Learning from the American experience, governments around the world have developed national innovation policies and programs to accelerate their economic prosperity and to help their citizens and companies compete globally.

Current attempts at virtual diplomacy have little government backing and are limited in scope. They are directed mainly at public diplomacy (PD), not official state-to-state channels. Some governments have attempted to change diplomatic conditions through virtual PD campaigns and the use of social media. But, crucially, the public does not decide to go to war, even in a democracy.

These are the images of the Syrian conflict, the first war in which the prevalence of camera phones and Internet access has allowed hundreds of gruesome war crimes to be broadcast, spreading hatred and fear. They are defining the war that is spilling across Syria’s borders and making reconciliation an ever more distant prospect.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is pleased to announce the release of the free “American English” mobile application for lower-tech feature phones and Android devices. Developed in partnership with English Education Alliance (E2A) members, biNu and Worldreader, the application provides new audiences worldwide with “anytime, anywhere” English language learning resources on the mobile devices they already own.

Russian is the sixth largest edition of the online encyclopedia (measured by number of content pages, excluding redirects etc), outdone only by Western European languages. In terms of traffic, Russian is now the third most accessed (measured in views per hour), only the English and Spanish sites are busier. In both cases, Russian has outpaced world languages like Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, and Portuguese. In Russia, wikipedia.org is the 9th most visited domain, and the site gets similar traffic levels from former Soviet states where Russian remains a lingua franca.

The central focal subject of discourse when Global Diaspora Forum (GDF) convenes on May 13 – 14, 2013 for its third annual celebration of the contributions Diaspora communities make to their countries of origin is “Where Ideas Meet Action.”

Canada is seeking to restore diplomatic relations with Iran — but not the old-fashioned way. Instead of ambassadors and attaches, the Foreign Affairs Department is aiming to connect with Iranians directly, via social media. They're working with the University of Toronto's Munk School to host two days of discussions that will be live-streamed online in the hopes of reaching and inspiring Iranians ahead of June's presidential elections.

The cyber war between China and the U.S. has spread from computers into the halls of diplomacy. In a report this week, the Pentagon said for the first time that the Chinese government and military have been launching cyber attacks against the U.S. Today, Chinese state media called the U.S "the real hacking empire" and said the country has "an extensive espionage network."