Across America, anticipation is running high for next month's U.S. release of Downton Abbey season three. To celebrate, we held a Downton-themed party on Thursday evening at the Ambassador's Residence in Washington.

As the phenomenon known as the Korean Wave, or "Hallyu" in the native tongue, grows in popularity throughout the world, South Korea is hoping to use its pop culture's recent fame to promote public diplomacy, especially in Latin America where the Asian culture is truly beginning to be embraced.

Audiences in Burma will soon have a new way to watch Voice of America television programs following a breakthrough agreement between the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the U.S. government agency responsible for VOA, and Sky Net, a regional direct-to-home satellite provider.

U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Platt, Vassar’s first “Ambassador-in-Residence”, made students aware of the rewards of a career in foreign service­­­—part of which is being able to bring back roadmaps from those paths less traveled.

While the world watched the demise of Egypt’s political leadership last year, some Egyptians were tuning online to YouTube clips lampooning the Egyptian state channel’s fumbling version of the events. In early 2011, Bassem Youssef began filming clips in his laundry room to provide comic relief amid a crumbling political situation in his home countr

Last week, the Pew Research Center released its annual survey of European attitudes to America. While anti-Americanism has declined in Europe, a large "values gap" remains between Europeans and Americans. Meanwhile, anti-Americanism in the rest of the world seems actually to have increased since 2009, with confidence in President Obama noticeably down, especially in Muslim countries. Will America's reputation and influence abroad improve under Barack Obama's second term?

Ravi Shankar has passed away. He will of course be best remembered as one of the first and longest lasting global rock stars of Indian classical music – if the world knows what a sitar is, if the strains of the sitar are used in pop culture to suggest eastern mysticism, it is likely due to Ravi Shankar.

Concern lingers within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that China could use its widening trade and investment ties as a political tool, and Japan needs to regain its soft power through more non-economic engagement with the region, experts from Southeast Asia said at a recent symposium in Tokyo.