The Gaza conflict is being fought online, as well. Twitter is the main new front in a propaganda war between Israel and Hamas, but experts say the use of social media for public diplomacy is a double-edged sword. Social media can help convey a message to the public, but Twitter can be used carelessly, with a danger of overplaying things

The members of the band Della Mae come from all over the United States: Vermont, South Carolina, Colorado, Wyoming and Washington State. And they are steeped in the Appalachian bluegrass tradition. You can’t get much more American than that. Perhaps that’s why the US State Department selected Della Mae to be America’s cultural ambassadors to Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The band calls it their “‘Stan Tour.”

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko sent greetings to the participants of the 7th meeting of the twin-towns of Belarus and Russia, BelTA learnt from the presidential press service.

It was inevitable as governments and the militants fighting governments became more adept at social media that they’d end up using Twitter and YouTube against each other. The problem is that in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the very real war can come across as farcical on Twitter, as the two sides go at each other.

As Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the United States Department of State, I work to build meaningful relationships and mutual understanding between citizens of our country and others. That is what we call public diplomacy. And we do this by joining and expanding a global conversation with people everywhere – both face to face, through educational and cultural exchanges, and through social media.

Easily overlooked amid the flurry of reforms in Myanmar, a diplomatic retooling is taking place at the US Embassy in Yangon. Cubicles that were once empty have found new occupants, relationships that had turned cold during two decades of political isolation are thawing and public diplomacy is flourishing.

Under other circumstances, advancing understanding of America through American Corners and Centers, of which the State Department has more than 800 throughout the world, is a great idea. But certainly not where the most basic security is missing, leaving State Department personnel dangerously exposed.