Diplomacy and outreach can't just be left to our government," Clinton said during a 75-minute speech and onstage interview sponsored by the Commonwealth Club. She spoke of the State Department's new "emphasis on technology and innovation.

In a recent CBS Sunday Morning program on The Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quite rationally asserts, "I think there are certainly times music conveys American values better than a speech."

Almost two years into the Obama presidency, there is a discernible shift in the administration's foreign policy. If Phase One was about repairing America's image around the world by showing a friendlier face to everyone, especially adversaries, Phase Two will be about wielding renewed American influence, even if it means challenging some and disappointing others.

President Barack Obama's top cabinet members stressed Tuesday that devoting money and resources to overseas diplomacy and development is essential to U.S. national security. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner agreed that in addition to a military approach, a strong focus on development would reap many benefits for the U.S.

I've written in The Huffington Post about the State Department, as part of its plan to privatize American public diplomacy, creating a bogus nonprofit corporation and compelling the IRS to give it tax exempt status so that the nonprofit, Shanghai Expo 2010, Inc., could attract corporate sponsors, the State thus avoiding any need to seek funding from Congress

As Hillary Rodham Clinton has embarked on her first attempt at substantive Middle East diplomacy, she has drawn on her record of controversial statements about Israel and the Palestinians - and depicted it as an asset. It is a tricky balancing act that attests to the secretary of state's talent as a politician, as well as her predilection for getting into hot water with bold, sometimes ill-timed pronouncements.

Diplomats, entrepreneurs and future leaders joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the U.S. State Department's annual iftar dinner in Washington on September 7. Secretary Clinton praised 70 young American Muslim leaders who attended the iftar...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared Wednesday that "a new American moment" had arrived in international relations--"a moment when our global leadership is essential, even if we must often lead in new ways."