Over the summer, there were numerous instances of sports diplomacy in practice throughout the world.

“It’s very clear that the public wants a real state, not just a state in name. The public is willing to pay the price.” Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki explains why a unilateral declaration of statehood may be the last chance Palestinians give to their current leadership...

By grabbing our attention with mass, incomprehensible murders, terrorists do much more than just try to silence these voices for a moment. They also hack away at the level of trust needed for reasoned discourse. The attacks make it easier for fearful people to believe extremists speak for whole societies and, that in turn, only advances the terrorists' own cause.

Meanwhile, we must all ask ourselves, as individual citizens, how we can help. This might mean private donations, as in previous humanitarian emergencies in Indonesia after the tsunami or Haiti after the earthquake, or it could mean pushing elected representatives toward a more robust response.

And we have a great commitment to our government-to-government relations, but we have an even greater commitment to our people-to-people ones. And we view them as absolutely central to the partnership and friendship between our countries.

The Foreign Relations Authorization Act for fiscal 2012, would repeal a 1960 law that established the center for cultural and technical interchange between East and West. U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono said she has asked that language to repeal the law be removed from the bill.