A hardline backlash always looms large over any attempt by a new government in Tehran to present itself as one that the West can talk to. President Hassan Rouhani has already found that the greatest challenge to public diplomacy is an apparent lack of discipline, rather than a lack of influential allies or favourable laws in a country where Facebook and other social networks are banned but not illegal.

All this excitement over recent Russian public diplomacy on Syria is a bit odd to those of us who have been following that diplomacy strategy for over a decade. That Vladimir Putin chose to write an op-ed in The New York Times this week is not at all shocking. It is part of a broader pattern of Russian outreach that began in 2001.

News has broken that the new nominee for the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the State Department will be Richard Stengel, who is leaving his position as Editor of Time Magazine. If confirmed, he will be the 8th Under Secretary since the creation of the position in 1999. Stengel will be replacing Tara Sonenshine, who left the R Office this June.

Putin is known for the love of strong language and a questionable, if not inappropriate, sense of humor. This has not changed over his nearly 15 years in power. Russia’s head of state ascended to the presidency in 1999-2000 famously promising to “waste terrorists in the out house, ” and most recently dismissed Assad’s chemical attack claims as “utter nonsense,” raising some eyebrows in the West.

Richard Stengel, the managing editor of Time magazine, is leaving to become under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department, according to people familiar with the appointment. Mr. Stengel replaces Tara Sonenshine, who held the post with Secretaries of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Kerry before leaving in July.

Time managing editor Rick Stengel (pictured above) is leaving journalism to go work for the State Department, making him at least the 15th 21st reporter to go to work for the Obama administration. Stengel will be the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Politico and Capital New York report. The last high-profile journalist to leave Time for the Obama administration is Jay Carney, who is currently White House press secretary (pictured at right).

Richard Wike, associate director of Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, gave a presentation on global opinions of the United States on Wednesday at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The event, hosted by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy (CPD), took place from 12 to 1 p.m. Accompanying Wike was Annenberg adjunct professor Robert Banks and CPD Director Jay Wang. The event was part of the center’s Conversations Series.