Diplomats are increasingly using social media to promote their countries’ foreign policy. Leading from the front is the US Embassy in Wellington and its social savvy Ambassador. Ambassador David Huebner is all for embracing innovation in diplomacy or, in foreign policy speak, 21st Century statecraft.

Innovations are a source of soft power. At a time of an unprecedented economic recession, soft power fueled by innovations remains America's greatest competitive advantage...The US experience suggests the way China has transformed itself into a new superpower will not be possible without building up its soft power that provides fertile ground for innovative products.

How do you use online and offline strategies to change, not just policy or corporate practice, but hearts and minds? Everyone might have made their Twitter pictures green during the Iranian elections, but when it comes to really changing the world, the experts say it’s going to take a lot more than a few tweets.

What’s the future of international broadcasting? Tony Maddox, the executive vice president of news organisation CNN International, thinks that despite changes in the world media environment, there will always be a role for traditional broadcasting.

Science diplomacy is a central component of America’s twenty-first century statecraft agenda. The United States must increasingly recognize the vital role science and technology can play in addressing major challenges, such as making our economy more competitive...

Muslim users who choose to ditch Facebook for the upcoming social network SalamWorld shouldn’t expect to find a Madonna video or discussion of sex anywhere on the site. Salamworld hopes to be a far cleaner version of Facebook, by “filtering out harmful content” and ensuring that its pages “uphold and respect family values".

On Thursday, March 1, 2012, the U.S. Department of State will host its first-ever Spanish-language Twitter Briefing. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Mike Hammer will take questions submitted to the Department’s official Spanish-language Twitter feed @USAenEspanol.

New technologies are commonly resisted by foreign ministries but it is now ten years since State established its Office of eDiplomacy. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) needs ediplomacy if it is going to continue to coordinate policy across an increasingly internationalised bureaucracy.