For a country the size of New Jersey with a population smaller than Virginia’s, Israel has achieved spectacular progress in a once unlikely economic sector: science and technology. From a small cluster of industries once focused primarily on the military, this sector has blossomed into a vibrant international hub that shapes the country’s foreign partnerships.

Swedes are being described as "handsome, hi-tech and healthy" in a global soft-power survey that ranks Sweden among the world's most influential nations....Sweden's new soft-power push is a plan to become Europe's leading gastronomic nation and double the nation's food export by 2020, according to the Monocle survey.

From all the terrible news typically coming out of reports from Israel and the West Bank, a March 15 article from Bloomberg Press, struck a happier note. For advocates of public diplomacy between Israelis and Palestinians, corporate diplomacy could be a key factor in restarting the peace process.