As temperatures drop across the East Coast, where the clean up efforts from Super Storm Sandy are ongoing, stories of resilience are permeating online... When it comes to our election, we may be divided. But when our focus is rebuilding our communities, we are united. And this rebuilding effort is both amplified and orchestrated by social media.

When I think of the "implications for public diplomacy" in the wake of the 2012 election, I can only come with—zero, zip, zilch... All of this is to say that few elements of our foreign policy will, for awhile, be a significant part of our national conversation. Thus, a small subset of our foreign policy concerns, like public diplomacy, will be even less salient.

This week was actually a double-victory for Barak Obama, who won both the White House and the title of first Western leader to survive re-election for some time. According to the polls, it was also a victory for America's international appeal.

The legacy of ping-pong diplomacy has given the veteran player enduring enthusiasm for his sport as well as a range of activities aimed at strengthening China-US relations... Braithwaite continues to serve as a board member of the Sino-American Friendship Association, a nonprofit organization that promotes Chinese culture and China-US ties.

YouTube and the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs of India launched a unique initiative last night. Titled ‘India is...a visual journey’, this initiative is a global short film-making competition which invites filmmakers as well as amateurs from across the globe to make a short film celebrating India and her diversity.

China launched its first cultural industry index on Friday to provide an indicator of how the sector is performing... Experts said that OCT index will indicate the development level and trends of China's cultural industry, and reflect the operational and profitability situations of listed culture-related firms.

Soon, I realized that the event was not intended for Americans. It was to impress people from here in Jakarta: Invited Indonesians and Indonesians who read the news from the invited press. It was a showcase of American “soft power”, a term popularized by Joseph Nye, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

As temperatures drop across the East Coast, where the clean up efforts from Super Storm Sandy are ongoing, stories of resilience are permeating online: tales of New York City Marathon runners shifting gears from the cancelled event to volunteer efforts in Staten Island, tales of moms in New Jersey organizing clothing and supply drives to help those in the cold and dark, tales of musicians gathering in Brooklyn to entertain volunteers.