The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will host its second EducationUSA Forum to promote U.S. higher education overseas. With increased global competition in the field of international education, students need reliable, comprehensive and unbiased information about study opportunities in the United States, and EducationUSA provides that information.

Even though the administration has reportedly initiated secret, serious high-level contacts with representatives of the Taliban and has touted nuanced shifts in diplomatic language far less consideration has been given to how the United States can encourage a shift in the Taliban's perceptions and behavior. Fighting must continue, but talking and engagement are even more urgent.

Sunday's election in Turkey was another reminder of the country’s astonishing rise, which has been one of the most dramatic geopolitical stories of the last decade. Turkey has become not just a safe haven, but a model for what many Arabs would like to see their countries become. Finding a way to stabilize the ever-more-turbulent Middle East is Turkey’s most urgent task.

In a story yesterday the New York Times stirred up a huge amount of excitement about the so-called "Internet in a suitcase." The idea is that a relatively small amount of equipment could be parachuted (either literally or figuratively) into a region where one force is suppressing the ability of the general public to communicate using the Net. This is our newest tool for global information sharing.

India is planning a big cultural centre in Toronto along the lines of the famous Nehru Centre in London – the first of its kind in North America. The new cultural centre will be ready by next year to cater to the North America Indian diaspora. It is part of India’s thrust to use culture as a tool of its foreign policy.

Nations are brands because people perceive them as brands. Few Ghanaians have time to learn what most countries are really like, so we navigate through the complexity of the modern world armed with a few simple clichés about places. The writer wants to know: What about Ghana? What are we going to use as a brand to attract people from outside Ghana?

We have two types of freedoms related to the Internet; freedom to access Internet and freedom of expression on the Internet. World leading economies have thrived on information systems and making them accessible to all citizens, therefore increasing their participation in the economy. A connected society is going to be more prosperous and stable.

The people of the United States and the people of Ireland are working together to find more ways to improve maternal and child nutrition in the 1,000 day window between pregnancy and when a child turns 2 years old, when nutrition is most critical for saving lives and promoting cognitive and physical development.