Do they threaten US national security or are they simply a US national embarrassment? One test is to see if the cables show a secret diplomacy that is at serious odds with the public.

Part I of this series examined the relationships – or lack thereof – between diplomacy, science and international policy, and noted the serious image problems which plague all three enterprises. These difficulties have hobbled the practice of science diplomacy...

But quietly, India has been embedding itself as a soft power through its prophet of non-violence. In the last decade, statues and busts of Mahatma Gandhi have been installed by scores of cities -- from Trujillo in Peru to Osnabrueck in Germany -- to honour what could arguably be India's greatest export: Gandhian philosophy.

Mark Thompson last week used his first speech since the government's dramatic decision to freeze the licence fee for six years to welcome the World Service back into the BBC fold...The problem is that by the time it takes on responsibilty for the organisation, it may already have shrunk as a result of Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) cuts.

Copenhagen remains a strong brand, but despite spending 400 million kroner on branding the country overall, the Denmark still has a lackluster image abroad...Denmark’s position on the Anholt-GfK Ropers Nation Branding Index hasn’t changed at all over the past few years.

The diplomatic cable urged US to consider a new raft of anti-Bin Laden propaganda through the Voice of America radio station, interviews with Bin Laden victims, "commissioned articles" in the local press and an anti-Bin Laden website.

At dinner in Prague with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s president, Jeff Gedmin, and half a dozen RFE/RL staffers, Gedmin said, to no one in particular, “Do you think at any time in the future history will look back and say, ‘I wish they hadn’t broadcast so much information’?”

Public diplomacy -- defined by the State Department as "engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences" -- has become increasingly passé among American officials, scholars, and NGOS as a term and activity used to define how America should communicate with the outside world.