The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is embarking on agricultural projects in South Sudan. The Vice President of JICA in South Sudan, Mr. Watanabe Masato said this today while briefing the minister for Information and Broadcasting Hon Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin on the expansion of their projects in the country.

Although all fall under the main theme of “The Living Ocean and Coast,” the international pavilions at the Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea are as diverse as the 104 participating countries themselves. Linked by a digital canopy displaying ocean scenes on a giant overhead LED screen, the international pavilions showcase nations’ oceans, coasts and the work they are doing to protect them.

Public diplomacy can be implemented as a cluster of measures that are more productive than the confrontational steps such as “checkbook diplomacy,” in which Taipei and Beijing competed for formal diplomatic partners.

“The challenges that Ambassador McFaul is facing in Russia demonstrate how U.S. embassies that participate in social media are vulnerable to backlash from their host country. However, it is clear that Twitter is has become a valuable mechanism to circumvent traditional media channels and foster a direct dialog between foreign individuals and the U.S. government."

It was an exercise in grass-roots democracy in which sections of the public could question a political leader in public about issues of interest and concern to them. It was also an exercise in public diplomacy in which a political leader takes advantage of the opportunity provided by such interactions to explain his or her thinking and views on issues of public concern.