With more constraints on government resources and increasing public demand for information, "the ability to mobilize human and informational resources efficiently will only increase in importance," he adds. Knowledge management was the first use of eDiplomacy at the department, writes Hanson.

DUBAI --- From boil to simmer and back again. It never ends. Political passions in the Middle East do not cool.

I have been visiting Arab countries frequently during the past five years, which certainly does not make me an expert. But I have been here often enough to pick up on the change in mood during the past few months. The cautious hopefulness that flowered after the Arab uprisings of 2011 has withered, replaced by a fearful fatalism about what lies ahead.

As with many new things, a lot of foreign ministries were initially skeptical of ediplomacy. What did 140 character messages and social media have to do with serious diplomacy? There have now been more than enough social media infused international crises to silence those critics.

Images of the charred U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, flashed around the world as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton entered the Treaty Room in Washington and spoke about the deaths of four Americans there. “Today, many Americans are asking, indeed I asked myself, how could this happen?” Clinton said.

The Celtic Connection, one of the Scotland’s biggest roots music and arts festival supported by the government Scottish Arts Council, yesterday signed an agreement with the Rajasthan International Folk Festival (RIFF) to promote exchanges between roots musicians of Rajasthan and the Celtic regions of Britain.

Through generations, our great nation has been asked great questions -- and we have answered them. Could we feed a people on this driest of lands? Could we unite a nation on a continent without the pressures of revolution or war? Could we carry our weight in the world and fight for the freedom of our friends? Could we defend ourselves in our greatest hour of need? Could we rebuild after decades of Depression and war? Could we embrace change and find new sources of wealth in demanding new times? Could we say Sorry?

While an October exhibition of Macedonian medieval manuscripts in Brussels incited protests from the government in Sofia over historical issues, there is another collection of texts in the country about which relatively little is known- that is, Macedonia’s Islamic manuscript collection, a legacy from Ottoman times. In this intriguing new interview, Balkanalysis.com Director Chris Deliso gets the insights of Prof. Dr. Mesut Idriz, an expert on the subject who has done considerable research on the history, identity and preservation possibilities of Islamic manuscripts from Macedonia.

The Israeli instrumentalis Avner Hodorov is expected in Luanda on October 31 to be part of “Ponte Cultural” project of the Angolan music house. This was said to Angop this Sunday by the promoter of the event Giyora Arbiser. According to him, the visit of Avner Hodorov will contribute to the cultural interchange between Angola and Israel.