And we need effective international partners in government and civil society who can extend this effort to all the places where terrorists operate. To achieve these ends requires smart power, a strategy that integrates all our foreign policy tools...

Even if Boko Haram expand its operations and establish significant contacts with international terrorist organizations, the Obama administration should not let counterterrorism considerations trump these public diplomacy strategies.

nARCHITECTS, a burgeoning Brooklyn studio...has sent us images of its latest work: an arched bamboo pavilion designed to raise awareness about a Taiwanese forest under siege. The Forest Pavilion was conceived for an arts festival organized to promote preserving the landscape as a forest.

We cannot tolerate a new candidate for membership of the EU that is bringing in a frozen conflict ... You cannot have it both ways - candidate status moving nicely along and at the same time having a stranglehold on northern Kosovo. That sentiment is shared by a number of EU countries,

Low public support has been an issue from time to time. Here in this country we have two offices, and one includes an information center. So we are in public diplomacy. On that one I could also say that sometimes I could wish on more engagement on Ukrainian side.

On the tenth anniversary of 9/11, Arabs opinion is, in my view, unduly harsh on a well-intentioned president. After all, the president is fulfilling his commitment to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, and is certainly not meddling in the Middle East to prop up unpopular dictators...

U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, who has made a name for himself in recent weeks for his risky visits to remote cities where a popular anti-government uprising has grown violent and deadly, posted a message on Facebook late Thursday...

Since 9/11, American views of Islam have grown more negative. However, views of Arab and Muslim people are moderately warm, and majorities continue to feel that the attacks of 9/11 do not represent mainstream thinking within Islam...