"By sharing exercise goals and efforts with members from other countries and cultures, we are paring the spirit of the Olympics with the idea of walking in someone else's shoes." Hannah Rosenthal, Special Envoy to Combat and Monitor Anti-Semitism, U.S. Department of State.

The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has launched the Global Connections and Exchange program which uses technology and interactive projects to connect American secondary schools with international institutions...Other educational nonprofit organizations are involved in grassroots educational diplomacy initiatives.

The most-populous nation has been throwing tens of billions of dollars at its prestige deficit for a decade, all part of an effort to enhance China’s soft power, something of which the U.S., for all its crises, has a surplus.

Hollywood isn't just about money; it also exerts a quiet cultural power. Joe Biden was right when he credited "Will and Grace" with shifting popular attitudes towards homosexuality. Television has the power to acculturate and acclimatize viewers to social change.

As the two governments strengthen their bilateral relationship, the United States seeks to build on its engagement with the people of Burma through increased people-to-people exchanges. More than 1,400 Burmese civil society members, young leaders, students, and journalists are alumni of U.S. government exchange programs.

Foreign Affairs is axing a $5-million program that funds Canadian studies abroad...The "Understanding Canada" initiative, which began in the 1970s, was a $5-million expenditure that gave grants to foreign scholars to teach courses or hold special academic events about Canada in foreign countries.

With 523 Confucius Institutes around the world and 4359 titles in English on the life and teachings of the great seer on the Amazon database alone, Confucius is one of China's biggest exports to the world.

Aitken's jazz classes are part of American Voices' "YES Academy" or Youth Excellence on Stage. The U.S. funded non-profit offers free professional training in unique American performing arts such as hip hop and Broadway musicals. YES Academy also runs in Afghanistan, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan and Syria, but Aiken says they work the most with Iraq.