The program, a public-private partnership established by John F. Kennedy in 1963, has been sending artists and their works to U.S. missions across the globe as part of an initiative to foster U.S. public diplomacy through art.

In our hyper-connected world, the world has become a geospatial pinball machine, ringing and pinging with security, economic and cultural connections and implications for all of us; and that ball never stops coming around. So it is very much in our interests to engage fully, energetically, and creatively. There is no more urgent region for such U.S. engagement than the Middle East and North Africa.

In a ruling that could have dramatic consequences for online news agencies and digital journalists, a judge ruled Tuesday that two news outlets should have asked permission before using a Twitter picture from a photojournalist. According to the court's ruling, Agence France-Press violated the copyright of photojournalist Daniel Morel by taking photos of a 2010 earthquake in Haiti that he tweeted and disseminating them without permission via Getty.

Sonoman Bill Boerum was the final and featured dinner speaker on Saturday night at the 50th anniversary celebration of the Culver City Sister City Committee. Boerum is vice chairman of the board of directors of Sister Cities International, a Washington, and D.C. based organization promoting citizen diplomacy.

Eugenie Moore Anderson emerged a trailblazer for American women in international diplomacy during the post-World War II era. In 1949 she became the first American woman to hold the rank of ambassador. Helen Eugenie Moore, who went by Eugenie, was born in Adair, Iowa, in 1909. After attending Simpson College, Moore left Iowa and transferred to Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she planned on a career in music.

Over the past two years, the Obama administration has focused greater diplomatic attention and military resources on East Asia as part of a policy described as a "pivot" or "rebalancing." While American leaders are loath to admit it publicly, this is a response to China's growing influence, particularly Beijing's territorial claims around its borders.

Many of his areas of focus for security are non-military: He advocates for more language training, greater commitment to trade, thoughtfulness on energy policy, better public diplomacy, and a focus on working through coalitions to share burdens and create sustainable successes.