The Sept. 21 release of U.S. hikers... "affirms the importance of the role of religious dialogue and its end product in this case, public diplomacy, as we seek ways to define common ground between our two countries," said Diocese of Washington Bishop John Chane, who returned from a weeklong visit to Iran on Sept. 19.

In addition to using its hard power to slow down Tehran’s pursuit of an indigenous nuclear program, the Israelis will find it worthwhile to exploit soft power as well. Putting a good face on the African continent is one aspect of that soft power approach.

In the lead-up to next week's UN General Assembly in which he was scheduled to speak, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allowed NBC's Ann Curry to shadow him in Iran for a feature entitled, "A Day in the Life of Iran's President."

In order to prevent further deterioration of the United States’ relationships in the Middle East, it should conduct more public diplomacy in Egypt in order to maintain a civil relationship in the long term...Egyptian public opinion of the U.S. must change before the revolution ends, and the likelihood of a radical coming to power increases.

APDS Blogger: Naweed Lemar

Tehran has hosted a two-day international conference on dialogue among religions and cultures in Asia. The aim of the conference was to review cultural relations among Asian nations and promote respect for cultural and religious diversity.

Director of National Library and Archives of Iran said that that 20th century is the century in which cultural diplomacy is prevailing politics. In order to fulfill the goal during the past century, Iran established its National Library and today the organization is proud to hold a fair for Ukraine's National Day."

Running a center for public diplomacy is good news per se, since it means further attention towards the global public opinion and the image Iran is creating of itself for the international community. Public diplomacy is the ‘soft’ tool...