in significant changes to Turkey’s international standing in the world. The theme that dominated news from Turkey’s Today’s Zaman throughout the month of October was this Muslim-majority nation with a secular democratic government and a vibrant Islamic culture.

World governance in catastrophe is an element of global statecraft. But some disasters are more local, and then how an individual state responds shows its citizens, and the wider world, just how good it is at its core business of meeting basic needs. That is one reason why deciding whether to accept disaster relief is partly a matter of state self-confidence. But it is not just about bravado. Even humanitarian aid can carry a discreet price tag.

Social media is not, of course, a substitute for the long-term and difficult work that undoubtedly lies ahead in Van where thousands are now homeless and winter is fast encroaching. Nor should it make us complacent as to the impact of our efforts. But as a reminder of what human kindness can achieve, it too has its place.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton launched a new business loan program in Haiti on Tuesday aimed at helping bolster an economy that was devastated by the January 2010 earthquake. Clinton said the first loan in the $20 million program is being made to Caribbean Craft, which produces colorful goods such as carnival masks, sculptures and paintings for export and lost its workshop in the earthquake.