A newly-minted U.S. cultural ambassador, McBride's job is to showcase American culture by engaging audiences in nations of strategic importance to the U.S. After Labor Day, Mary McBride and her band take their State Department-sponsored charm offensive to Libya and Afghanistan, among other countries.

Many Americans think that the United States' primary role in the world is the projection of military might. And while the "hard power" represented by drone strikes and aircraft carriers is essential to our security, living and portraying our values is as - if not more - important in the long run.

In his book, “A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia,” Aaron L. Friedberg says American diplomats are far too concerned with getting along with this Asian economic juggernaut at the expense of U.S. security interests.

A whole set of factors pertaining to style, discourse, image and public diplomacy come into play here that must be analyzed carefully to reach a sound conclusion as it pertains the external effectiveness of Ahmadinejad and his overall legacy as two-term president of the Islamic Republic in a crucial era.

Among changes the State Department implemented was expanding a list of prohibited jobs to include manufacturing, construction and agriculture. The program also bans participants from working in the sex industry.

The GIST initiative forges links at the individual and institutional levels among technology entrepreneurs, angel investors, and the marketplace...In Africa, GIST is powered by LIONS@FRICA, a Department of State public-private partnership that shares the GIST mission to create economic opportunity through innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Tech@State keynote by Beth Simone Noveck, former deputy Chief Technology Officer at the White House, will start at 11:30 a.m...Subsequent sessions will explore the potential for wikis to increase collaboration among institutions, enhance the flow of information in local communities, foster internal collaboration and increase inter-agency cooperation.

Russia's new NGO law is more than a move against organizations receiving foreign funding. It is part of a broader campaign to squeeze out those the Kremlin sees as peddlers of "soft power." The law, pushed through Russia's lower house, would see groups receiving funding from abroad dubbed "foreign agents."