We caught up with Kwan, 32, after she spoke during a Washington Post Live conference on women and leadership Wednesday. Does she see herself with State for the long haul? You never in politics, she said, but “I’m very goal-oriented. I do see myself doing something in public service.”

In discussions of the so-called Asia pivot, the roles of the U.S. Navy and Air Force have been prominent, especially given the Pentagon’s development of the Air-Sea Battle concept. But the U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific cannot be reduced to Air-Sea Battle.

North Korean state media has reported the discovery of the lair of a unicorn ridden by an ancient Korean king. But that doesn't mean the entire country is living in a fantasy world.

As relations between India and Pakistan continue to thaw, opportunities for contact and dialogue have increased across a variety of areas, including diplomacy, sport and the entertainment world. In one notable development, Indian screen legend Naseeruddin Shah embarked on a week-long visit to the neighbouring country, amid hopes that joint film, theatre and other performing arts productions could become a reality down the road.

The U.S. secretary of State sweepstakes is on. Who’s it going to be? Susan Rice, John Kerry, Tom Donilon or some mystery candidate who will surprise us all. Forget the who for a moment. What does the nation’s top diplomat need to succeed?

Of the 158 countries the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) cover in their inaugural global terrorism index, only 31 have had no attacks in the ten years to 2011. Yet although attacks are distributed widely around the world, the majority are concentrated in just a handful of countries.

For practitioners of public diplomacy, the ability to accurately measure the effectiveness of PD has often been described as “the holy grail.” Yesterday at the Heritage Foundation, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine spoke about the necessity of public diplomacy and the metrics being used and developed for its evaluation.

The role of cultural diplomacy in building bridges among different people came under focus at a symposium organized by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Monday at the UN House in Mishref.