The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs is pleased to announce the selection of nine finalists for the Secretary of State’s prestigious 2014 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE).

A combination of the most delicious select dishes from tropical Indonesia, traditional dances, a fashion show of traditional attire and soothing music tunes — it was cultural diplomacy at its very best.

The Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, Richard Stengel, will travel to New Delhi, India, November 17-18, where he will meet with government officials, civil society leaders, educators and students, business leaders and entrepreneurs, and representatives of the media.

Gary Hart has become the latest in a line of U.S. Senators and diplomats to wend their way to Northern Ireland to serve in the role of adviser, negotiator, and conscience-in-chief to the political process in Stormont. 

This isn’t fusion cooking so much as look-what-happens-when-we-all-get-along cooking. Skipping across continents, he takes the food of his native land as well as its less-friendly neighbors, leaps to southeast Asia, and returns to host an informal brunch or an impromptu dinner party.

“[ISIS] is not only decapitating individuals, they’re trying to decapitate civilizations,” says Richard Stengel, the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. “They are purposely destroying monuments and relics, and trying to destroy some of the important symbolism of Islamic unity going all the way back to the 7th and 8th century.”