U.S. President Barack Obama will appear in public at an event attended by the Dalai Lama in Washington in the coming week, the White House said Friday, a move sure to anger Beijing.

Japan’s latest hostage crisis has exposed shortcomings in Japan’s public diplomacy and raises questions about the advice Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received in publicly announcing $200 million in humanitarian aid to help those displaced by conflict with the Islamic State group.

Japan is stepping up a campaign to promote a “correct understanding” of its wartime past, in a move that may anger China and South Korea ahead of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in August. 

And Obama didn't just lecture on the need for tolerance of religious minorities. He spoke of the importance of women's rights in a country where shocking abuses still endure. (...) These are unobjectionable remarks, and a point of view shared by likely everyone who crowded in to hear the American president speak. But don't expect Obama to share the same message with the United States' Saudi partners, whose cooperation on matters of counterterrorism in the Middle East and energy policy are vital for Washington's interests.

A good Muslim engagement strategy supported by the U.S. proved effective in 2005 in Belgium in creating a model for how to engage 500,000 Muslims largely from Turkey and Morocco. The U.S. Embassy in Brussels, together with nongovernmental organizations and private sponsors from the United States and Belgium, brought together an impressive group of American Muslims to meet with an equally impressive group of Belgian Muslims to discuss everyday practical issues regarding Muslim participation in society.