Chang highlighted the shortcomings of the “al-Kitaab” textbook series, which graces the shelves of college bookstores fromStanford, CA to Medford, Mass. She pointed out how early chapters of the textbook, which in congruent levels of learning Spanish or French would include colors and months, are riddled with vocabulary about the United Nations, the State Department and diplomacy.

During the 1950s, there was a term that was sometimes used to describe people who were exploited by Soviet communists to publicly support their ideology. The term was “useful idiots.” The phrase, like communism itself, has largely disappeared from use, but there are still plenty of useful idiots around. If you don’t believe it, just spend some time watching RT.

The New York-based Human Rights Foundation and Forum 280, a Silicon Valley nonprofit, have teamed up to launch a program that will collect donated USB flash drives, load them with content ranging from "South Korean soap operas to Hollywood films to Korean-language versions of Wikipedia to interviews with North Korean defectors," and smuggle them into the North for ordinary North Koreans to enjoy.

Across America, sushi is getting reimagined, often in outlandish ways. […] But none of them are authentically Japanese — not even the beloved California roll […] A new program from the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will certify that Japanese restaurants operating outside the country uphold the values of traditional Japanese cuisine, known as washoku.

Ugandan women’s rights groups are setting up a control centre to monitor any violence against women in the East African nation’s elections this month and to act quickly on any reports. The move comes after the United States voiced concern that the electoral environment in Uganda was deteriorating in the run-up to the Feb. 18 elections

A handful of young immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States from México as children will now have the opportunity to travel to reconnect with their roots, improve their Spanish proficiency and learn about their homeland.
 

Smart power is needed to defeat terrorism. Smart power is the ability to combine hard military and police power and the soft power of attraction and persuasion.

...[D]emocratic governments need to apply some of the street-level lessons activists have learned to the arena of geo-strategy and public diplomacy. Don’t be intimidated and stand up for your cause — but also don’t let yourself be dragged into endlessly trying to debunk the dictator’s fantasies. Instead, focus on developing an alternative vision that would enable a country like Serbia or Russia to flourish by treating its civil society as a legitimate partner, developing positive relationships with its neighbors, and joining the international community.