Almost 11 years after the tragic events of 9/11, there is little agreement on defining an effective public diplomacy, and outlining public diplomacy goals, according to the blog Public and Cultural Diplomacy. The failure of the Bush administration’s public diplomacy strategy, followed by the current administration’s intent to restore America’s credibility abroad signal America’s willingness to adopt more collaborative relations with the Muslim world in tackling global challenges.

Much attention has been paid to the crucial role played by new media in promoting and enabling the revolutions that are sweeping across the Arab world. However, Radio Netherlands Worldwide highlights the concurrent surge in importance of mainstream media in the region, and reasons that both were central in the recent Arab uprisings.

What Eastern European intellectuals and civic actors understood by civil society was not just the 18th-century concept of the rule of law, but also the notion of horizontal self-organized groups and institutions in the public sphere that could limit the power of the state by constructing a democratic space separate from state and its ideological institutions.

Even in its third month, the Arab revolution fails to resonate positively in Israel. The Israeli news media devote a lot of space to dramatic events in the region, but our self-centered political discourse remains the same. It cannot see beyond the recent escalation across the Gaza border, or the approaching possibility of a Palestinian declaration of statehood in September.

Turkey's prime minister has criticized the severity of the ongoing military operation in Libya, as proposals are being made to transfer control of the operation to NATO. There are questions about whether Turkey, as a NATO member, would accept such a move.

It's been a very patriotic period for Irish Ambassador Breifne O’Reilly. Aside from the St. Patrick’s Day reception he hosted at his residence in Herzliya Pituah last Thursday, the previous week he hosted another reception at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque to mark the opening of the annual Irish Film Week...

The top Portuguese diplomat in Turkey has said the two countries could benefit from sharing best business practices which each has developed over many years and help each other out in markets where they have developed competitive leads.

My conversation with two North African friends ranged widely, from the role of satellite television in the Arab world to the prospects for electoral reform in the region. Then we came to how other nations would deal with the new dynamics of Arab politics. One of my friends said, “In the past, diplomacy has been with the leaders, but now it must be with the people.”