WASHINGTON --- Tara Sonenshine, nominated to serve as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, offered advice this morning to public diplomacy observers: Watch China.

“We are challenged every day by what the Chinese are doing in public diplomacy,” she said.

APDS Blogger: Marissa Cruz-Enriquez

“They are thirsty for information. They are thirsty for technology. Our big issue is access,” García Pérez said during a conference on the need for technological change in Cuba. He said, for example, Radio and TV Marti content is being distributed in Cuba via DVDs, flash drives and mobile devices.

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.