It is not just in the realm of hard power that the United Kingdom is becoming dangerously weakened; many of our most important soft power assets are also being reduced. This ignores a very important and unchanging fact: ultimately it is power that underpins the prosperity and freedoms that so many of us take for granted.

Tokyo's announcement over the weekend that it will bid for the 2020 Olympics is intended to show the world it can recover and stage a successful Games after the devastation caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Alec Ross is U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's senior adviser for innovation -- a job that has him developing new and innovative ways to use technology to promote American diplomatic efforts. Ross told an RFE/RL correspondent that U.S. efforts to safeguard Internet freedom are not aimed at promoting regime change in authoritarian countries like Iran.

The Vatican - once the world’s premier art patron - is again reaching out to artists, organizing an exhibit of contemporary works. Sixty living artists, including two Americans, were invited to reflect on the theme of truth and charity. The exhibit is part of the Vatican’s bid to reconcile with contemporary art.

A documentary about the 1994 Rwanda genocide, "Raindrops Over Rwanda," premieres online July 18. Nonprofit group Explore.org, which produced the documentary, will donate $1 for every Facebook "like" to Rwanda’s Kigali Genocide Memorial Center – up to $50,000. The Facebook page is run by a Rwandan genocide survivor who serves as a tour guide at the genocide memorial center.

Ireland Reaching Out is hoping to raise funds to expand to the rest of Galway and serve as a central Web site and database for similar reverse genealogy efforts elsewhere in the country. And by appealing to the Irish to come home, if only for a visit, the project could even help revive the local economy.

The results of a new Zogby poll confirm that attitudes toward the United States among Arab populations are as negative as ever. If the United States wants to repair its tattered image in the Arab world (and elsewhere), it needs to dramatically change its policies, not just have political leaders occasionally deliver nice-sounding speeches.

While religion can be a cause of conflict, it carries political leverage that many say makes it a source for solutions and a tool for peace building. "We are giving a whole government effort to put religion on the table," said the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook...