Under Secretary Sonenshine’s visit to India will highlight the breadth and depth of the U.S.-India people to people relationship, particularly our strong educational partnership. In New Delhi Under Secretary Sonenshine will lead the U.S. delegation to the Government of India conference “Mainstreaming Skills in Education” on February 6-7, where she will deliver remarks on our support for India’s development of community colleges and the expansion of skills development education.

As part of the new year festivities, Culture Posts is focusing on the relatively new concept – relationalism – and its implications for public diplomacy. Relationalism is still so new it is not yet in the dictionary. It is only beginning to make its debut in academic journals.

What is perhaps most ironic about relationalism is that it appears to have been hiding in plain sight. All that was needed to see it was a different perspective or lens.

A 3rd Dimension

As the chief diplomat during Obama's second term and the representative for the diplomatic image of the United States in the international arena in the future, what an "American face" will the new Secretary of State put on?

Last summer, as the fighting in Syria raged and questions about the United States’ inaction grew, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton conferred privately with David H. Petraeus, director of the CIA. The two officials were joining forces on a plan to arm the Syrian resistance. The idea was to vet the rebel groups and train fighters, who would be supplied with weapons. The plan had risks, but it also offered the potential reward of creating Syrian allies with whom the United States could work, both during the conflict and President Bashar Assad’s eventual removal.

Phone calls to the political leaders of Israel and Palestine were among John Kerry's first diplomatic duties as he bedded in to his new job as secretary of state this weekend. Kerry told Mahmoud Abbas that he was "very interested in the peace process and aware of the economic hardships of the Palestinian people", according to Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabel Abu Rdeneh.

High design, quality craftsmanship and philanthropy collide in a recent collaboration for ARZU Studio Hope, a nonprofit aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty and bringing empowerment to Afghan women weavers. It all began when Chicago architects Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry enlisted the help of other internationally-renowned designers to create custom pieces for the organization's Masters Collection.

A study due to be released on Monday is expected to take both Israel and the Palestinians - but especially the latter - to task for how they portray the other side in school textbooks. The project, conducted by researchers in the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, was funded by the U.S. State Department.

In the past few months Vladimir Putin has terminated the work in Russia of the U.S. Agency for International Development, ended American adoptions of Russian children and, most damagingly, drastically reduced the audience and credibility of U.S. broadcaster Radio Liberty, driving a wedge between it and some of Russia’s most renowned human rights activists and journalists.