Arab governance systems are yet not as transformed as many had hoped. However a new process of shaping Arab public opinion has emerged, facilitated by popular dynamism combined with the Internet and other technological innovations. And this revolution in discourse and communications provides an unprecedented opportunity to confront issues that have bedeviled our relations with the Arab world for decades.

What do the natural gas that began to flow to our homes from the Tamar reservoir, US President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel, and the expected rapprochement between Israel and Turkey have in common? Answer: The new public diplomacy.

A four-wheel drive instructor once gave me the quintessential piece of advice: "You have to be smarter than your equipment." I have followed that pearl of wisdom in many realms of life, but most recently, in my previous responsibility as Mexican Ambassador to the US, it came in very handy when I made the decision to become the first ambassador accredited to Washington to start "tweeting" in an official capacity.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo shut down its Twitter feed Wednesday following a public fight with the Egyptian Presidency and the Muslim Brotherhood over the arrest of an Egyptian television star.

How many cultural and educational centers does Russia have in the United States? This was the very question that preoccupied my thoughts when I first visited the American Center in Moscow in the Foreign Literature Library in 2008. Although I didn’t find the exact answer to my question, I came up with my own ideas regarding successful soft power and the example set by the U.S. government.

NaHHA’s work is based on communication between the Hawaiian community as the host culture and the tourism industry and tourists as a “foreign audience”, and is therefore closely related to public diplomacy...Although some of the mass hotels and other tourist corporations have been increasingly supportive of cultural initiatives in recent years, the industry’s priority is economic profit, which historically has lead to a commercialization of Hawaiian cultural elements for entertainment purposes.

In sport, China has discovered a new brand of soft power to extend its influence across the globe...In recent times, starting from the successful 2008 Summer Olympic Games, China has also used sport to extend its influence in the global community. The global influence of Chinese athletes such as tennis player Li Na, hurdler Liu Xiang and basketball player Yao Ming are key examples.

Japanese Internet billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani has a solution for Japan’s diplomatic woes with China: let more Chinese players play on the country’s sports teams...Japan is missing out on a chance to build goodwill across the globe by restricting the number of foreign players, said Mr. Mikitani, who is also a member of a panel on industrial competitiveness reporting to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, at a news conference in Tokyo on Tuesday.