“When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on his 60th birthday on his Sina Weibo account on Wednesday (July 1), he once again showed the high value he attaches to diplomacy through social media accounts,” the Global Times stated.

Rarely has amateurism in American foreign policy in the Middle East been as glaring and shocking as it has been in the past year with regard to Washington’s policy toward ISIS. In the United States during the past two weeks I have had the opportunity to follow more closely than usual news, analysis and political discussions about how Washington should respond to the threat of ISIS, and the experience has been frightening.

U.N.: A military defeat of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq could scatter extremists around the globe. Would the world be a safer place if the United States and its allies were to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria? Not necessarily, according to a senior U.N. counterterrorism official. Extremist fighters have proven remarkably adept over the past three decades at transforming themselves at the close of battles.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to be combining a well-calibrated soft power push with his visit to China, leveraging social media, Bollywood and yoga to reach out to ordinary Chinese citizens.

New warnings from U.S. officials and lawmakers over tactics used by Islamic State online are putting renewed focus on the terror network’s activities. FBI Director James Comey warned Thursday that ISIS is increasing their reliance on social media to spread their “poison” message.

Ahead of his visit to China—from May 14 to 16—India’s social-media friendly Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined the Chinese social media platform Weibo to connect with Chinese citizens. (Hello China! Looking forward to interacting with Chinese friends through Weibo)”, Prime Minister said through his social media account.

The increasing availability of data is pushing the boundaries of what was once imagined possible in public diplomacy. Data science has the potential to draw large data sets into the study and practice of diplomacy, and allow diplomats and scholars to become comfortable engaging with and analyzing increasingly large and often unstructured data.