Moscow seems to be placing high hopes on the new tool. The new draft of the Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation, signed by Vladimir Putin in February, states that "new information and communication technologies will be widely utilized" in order to "create an objective perception of Russia in the world" and "develop effective domestic means to exert informational influence on public opinion abroad."

After nearly four years of often testy relations with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama is about to try a different tack - going over the head of Israel's prime minister and appealing directly to the Israeli people.

Voice of America (VOA) has launched a new SMS news service that will allow mobile phone users to get up-to-date VOA news headlines and emergency messages through three of its major mobile providers in the country.

If South Korea resorts to force to unify the peninsula, the region would be trapped in long-term chaos, as happened in the Middle East. A turbulent Korean Peninsula is harmful to China and the Northeast Asia. Both China and South Korea could be victims. The cost of abandoning North Korea is much higher than that of protecting it. China's strategic considerations should be aimed at maintaining the stability of the Korean Peninsula.

Our hosts were all in their late 20s or early 30s, surprisingly younger than I had expected. Yet I quickly read two messages from that: 1) public diplomacy remains an experimental endeavor, to which new ideas might contribute more than years’ experiences; 2) our meeting was likely to be more informative than official. The second message turned out to be only partially true.

China's political advisers have called for a well-coordinated system that would feature government taking the lead in promoting Chinese culture around the world, with private institutions playing a supportive role.

Thrown around in the Under Secretary's talk on America's public diplomacy abroad were commonly coined phrases like "return on investment" and "networks of good will."...Simply put, my problem is that we don't really live out public diplomacy here at home. I'm as proud an American citizen as anyone else but I do think how we define that citizenship requires reassessment. It is not OK that our country is present in so many places around the world and yet our people are turned inwards.

Yesh Atid, Likud Beytenu return to disputes on number of ministries, equality in burden; Likud MKs concerned Bennett will turn Public Diplomacy post into de facto Foreign Ministry.