Armed with sharp knives and chopping boards, a new army of US diplomats is to begin navigating rough global waters. But they will more likely have mouths watering, than leave a sour taste behind. In her latest example of what she calls "smart power," the top US diplomat Hillary Clinton has recruited some of America's top chefs to help in her quest to spread US diplomacy and values around the world.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has added a culinary dimension to the exercise of "smart power" by enlisting 80 top chefs including an Indian-American in the aid of diplomacy....Mumbai native Vikram Sunderam, executive chef at Rasika, a top end Indian restaurant in Washington, is part of the State Department's new Diplomatic Culinary Partnership initiative.

Barack Obama is a smart guy. So why has he spent the last four years executing such a dumb foreign policy? True, his reliance on “smart power” -- a euphemism for giving the Pentagon a stake in all things global -- has been a smart move politically at home.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced today that musicians from 21 countries will travel to the United States to engage audiences as part of One Beat. Beginning September 10 in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, OneBeat, a cultural diplomacy initiative, will connect international musicians with American musicians and audiences, especially underserved youth.

“The best way to advance America's interests in reducing global threats and seizing global opportunities is to design and implement global solutions. ...We must use what has been called ‘smart power,’ the full range of tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural -- picking the right tool or combination of tools for each situation."

On August 10, 1878, along the shore of a hazy blue lake in southwestern New York state, a Methodist Bishop and his flock of summer retreat parishioners kicked off a book club with big ambitions. Their four year course of independent reading aimed to raise education levels all across small town and rural America. More than 8,400 people enrolled that first year, returning to their homes to start over 10,000 local “circles” by 1900.

Yesterday, Al Jazeera English aired a segment discussing the use of “smart power” in the Middle East. Smart power is the combined application of hard and soft power resources to accomplish an objective. It recognizes that neither hard nor soft power strategies are effective on their own in certain situations, and that these elements must complement each other in an effort to achieve a goal.

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates was a tireless advocate for better cooperation between our development, diplomatic and defense operations. This recognition really began to take shape in the Bush administration in the aftermath of 9/11, where the President recognized that...we need all of our foreign policy tools working together in what is known as the smart power approach.