With a slightly strong ‘A’ grade, the kingdom is ranked 31st globally in the ranking conducted by Bloom Consulting, a Spain-based consulting firm specializing in nation branding and destination branding with offices in Madrid, Lisbon and Sao Paulo.

The recent rise in global terrorism is alarming, but it also reaffirms the failure of our purely hard military approach to counter the phenomenon.

The concert last Friday was the first by an American musician in Iran since the 1979 revolution. Officials from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance sat in the front row, nodding their heads to renditions of tunes by Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Mr. Belden’s own compositions. The Iranians who filled the 1,200-seat theater clapped and cheered. 

In foreign policy today—especially the open-sourced, open-marketed version we now know as modern public diplomacy, small is beautiful, nimble is necessary, and bold can be risky. The Abe Doctrine combines two slogans (a) Beautiful Japan with (b) Bold Japan.

This week, the U.S. government announced preparations to beef up its online campaign against extremist groups, especially the one known as the Islamic State, ISIS, or ISIL. Social media — especially Twitter — has become a powerful tool for extremists looking to lure potential recruits into the organization.

This month, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst stopped admitting Iranian citizens to its science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs. (...) After consultation with the State Department, the university announced this week that it has reversed its decision.

Efforts to combat ISIS propaganda have been unified under a newly expanded State Department center. Kelly McEvers speaks with Richard Stengel, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, about the challenge that new center is tasked with.