Gospel singer Roy Smith Mwatia better known Rufftone has been re-appointed Republic of Korea’s goodwill ambassador for public diplomacy. [...] the reason the Korean embassy re-appointed the legendary singer to the post was because of the role he played in influencing Kenyan youth positively and due to the passion for the task he (Rufftone) showed the previous year.

Friends of ESRA held their annual fundraising dinner on Thursday of last week to aid ESRA’s “Give a child a future” campaign, with MK Michael Oren delivering a speech on “The Israel-U.S. relationship.” [...] She added that Oren called on Israel to give more support to American Jewish students on the front lines of the public diplomacy battle.

President Barack Obama met his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro, on Tuesday at the United Nations — all smiles after both renewed their calls for an end to the US trade embargo against Havana.[...] “The president also highlighted steps the United States intends to take to improve ties between the American and Cuban peoples, and reiterated our support for human rights in Cuba,” it said. 

Japan is a strong target for refugee criticism because of its modest engagement in social media and global communications. Typically, it doesn’t proactively make its case to the world, largely allowing the international press and the Twitterverse to frame its issues for it. 

Public diplomacy (PD to its friends) is one of the less celebrated but more intriguing investments in U.S. foreign policy.  For decades, it has earned lasting allies for our country and helped multitudes understand and embrace our core values, including human rights, freedom of information, strong civil society and education for all.

Turning first to the question of whether the public is actually interested in climate change, Google web searches show that the countries searching most frequently on the topic tend to be those most affected by changing climatic conditions [...] This suggests that being affected by the phenomena increases public interest: it is not wealthy countries idly researching a topic they hear on the news, it is affected populations trying to understand more about what they are experiencing.

“China has conveyed kindness and goodwill to the world through the first lady’s public diplomacy”, and Peng has “enchanted local and foreign media”, according to a research from research by Renmin University of China, via CNBC.

.. [R]eal aid requires more than just good intentions, and a snapshot of the realities that all too often lie behind the heartwarming imagery and simplistic appeals to compassion used by aid advocates when selling the work of their vast global industry to the public.