Israel is tired of playing it straight: It is recruiting gays and lesbians as unofficial envoys. In a bid to boost its international image, the country’s ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs has established a cadre of diverse volunteers who speak about Israel around the world.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has announced that 100 students from Pakistan are participating in the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program’s (Global UGRAD-Pakistan) arrival orientation in Washington, D.C.

The Government of Canada was, until fairly recently, regarded as somewhat of a PD pioneer. That reputation would now be difficult to sustain. Indeed, whatever this country may at one time have achieved by way of advancing its interests through PD, those days are now long gone.

American dance companies are once again heading overseas to practice a kind of choreographed diplomacy as part of the second season of DanceMotion USA. The program, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “embraces the full use of diplomatic tools, in this case dance, to engage people and create opportunities for greater understanding.”

What can the United States do to help Nigeria address the immediate security crisis? The first priority should be to neutralize Boko Haram without a massive display of American counter-terrorism prowess, which could provoke the public backlash seen elsewhere. Second is to engage Nigeria’s vast diaspora, perhaps a million-strong in the United States.

As part of its efforts to harness digital technologies for public diplomacy, the US State Department has decided to open up its daily press briefings by letting people across the globe tweet their questions in several languages, including Hindi and Urdu.

Conventional diplomacy was still necessary, but it was no longer sufficient when it came to influencing foreign governments. That influence was best brought to bear through their publics, and through international public opinion, especially when compulsion was not an option and democratization had expanded the scope for exercising influence indirectly.

Hostile international powers are strengthening their efforts to Westernise and divide us," Hu wrote in an article, noting "ideological and cultural fields" are the main targets. "We must be aware of the seriousness and complexity of the struggles and take powerful measures to prevent and deal with them.