Then in early June, Li Congjun, president of the extraordinarily important Chinese global news service, Xinhua, published a statement in the Wall Street Journal as part of the process of being more public... Li declared a set of principles that, he thought, should govern information flows in the next several decades.

Germans are right to press for more cohesive European governance. It also might help Germany get along better with others. Germany is Europe’s powerhouse economy and preeminent political force, but lately it hasn’t won laurels for statecraft.

It's hard to argue that the rise of China, taken on the whole, is anything but good for the global economy. Yet few people see China that way. Instead, they focus on the competition China has created, or the jobs many believe China has “stolen.” However, even those who realize, or even directly benefit from, China's advance still can't but feel uneasy about that advance.

The significance of the bipartisan rebuke of Obama and the broad consensus of the international community is evident in Netanyahu’s specific lines that received the most enthusiastic applause - when he defied Obama's suggestion that the 1967 borders be the basis of negotiations.

Aware of its need to project its soft power, the Chinese government has put out advertisements and expanded a whole department of the Chinese Ministry of Education to recruit teachers and send them out to foreign countries around the world, promoting the teaching of Mandarin.

If there's one thing the average American and Pakistani can agree on, it's that they don't like each other's countries very much. According to a Pew Global Attitudes survey, only 11% of Pakistanis hold a favorable view of the United States. But they still need each other.

Australia's image and influence in the world depends on the quality of its international strategic thinking, foreign policy making and actions. The dumbing down of democracy is having a detrimental impact on the quality of Australia's foreign policies.

Israeli officials are already trying to use the opening of the crossing for public diplomacy, arguing that a planned new flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists with supplies for Gaza is a political provocation rather than a humanitarian mission.