Secretary of State John Kerry vowed Wednesday that the United States will not retreat from the world stage due to budget constraints or the complexity of global challenges. He noted several so-called soft-power projects that he said represented American values, such as U.S. contributions to AIDS treatment and prevention, pushing for the rights of girls and women, and childhood education. Yet, he stressed that successes may be endangered by technological advances, the explosion of youth populations and “unleashed sectarian strife and religious extremism.”

A delegation of senior representatives of Korea's tourism industry visited Israel this week in a bid to increase public awareness of the country as an enticing tourist destination. Their trip coincided with the annual International Mediterranean Tourism Market represented by 30 different countries at the Israel Trade Fairs and Convention Center in Tel Aviv.

The U.S. Army has embraced what civilians would call public relations as a key part of military operations for the 21st-century battlefield. Added to the traditional war elements — among them movement and maneuver, intelligence and firing against an enemy — is the new “Inform and Influence Activities” (IIA).

The Florida Orchestra has run into the first real glitch in its cultural exchange with Cuba. On Friday, the orchestra learned it had to postpone plans to send concertmaster Jeffrey Multer to perform on Feb. 10 with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba in Havana.

It’s been almost a year since the U.S. outpost of China Central Television (CCTV) launched under much scrutiny. So far, though, it hasn’t made much of a splash. Most Americans have never heard of CCTV, and those that have probably assume that it is the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party. And, in a sense, they are on to something.

With John Kerry starting his term as America’s top diplomat, the US has asserted that people-to-people and public diplomacy relations with India are extremely important to move forward in the bilateral ties. “Obviously people-to-people and public diplomacy relations with India are extremely important going forward,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

Diplomats, members of Congress and Italian-American community leaders gathered at the National Gallery of Art in December for the unveiling of the “David-Apollo,” a nearly 500-year-old Michelangelo masterpiece on loan from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, Italy.

The barefoot boys sit cross-legged on the stage, tuning their instruments to the droning A of the lutelike rubab. Behind them hangs a poster of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, shaking hands underneath the word “Cooperation.” Before them is an audience of mostly African American boys and girls, listening to Afghan instruments they’ve never before seen up close. As the visitors play a set of four traditional songs, heads begin to bob in the auditorium at William E. Doar Jr.