Public diplomacy (PD), if defined as the act of a government engaging directly with a foreign public, then many governments are currently conducting PD towards the Filipino public in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan's devastation. Most public diplomacy scholars and practitioners refer to the foreign aid assistance in the wake of a disaster as "aid diplomacy."

Russia's humanities presence in the world does not reflect its capabilities, Moscow should use the experience of such major players as French-speaking countries, the Goethe-Institute and the Confucius Institute, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday.

The Maltese Embassy in Tunisia is also committed to enhance relations between Malta and Tunisia through cultural diplomacy and humanitarian assistance, amongst others. The embassy’s political work is currently focused on the holding of the Annual Maltese-Tunisian Mixed Commission meeting which this year is due to be held in Tunisia.

While mainstream media often reported on the news of a disaster, citizen journalists were able to provide valuable background information that could impact humanitarian policy. "Reporting a disaster or an emergency is as critical as reporting the events leading to it. How did people react just before it happened and so on," Palatino said.

In these cases of chronic crisis, recurring shocks erase development gains and set local populations back into urgent need over and over again. With many in the Sahel still struggling to recover from the region's last food crisis in 2010, they now face a new crisis of food access.

Pew’s argument suffers from an implicit fallacy, not unusual in public diplomacy discourse. The primary purpose of humanitarian relief is not public diplomacy...We have a tendency to measure the international popularity rating of many U.S. government activities that may influence foreign publics, whereas their real purpose is something entirely different.

Nearly a year ago, as Japan struggled with the devastation wrought by the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami, the United States military launched “Operation Tomodachi,” a major humanitarian aid mission, to help the Japanese government respond to the crisis.