Part of the Empowering Women and Girls Through Sports Initiative, this exchange builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power,” which embraces the full range of diplomatic tools – in this case the game of basketball – to bring people together to foster greater understanding.

Unfavourable attention may have prompted China to become more public about its aid policy. Even with the will to boost aid transparency, China still faces a “diplomatic dilemma” in enforcing it: to meet compliance both sides must be willing and able, and recipient countries with weak governments often have poor aid oversight.

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo partnered with Share the Mic, a company that strategically matches emerging artists with non-profit causes, to develop the contest to empower Egyptian women...In this time of uncertainty and change, the Embassy developed an innovative program that delivers something young Egyptian women want: a platform to leverage their own voices.

Japan is known to use cherry trees as a gesture of goodwill, and in Washington DC, one beneficiary of Tokyo's flower power diplomacy, the blossom season is an annual party highlight. But in Taiwan, it is more than that.

Kony 2012 represents a successful utilisation of soft power and public diplomacy that may force Ugandan policymakers to react positively to the groundswell of interest in and scrutiny of Uganda. The video campaign inadvertently encourages Ugandans to reflect on the state of the country today, almost 50 years after independence.

Hedgecock’s visit is part of a project, initiated by the Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, to positively represent Israel to the international community.The project aims at bringing senior radio hosts from the United States to Israel, providing them with the opportunity and necessary tools to broadcast the facts to their American listening public.

Ambassador Alberto M. Fernandez today assumed the position of Coordinator of the Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications, which was established to coordinate, orient, and inform government-wide public communications activities directed at audiences abroad and targeted against violent extremists and terrorist organizations.