On March 14 Burmese state TV allowed something that would have been unthinkable...First of all, the generals want to show that they're capable of holding free and fair elections, since that's the only way that they'll get the U.S. and the European Union to lift the sanctions they imposed on Burma years ago.

If you're like us, hopelessly addicted to checking our smartphones every two seconds, you may think the answer is obvious: Use technology to spread the message. Post your thoughts to Twitter and Facebook and hope that others will follow suit.

Public Diplomacy is one of the new trends in international relations. To begin, let’s settle on a simple definition of Public Diplomacy, “that element of diplomacy that involves a government reaching out to a public, rather than to another government.”

I confess that I have not been thinking much about whether the Brits will be able to top, or at least equal the Chinese in skillfully using the occasion of the Summer Olympics as a platform to advance their top line public diplomacy objectives.

I am writing today from the world city of London.

Nicholas J. Cull, CPD University Fellow and Director of the Master's of Public Diplomacy Program at USC will speak at Shanghai Jiao Tong University on "Public Diplomacy: Its General Foundations & Evaluating China’s PD" on Sunday, March 18, 2012.

Azerbaijan's authorities have intensified their efforts to improve the country's image abroad, hiring PR companies and lobbyists around Europe to burnish its image. Lavish business meetings and events ostensibly dedicated to culture are meant to boost the country's image abroad...