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.

The China Institute for International Communication Strategy (CIICS),co-sponsored by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA) and the Communication University of China (CUC), is dedicated to research in public diplomacy, promotion of culture, art, media relations and other related fields, according to its press release.

The bill, H.R.5736 — Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 (Introduced in House – IH), removes the prohibition on public diplomacy material from being available to people within the United States and thus eliminates an artificial handicap to U.S. global engagement while creating domestic awareness of international affairs and oversight and accountability of the same.

By investing in a sporting event the magnitude of the FIFA World Cup as part of its public and cultural diplomacy exercise, South Africa was able to promote the country’s passion for an international game and to portray South Africa as a hospitable nation and host to the world.

When the Arab Spring confronted the White House and State Department with the need to choose between embracing change and loyalty to the region's old guard the Obama administration chose change, albeit in the slowest and most cautious manner possible.