In this crisis-heavy summer, once high-priority missions are quickly falling off the public's - and sometimes the national security establishment's - radar. Even the biggest of U.S. military missions - Afghanistan, where roughly 29,000 U.S. troops are deployed -- seems to be on Washington's back burner compared with Ukraine and the threat of the Islamic State. But the commanders running these operations, as well as the personnel carrying them out, certainly haven't forgotten. The Pentagon's top five "forgotten missions" follow.

Qatar is working to help free four Americans held hostage in Syria by various armed groups, a Gulf source familiar with the matter said on Monday, a day after the Gulf Arab state's diplomacy helped free a journalist held since 2012.

Google “Kosovo”, and Petrit Selimi knows exactly what you’re going to see: dry, diplo-speak scouting reports at best, and depressing references to past conflicts at worst. It’s not exactly the promotional buzz a fledgling country with sights set on global integration would hope for*. To Selimi, Kosovo’s Deputy Foreign Secretary and a pioneer in Digital Diplomacy, this is a major problem.

Hollywood celebrities aren’t the only ones whose tweets go viral these days. Some military leaders are taking to social media just as other government leaders and agencies are.  The Central Intelligence Agency, for example, made headlines in June with its first tweet: “We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.” It was shared more than 50,000 times in its first hour. 

The reputation of a country is comparable to the brand images of companies and products and it’s very essential for its progress and prosperity. The need to understand and embrace nation branding is therefore very critical. Subsequently, managing a country brand is about national, regional and international identity and the politics and economics of competitiveness. But what happens when a nation brand goes through a crisis?

Besides centrifuges, uranium enrichment, and sanctions, this month the State Department turned to sets, digs, and spikes in diplomatic efforts with Iran. Samuel Werberg, a press and public diplomacy officer in the U.S. State Department, invoked the spirit of Jesse Owens to tout the Obama administration's latest installment of sports diplomacy...

"The difference between cool Korea and earlier Asian pop culture waves is that Korea has been working to make this happen for almost two decades. Korea is cool because it decided to be cool — it's the first country in history that has made being cool a massive policy priority, backed by the Korean government to the tune of billions of dollars."

The massive gathering of nearly 50 African heads of state and government in Washington allowed top U.S. officials to broker deals between American companies and African dignitaries, as well as press privately for action on security and human rights concerns. And at a time when Europe and major economies such as China are expanding their foothold in Africa, the conference gave the United States a chance to reinforce its long-standing connection to the continent.