Actor Jason Alexander of "Seinfeld" fame paid a call on Shimon Peres, the president of Israel. Alexander was visiting the Holy Land as part of a pro-peace delegation from a grassroots group called OneVoice, dedicated to finding a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Art and dance are reflections and representations of the complexities of humanity, which is designed to captivate us visually and audibly, invoking a deep emotional connection that transcends through time and boundaries, proving their importance as the essential tools of cultural diplomacy.

While most media coverage around Islam focuses on wars or terrorism, two female singers, Falguni Shah and Emel Aykanat, are using music to show a fuller picture. They do not know each other...but for years they have each used Oriental instruments and rhythms to speak out against racism and try to overcome prejudices.

WikiLeaks has had some major successes...But judged by its own ambitions -- and the worst fears of its detractors ...the grand experiment of turning WikiLeaks into a conduit for "mass document leaking" has been an abysmal failure.

The State Department’s summer cultural-exchange program is supposed to be a uniting exercise in public diplomacy...It was quite embarrassing, therefore, when 200 students walked off their factory jobs at a Pennsylvania Hershey plant in August, protesting exploitative working conditions.

The Occupy movement, decentralized and leaderless, has mobilized thousands of people around the world almost exclusively via the Internet. To a large degree through Twitter, and also with platforms like Facebook and Meetup, crowds have connected and gathered.

Beginning with the Twitter Race to 1 million followers...the malaria fight has consistently broken new ground in the use of social media. The UN created a powerful group of social media advocates called the Social Media Envoys, each of whom take an action on Twitter each month. And we're seeing great promise using communications technologies in malaria endemic countries too.

The Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow and has now spread across the world, motivating thousands to voice their anger at financial and social inequality, and in some places merging with existing anti-government protests. On Saturday, a global "Day of Rage" was observed, and demonstrations took place in more than 80 countries around the world.