For all the growing interest in public diplomacy, the field still suffers from a lack of specificity in use of the term. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but it is a source of confusion. A look at the CPD blog demonstrates the wonderful breadth of issues that fall under the rubric of public diplomacy. A survey of peer-reviewed literature from the last five decades yields more than 600 articles employing the term – each with its own understanding of public diplomacy.

Public diplomacy is about communicating—including lessons learned. So here are a few lessons I have learned from serving in high level positions in government: 1. The first is about idealism vs. realism—how to blend them. You come into government very idealistic and you go home very realistic. But the truth is that the first and last lesson I keep learning is about BLENDING BOTH—meaning that you have to blend ideals and aspirations with what is doable.

This week Saudi authorities resumed a sweeping crackdown on foreign workers violating local labor laws. Officials arrestedmore than 20,000 people over two days, according to the Jeddah-based Saudi Gazette, and deported many of them. The crackdown, which King Abdullah had suspended in July for six months to allow time for workers to regularize their status, primarily targets workers who do not have valid residency or work permits, but also affects workers with valid documents who are not working for the employer the documents designate.

In 2010, a French Ambassador posted in the Caucasus explained to me proudly that he was one of the first diplomats from the Quai d’Orsay to run a Facebook account. Two years later, the US Ambassador in Moscow, Michael McFaul, astonished the diplomatic community and Russia by engaging directly with the Russian population. With 55,000 followers on Twitter, he embodied the e-diplomacy revolution.

Until yesterday, 400,000 Defense Department employees were furloughed without pay due to the government shutdown. At the Treasury Department, the offices that enforce and monitor sanctions on North Korea, Syria, and Iran have been reduced to a skeleton crew. And large numbers of CIA analysts and logistics officers—including, until last week, 72 percent of the civilian workforce—have been told to stay home until the government has a 2014 budget.

Vice President Biden is heading to Mexico later Thursday to kick off the first-ever high level economic dialogue between the two nations. On his third trip to Mexico, Biden will sit down with President Enrique Peña Nieto as part of the launch of the U.S.-Mexico High Level Economic Dialogue in Mexico City to improve the economic relationship between the two neighbors.