The members of the band Della Mae come from all over the United States: Vermont, South Carolina, Colorado, Wyoming and Washington State. And they are steeped in the Appalachian bluegrass tradition. You can’t get much more American than that. Perhaps that’s why the US State Department selected Della Mae to be America’s cultural ambassadors to Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The band calls it their “‘Stan Tour.”

When students from different cultures come together in an academic setting, it fuels an intellectual exchange that sparks innovation, said Allan E. Goodman, president and chief executive officer of the Institute of International Education (IIE), in a press release. Goodman's statement coincided with the release of the IIE's 2012 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange.

When it comes to table tennis, the United States is not exactly a world power. At the elite level, immigrant talent has long been welcomed. The entire American team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics was born in China. But an immigration case involving an Iranian table tennis player has raised question about exactly what status an international athlete must achieve before being granted preferential entry into the United States.

Taking advantage of activity surrounding the Chinese American Film Festival (Oct. 25-Nov. 30) and American Film Market (Oct. 31-Nov. 7), Asia Society Southern California staged its third U.S.-China Film Summit at UCLA Covel Commons, with three panels of U.S. and Chinese film entrepreneurs in co-production, globalization of talent and investments.

As Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs at the United States Department of State, I work to build meaningful relationships and mutual understanding between citizens of our country and others. That is what we call public diplomacy. And we do this by joining and expanding a global conversation with people everywhere – both face to face, through educational and cultural exchanges, and through social media.

Easily overlooked amid the flurry of reforms in Myanmar, a diplomatic retooling is taking place at the US Embassy in Yangon. Cubicles that were once empty have found new occupants, relationships that had turned cold during two decades of political isolation are thawing and public diplomacy is flourishing.

Under other circumstances, advancing understanding of America through American Corners and Centers, of which the State Department has more than 800 throughout the world, is a great idea. But certainly not where the most basic security is missing, leaving State Department personnel dangerously exposed.