America is pivoting to Asia, focused on the Mideast, yet the "backyard," as Secretary of State John Kerry once referred to Latin America, is sprouting angry weeds as the scandal involving intelligence leaker Edward Snowden lays bare already thorny U.S. relations with Latin America.

The two primary functions of the ministry are the projection of public policy to the people of Pakistan and conducting public diplomacy, both at home and overseas. The public policy is the government’s decision of doing or not doing something. The importance of public policy projection is well documented in the study of public management. Before the media’s freedom, the ministry performed this function through its various departments, but now the media anchors provide sufficient opportunity to government representatives to justify their policies and actions.

In Miami, the couple's short visit to Cuba triggered outrage. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the trip was nothing more than a "wedding anniversary vacation not even disguised as a cultural program," while Sen. Marco Rubio accused the Carters of "funding the regime's systematic trampling of people's human rights."

The damages of war go far beyond what we once believed; society has now reached an understanding about the kind of moral, communal and psychological toll war can have on the soldiers, their family, community and even country. Perhaps the question we need to ask if there is a need to bolster our quest for non-violence as a means to resolve disputes and differences?

India’s global ambitions have grown remarkably over the past decade. However, questions are being raised about the capacity of its diplomatic corps to act as an effective catalyst in India’s transformation to a global power. Analysts are asking whether the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) has the numerical strength to project India’s influence in a manner befitting an emerging power. Do its officers have the expertise to engage in the kind of complex diplomacy that is required of a global power?

South American leaders planned to send a tough message to Washington on Friday over allegations of U.S. spying in the region and to defend their right to offer asylum to fugitive former U.S spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. Capping two weeks of strained North-South relations over the Snowden saga, presidents from the Mercosur bloc of nations were meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay. Complaints against the United States were high on the agenda.

Getting schools and hospitals built to the same standard as World Cup stadiums was one of the main demands made by protesters on the streets of Brazil last month. But just days after FIFA, football’s governing body, handed the national stadium in Brasilia back to its owners following the Confederations Cup, a warm-up tournament ahead of next year’s World Cup, it appears that the problem is not just overspending and late delivery. It’s also management.

The problem with all these complaints and proposals is that the United States has little leverage for influencing the internal politics of another country, especially one as large and distant as Egypt. This has nothing to do with President Obama. It is a central fact of international politics today, and it applies not just to the United States but to any single nation, however powerful it may be by traditional measures.