“The window for diplomacy is closed.” So said President George W. Bush as the U.S. prepared to launch military action in Iraq. Mr. Bush intended that statement as a message to Saddam Hussein that the U.S. was no longer willing to negotiate and that his immediate departure from power was the only option; but in light of history his metaphor was somewhat ironic. In the aftermath of the attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States missed a number of opportunities to repurpose the enormous outpouring of good will around the world into a focused and potent strategy of public diplomacy.

One decade later, has anything changed? This question was asked over and over during the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

He pointed that the visit paid by the Sudanese Public Diplomacy delegation recently to Egypt clearly shows the overwhelming Egyptian feelings, at both public and official levels, regarding the necessity to enhancing bilateral cooperation between the two brother countries in the upcoming stage.

To establish a longer-lasting world order, the aims have to be set high and broad enough to encompass mutually shared interests...and the working plan should be realistic enough to embrace different developmental strategies for countries in different development stages and having different cultural backgrounds.

Turkey has stepped up its use of soft power by attempting to influence the political processes of nations which have recently undergone “Arab Spring” revolutions, namely Tunisia and Egypt...Erdogan has found a window of opportunity in the Arab Spring to restore Turkey to regional hegemony at a time when it only serves to help his party's standing at home.

The United States Department of State has Foreign Press Centers in Washington, D.C. and New York that help foreign media cover the U.S. Their goal is to promote the depth, accuracy, and balance of foreign reporting for the U.S., by providing direct access to authoritative American information sources.

Public diplomacy practitioners, students and scholars are aware that one of the critical obstacles for public diplomacy is resource deficiency, which includes the lack of funding and personnel. In other words, the scope of influence is a problem. Both Biden and Locke successfully attracted Chinese attention, with which any diplomatic approaches can be magnified.

The American companies get a peek into the high-walled Chinese playground; China gets an injection of Hollywood storytelling pep, marketing savvy and global distribution that might help its film industry kick on. Despite the endless barrage of coverage declaring the 21st century Beijing-owned, Chinese cinema isn't flourishing.