Recently, American Voices held its annual Youth Excellence on Stage (YES) Academy in the city of Duhok, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq... At American Voices, we believe that cultural diplomacy requires sustained engagement and as such this year marked our sixth summer performing arts academy program in Iraq.

“Min hem ya neem,” bellowed the baritone Kurdish Hamlet. To be or not to be—always a good question to be asked of any public diplomacy venture.

The agency is using social media to circumvent established news outlets in order to take its stories straight to an eager audience. That’s especially important at a moment when the general perception is that U.S. budget troubles, friendly relations with former space-race foes, and the Space Shuttle’s retirement have left the agency struggling for a new raison d’être.

"Our cause is to advance the Government's Economic Diplomacy", the Foreign Minister told the delegation when he formally received them yesterday at his Foreign Ministry office on Capitol Hill...In response, the Foreign Minister added that the Ministry's support to the initiative was not in isolation of the Government's action plan of actualizing its Economic Diplomacy.

Although coined by Joseph Nye, the practice of soft-power diplomacy is of course nothing new...However, it has never before served as the central tenant of American foreign policy strategy because previous administrations always recognized that soft-power diplomacy does not work in the absence of hard-power leverage.

The "Kung Fu Panda" movies, about a bumbling panda who becomes a martial arts hero, are hugely popular in China. They prompted debate about why a Hollywood studio was more successful than the country's own studios at creating a successful movie based on Chinese themes.

Today, the American Security Project released its report on the strategic necessity for strong American public diplomacy. The New Public Diplomacy Imperative examines many of the issues in contemporary public diplomacy, and recommends best practices for policy makers and public diplomacy practitioners.

“While this trip was monumental in itself with the partnerships that were developed, this year marks another special moment in the history of the Confucius Institute at WKU,” Martin said. “This year marks the official first full year of the summer camps provided by the Confucius Institute at WKU.”