united states

An intrepid group of seven Explorer Scouts from the Newbury and Kennet district have just returned from a successful trip to Uganda where they spent 18 days helping to build and refurbish schools in Butagaya and Iwololo. The project was undertaken in partnership with charity Soft Power Education, which works with communities in Uganda to improve their quality of life through education.

If Congress rejects the deal, we will project globally an America that is internally divided, unreliable, and dismissive of the views of those with whom we built Iran’s sanctions architecture in the first place. I and other American diplomats around the world draw every day on our nation’s soft power, which greatly enhances our ability to mobilize other countries to our side.

As the diplomatic apparatus of the United States, the State Department is directly involved in putting a friendly face on empire, concealing its underlying mechanics. Every year, more than $1 billion is budgeted for “public diplomacy,” a circumlocutory term for outward-facing propaganda. Public diplomacy explicitly aims to influence journalists and civil society, so that they serve as conduits for State Department messaging.

After conducting a six-year study, David Vine, professor of anthropology at American University, has published a new book titled Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World in which he argues that military bases abroad are undermining U.S. national security and American soft power abroad.

Sports and the passion that surrounds it is a universal language. This summer, a widely anticipated basketball game in the capital city of Belarus pitted former NBA players against the national team of Belarus, but behind the picks, assists and dunks was an exercise in evangelism and diplomacy.

A big part of Otakon is how it’s planned and managed by volunteers. Longtime anime and manga fans working in various fields are joined by many young people, showing their respect for the Japanese pop culture that has greatly influenced their identities. The event venue is filled with their love for otaku culture.

The 2015 Milwaukee Film Festival is taking a trip to the other Great White North — Sweden. The Scandinavian cinema powerhouse will be the focus of the festival's fifth Passport program, the film festival announced Tuesday.

Although plenty of Americans figure into the picture, some of the brightest stars come from as far as Trinidad, France and Azerbaijan. The groups cover a wide gamut of subgenres, but what they all have in common is a critical element of jazz swing at their core.

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