If you give us nature, we travelers will come. We will come to take pictures, to be close to wildlife, to learn about different cultures or, in growing numbers, to help. When I went to Namibia in the summer of 2009, I spent two weeks in a volunteer program that is helping to bring back the country's big cat population.

Though many in the international press corps believe that President Obama was treated disrespectfully in Cambodia on Friday, it may be Obama who gets the last laugh.

The Trey McIntyre Project will bring its unique style of contemporary ballet to Kingsbury Hall this week. It’s easy to see that this isn’t a company that rides on its laurels: All three of the ballets on the program were choreographed in 2012, including "The Unkindness of Ravens," which premiered earlier this month at New York’s highly acclaimed Brooklyn Academy of Music.

And so, the question arises: Are women better diplomats than men? Some say the answer is absolutely yes. Some will say definitely not. The last two secretaries of the U.S. State Department have been women. Both strongly believed in the nation's two longest wars.

That was the message that China sought to convey to President Barack Obama as he completed his eight-hour visit to Yangon (Rangoon) on November 19,2012, during which he met President Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and addressed the students of the Rangoon University.

In bizarre news of the day, the U.S. Department of State of has named Andrew W.K. the Cultural Ambassador to the Middle East. "This is a tremendous invitation," W.K. said in a statement on his website. "I'm very thankful to the Department of State for giving me the opportunity to visit a place I've never been before."

The U.S. Ambassador labored to get Congress to ratify a trade treaty that would grant “favored nation” status to Russia. Washington’s leading newspaper harshly criticized Russia for human rights violations. Russia’s secret police were reading all the Ambassador’s mail. The Czar was convinced that Washington was fomenting democracy rebellions inside his empire.

Indonesia was not on US President Barack Obama’s Southeast Asian itinerary as he made his first trip abroad since winning reelection. But like many visitors to Southeast Asia, he might have enjoyed a brief respite from worries back home when he was in our region.