The government needs to establish a body dedicated to cultural diplomacy using the country’s soft power, a group of foreign affairs experts said Wednesday calling for a related law

Two and a half years after Obama came to office, raising expectations for change among many in the Arab world, favorable ratings of the United States have plummeted in the Middle East, according to a new poll conducted by Zogby International for the Arab American Institute Foundation.

Like all cultural exports, Southeast Asian contemporary art provides Association of Southeast Asian Nation members with a soft power mechanism for expanding international influence. Yet neither ASEAN nor the majority of ASEAN countries demonstrate a serious commitment to advancing their national interests through contemporary art. Singapore represents the clear exception.

Britain’s royals are – for now – here to stay. It is difficult to imagine London without Buckingham Palace, Trooping the Colours, the uniformed sentries, and all the pageantry that attends the royal family. Prince William and his bride, Kate, are without much of the baggage that attends some other members of the reigning court. Perhaps they may add luster to a crown that has become a little tarnished.

On Friday the Richard Nixon Foundation commemorated the 40th anniversary of what became known as pingpong diplomacy. The notion that sport could open a country seems outlandish on its face, but pingpong diplomacy is just one of several examples of sport influencing politics. Ultimately...sports' ability to humanize is part of the reason pingpong diplomacy can work.

July brings us our nation's birthday, which allows us to reflect on the beginning of America's history...The State Department's request of $2.14 billion for the contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities account, and recover $322 million cut from public diplomacy in 2008.

Today, the Soviet Union has vanished, and Chinese power is growing. Some in the US argue that China's rise cannot be peaceful, and that the US, therefore, should now adopt a policy of containing the People's Republic. Indeed, many Chinese officials perceive that to be the current American strategy.

Harvard professor Joseph Nye talks of a world shaped by the shifting distribution of power from West to East and the growing dispersal of power from state to citizens.The “Arab Spring” is the most spectacular example...