The law was the White House’s most public strategy to date to counter Iran’s influence in the Americas, and gives the State Department 180 days to draw up a plan to “address Iran’s growing hostile presence and activity.” The US received prompt criticism from Iran who said the US “still lives in the cold war era and considers Latin America as its back yard.”

Researcher says Israel's use of Twitter, Facebook during recent Gaza operation reflects a transformed approach to warfare, as world acknowledges importance of social networks during emergencies.

With the establishment of the China-ASEAN free trade area, communication in fields of personnel mobility, economic exchanges and cultural transmission between China and Southeast Asian countries are growing, even as disputes between the two remain. At this time, public diplomacy can play an important role in relations between China and Southeast Asian countries.

In a recent poll conducted in Georgia by the National Democratic Institute, 68 percent of respondents expressed their approval of a Georgian pledge to reestablish their country’s railway link with Russia via the breakaway region of Abkhazia1.

The “soft power” phase of Canadian foreign policy tended to produce “soft” results; R2P foundered on the lack of any noticeable international political will to apply it. UN Resolution 1973 on Libya deliberately avoided reference to R2P because it wouldn’t have flown.

“As cabinet secretary he will ensure that the government’s policy framework is cohesive and coordinated,” he said. “In addition, as the chief officer responsible for Information Technology and Government Information Services, I will be expecting him to champion a fresh impetus towards a more ‘digital’ government that delivers services more effectively to our customers and to promote the use of social media to communicate with our citizens.”

News reports say Sen. John Kerry (D) will be tapped for State while former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, a moderate Republican, may be headed for the Pentagon. If so, this would suggest a return to Mr. Obama’s attempts early in his first presidency to engage America’s adversaries abroad rather than isolate or harm them.

Clark, who led the campaign to drive Serbian forces from Kosovo in 1999 and is now the chairman of a Canadian energy company called Envidity, was responding to questions regarding the outfit’s desire to turn Kosovo’s estimated 14 billion tonnes of coal deposits into synthetic diesel fuel.