Recently, the president of Iceland, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, was in Washington to announce the launch of a new group called the Arctic Circle, which would include all counties and entities interested in greater involvement in Arctic-related decision-making. The Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, proposed a series of reforms to US Arctic policy.

Media freedom is the moral equivalent of oxygen. It is how any free, healthy, vibrant and functioning society breathes, and it is essential to building civil societies. That applies to everything we say in public squares or type on our keyboards online.

Speaking at a forum in Washington DC, dedicated to transatlantic partnership, Plevneliev explained that from his own experience as former businessman, he learned that 70% of business success can be attributed to good communications and trust, which remained problematic for Bulgaria.

Petraeus’ appointment includes affiliations with the USC School of Social Work, including the program in military social work; the USC Price School of Public Policy; the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, including the program in public diplomacy

US Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine said Thursday that while the US will continue to campaign for internet freedom as important channel for public discourse, the same shouldn’t be used as a tool to attack others.

A White House plan to modernize the major U.S. food aid program, by donating cash rather than American-grown food, is in trouble after fierce lobbying by farm groups, food processors, shippers and others who set out to sink the idea months before it was unveiled in President Barack Obama's fiscal 2014 budget...It would be the biggest change since the Food for Peace program was created in a mixture of Cold War "soft" diplomacy.

Accusing the US of trying to impose "cultural colonialism" by unleashing its soft power to undermine China's political system, a top Chinese General today sought to counter western "cultural infiltration". "Western cultural infiltration techniques are very clever in their deception and hidden nature. This 'cultural colonialism' is like 'slowly boiling a frog': the young generation can easily lose its will to resist without knowing."

China and Russia, two of the world's pre-eminent authoritarian states, just don't get soft power. That, at least, is what Joseph Nye claims in a new commentary in Foreign Policy... China also has successes. What other state, I ask, has turned Asian authoritarianism and state-run capitalism into political brands that appeal to non-democratic states and rulers the world over? You can argue it undermines democratic governance, but you can't say they have not been effective - and kind of soft.