NEW DELHI: Cultural ties between India and Russia have got a boost with the signing of a protocol between both the countries for a festival to be held Oct 24- Nov 4 in New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai.

Youth hockey players from across the US have arrived in Russia to take part in a trading program between the two nations and meet up with their idols, Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk. ­The Russian stars, who are playing in the KHL during the NHL lockout, are busy both on and off the ice.

In a visit aimed at consolidating and deepening China’s diplomatic, economic and "soft power" presence in South Asia, a top Chinese official will visit Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives in a three-nation tour starting on Wednesday.

The U.S. Department of State announced that Haitian performers Compagnie de Danse Jean-René Delsoin will travel to communities across America as part of a cultural diplomacy initiative, Center StageSM, October 16 - November 10, 2012.

...If we want our people-to-people exchanges to remain central to our public diplomacy engagement, we have to open new channels. We have to communicate government to people, and people to people. And one of the best ways we can leverage those conversations is through social media and other connective technologies, such as video teleconferencing.

Mr. Schwartz is a career public diplomacy official who has served in Pakistan, India, Israel and South Africa... Some said Mr. Schwartz was among the first in the U.S. government to understand how the U.S.-made online clip would likely fuel unrest in the Mideast.

The U.S. Department of State and the Vital Voices Global Partnership will conduct follow-on training in Nairobi, Kenya for the 2012 African Women’s Entrepreneurship Program (AWEP) International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumnae, October 15-19, 2012.

Since at least the late 2000s, I have been observing – sometimes organizing, and sometimes participating in – diverse forums featuring different combinations of politicos, policy decision-makers, academics, and applied practitioners, which have broached the relationship between “culture” and “security,” sometimes in overlapping but often in notably different ways.