Bodies like the Sahitya Akademi, the Lalit Kala Akademi and the National Gallery of Modern Art opened their accounts on popular social media site Facebook some nine months ago. And while their pages are not very exciting, to get them moving in this direction was a feat in itself, accomplished largely due to the efforts of Abhay Kumar, former Deputy Secretary, Public Diplomacy, in the External Affairs Ministry, whose personal interest motivates him to keep nudging a sluggish bureaucracy.

DanceMotion USASM builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power” diplomacy, which embraces the full use of diplomatic tools, in this case dance, to engage people and create opportunities for greater understanding.

One reason for this is the issue of global power relations, which influence how markets are organised and who benefits from technological progress. Innovation systems are not neutral — the effects of purely market-led science and technology efforts and associated innovations tend to aggravate existing inequalities.

Particularly for practitioners of public diplomacy, understanding the role of religious faith in people’s lives is an essential part of crafting outreach efforts. In much of the world, secularism is viewed warily, seen as weakening the fabric of society, and so a respectful approach to religion is an essential element of diplomacy. Religion is not “mere sociology,” as the CIA reportedly referred to it prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution. Rather, it must be taken seriously as a foundation stone of international relations.

As proof that Chinese fans won’t lavish attention on a player simply because of his ethnic background Beyer pointed to Yi Jianlian. The Chinese-born power forward entered the NBA to much fanfare in 2007 only to fade quickly into anonymity after failing to impress on the court.

The symposium's two panels discussed the ways the United States could use technology to find and respond to atrocities. But in the high-profile use of social media during the Arab Spring, individuals in volatile political situations used their cellphones, the Internet and social media to highlight violence in their countries.