But in recent months, Mr. Morales and other Latin American leaders with frosty ties to Washington have begun to recognize the benefit of engagement, much of it transactional. [...] This shift is the result of discreet and pragmatic American diplomacy that in recent years has begun to alter the image of the United States as an overbearing, entitled neighbor.

National efforts to put a price on carbon in the United States largely petered out years ago, but the climate policy is gaining traction in a handful of states out west. The governors of California, Washington, and Oregon, along with the premier of British Columbia in Canada, signed an agreement Monday to coordinate efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the region. Washington and Oregon will aim to implement their own pricing structures to mimic those already in place in California and British Columbia.

California recently made foreign-policy history by becoming the first sub-national government to sign an agreement with China’s powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which oversees the country’s economic growth. Just as significant is the objective: fighting climate change by circumventing deadlocked decision-making in Washington and Beijing.

The presence and power of social networks to shape events emerged clearly during the first phase of the Arab Spring, and will continue to evolve as a tool for strategic diplomacy... The e-diplomacy hub opens a real-time window onto this world, and allows the user to interact with it as well.