A study due to be released on Monday is expected to take both Israel and the Palestinians - but especially the latter - to task for how they portray the other side in school textbooks. The project, conducted by researchers in the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, was funded by the U.S. State Department.

In the past few months Vladimir Putin has terminated the work in Russia of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ended American adoptions of Russian children and, most damagingly, drastically reduced the audience and credibility of U.S. broadcaster Radio Liberty, driving a wedge between it and some of Russia’s most renowned human rights activists and journalists.

John Kerry’s overwhelming confirmation as the next U.S. secretary of state presents a welcome opportunity to consider what the point of the job is. Now that Hillary Clinton has left Foggy Bottom for a well-earned rest, it’s worth stating that public diplomacy — even of the remarkably successful kind that she embodied — was not Thomas Jefferson’s idea of being the country’s chief diplomat, nor, one suspects, Clinton’s.

“Seeing is believing” is the philosophy behind a Foreign Ministry proposal to bring 3,000 North American non- Jewish campus influentials to Israel to show them the country and combat what ministry director-general for public diplomacy Gideon Meir called the “industry of lies” against the country.

Audiences in Mali can now get the latest news from the Voice of America (VOA) on an FM transmitter that went on the air today — part of a stepped-up response to the Malian crisis by the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Despite Africa’s uneven progress, I remained deeply and profoundly optimistic about Africa’s future. This optimism is grounded in expanding democracy, improved security, rapid economic growth, and greater opportunities that exist for all of Africa’s people. It is clear to me as well as to many others that the 21st century will not only be shaped in Beijing and Washington, but also in Pretoria, Abuja, Nairobi, and Addis.

The Department of State sponsors Fulbright-mtvU Fellowships to promote music as a global force for promoting mutual understanding. Fellows are chosen through a multi-tiered, merit-based selection process including reviews by U.S. and foreign academic leaders and area experts. The final selection is made by the presidentially-appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.

South Korea has spent billions in promoting its "nation brand" via its technology and other attributes. But what has driven up the country's soft power across the world as much as anything is "Gangnam Style," the Korean rapper PSY's galloping horse dance, hipster wannabe clothes and tongue-in-cheek attitude, offset by an irresistible and simple hook that even a three year old could mimic.