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.

Starting next September 50 students and 10 faculty members from China's Ningxia University will study for nearly a year at Missouri State University to burnish their agricultural, English and teaching skills. 

The U.S. Department of State and USAID are supporting a wide range of programs and other initiatives to advance the themes of the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), with particular attention to topics discussed during the February 19 ministerial meeting at the Department of State.

He wouldn’t put it this way, but Secretary of State John Kerry announced this week that the U.S. government will turn the screws on India over the country’s environmental record. In a joint event, the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency declared that they will install air pollution monitoring devices on more U.S. embassies around the world and release their findings. 

Richard Stengel, who left his job as managing editor of TIME magazine in 2013 to become Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Obama administration, said ISIS conquering land is an "opportunity" because "it's easier to combat people holding land and trying to government it than it is to combat people who are non-state actors."

A University of Kansas professor has taken part in an exchange between North Korean and American scientists that shows science and empathy toward another’s worldview can be the first step in thawing icy diplomatic relations.

Sponsored by GlobalTies U.S., the Feb. 4 event – “Strengthening Relations in the Western Hemisphere through Exchange” – attracted about 350 people. Coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program, its focus was the role public diplomacy plays in U.S. foreign policy.