To the average American, the term intelligence agency refers to a group of secret military types, locked in a windowless room in Virginia, furtively collecting data on bad guys, good guys, citizens, everybody. That data is delivered up the chain in manila envelops marked “Top Secret.” There’s still some truth to that stereotype (apparently, they get to have windows now) but Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, or NGA, is hoping to secure an unconventional legacy as a spy chief.

The Israeli government has launched a public diplomacy campaign to discredit the legitimacy of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) recent decision to start an inquiry into what the Palestinians call Israeli “war crimes” in Judea and Samaria.

Next week, President Barack Obama will be the “chief guest” at India’s Republic Day, the annual celebration of the 1950 Indian Constitution. The visit is expected to usher in a new, positive era in India-U.S. relations at a time when a majority of Indians have a favorable view of the United States and a majority of Americans express a positive opinion of India.

The public affairs office of the US consulate general Chennai has invited applications for two grant opportunities -- 'Cyber-Security Research and Innovation Contest' and 'Public Diplomacy Small Grants.' 

The explosion in digital warfare tops the list of public diplomacy developments around the world in 2014, as identified by the University of Southern California’s Center for Public Diplomacy (CPD). Information operations by non-state and state actors alike have become a major factor in the 21st century.

On International Migrants Day 2014 (December 18), Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) William Lacy Swing wrote in a New York Times op-ed that 2014 was “the deadliest year for migrants on record” characterized by “unprecedented anti-migrant sentiment worldwide.”