Donors have been ramping up aid to fragile states, raising fears about funds falling into corrupt hands. A global corruption survey released this week by Transparency International measures how the public perceive corruption in their own countries. The nongovernmental organization asked 114,000 people in 107 countries which institutions do they think are most corrupt. In Afghanistan, where corruption is a huge concern among donors, 60 percent of respondents think the judiciary is the most corrupt.

Sure, we've heard fiery speeches offering asylum from leftist leaders who are eager to criticize the United States. But supporting Snowden's cause and wanting to make Uncle Sam look bad aren't the only parts of the equation, with so many trade and diplomatic relations hanging in the balance, said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.

Besides keeping the department of national defense from falling asleep at their desks, there's the chance that Canadian forces might be being used to advance diplomatic relations with Brazil, enhancing the two countries' trading relationship by lessening Brazil's load in Haiti...It’s also indicative of the post-Afghanistan landscape, where Western militaries are having their budgets tightened as they withdraw from the final frontier of the original war on terror.

This Friday, 500 young leaders from nearly 90 countries will convene at the United Nations headquarters for a UN Youth Assembly on global education with a very special guest speaker -- Malala Yousufzai. Their mission is simple and profound: to accelerate the goal of getting all children, especially girls, in school and learning by 2015.

As such, Russia finds itself between a rock and a hard place: it wants to enhance its soft power and public diplomacy while loudly resisting and countering similar attempts by others, namely the United States. For a great illustration of this dilemma, see the recent expulsion of USAID from Russia for its alleged promotion of regime change, as well as the passage of the “foreign agent law” that requires foreign-funded NGOs in Russia to register as foreign agents; all this while the Russian government hikes up its own soft power and its self-described “humanitarian budget.”

By the end of Netanyahu’s speech, online audiences seemed to have forgotten about the performance that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, gave on the same floor the previous day. Despite his fiery rhetoric, Ahmadinejad did not manage to spark nearly as much Internet interest as Netanyahu. Unlike the Iranian president’s speech, Netanyahu’s presentation, with its accompanying visual prop, was perfectly suited for the “Twitterverse.”

In the end, this war will be won through changing hearts and minds—or in other words, public diplomacy. We need education to reinforce the principle that killing animals is not cool and that the crime of poaching will lead to serious consequences.Whether it is good luck, wisdom or patience, elephants are vital to our planet and must stay front and center in the global mindset until their slaughter is stopped.

It's good for the U.S. to call for tolerance and political inclusion, without believing it can or should dictate a government. It is fine to speak out against political or civil abuses on either side, and there have been abuses on all sides. It is an illusion, however, to believe that the recent coup is right, acceptable, proportionate to Morsi's actions, or in any way useful in solving any of Egypt's deep problems.