The initiative, a key diplomatic effort by the State Department, aims to engage young girls and women on how success in athletics can develop important life skills and improve academic achievement. It also is designed to increase cross-cultural understanding between international participants and Americans.

Skeptics around the world question the motives of countries including the U.S. that take their music or theater abroad. But veteran diplomats say there's ample evidence that cultural exchanges pay off, that exposing other nations to American culture and nurturing cultural institutions in other countries are important elements of foreign policy.

Not long after becoming secretary of state in 2009, Clinton took up the cookstove cause, one of what she describes as “smart power” issues — though skeptical veterans of American foreign policy tend to deride them as soft more than smart.

What the U.S. should do is incorporate the space program into strategic communications and public diplomacy. For the PRC, space is seen not only as an arena for industrial policy but as a diplomatic and public relations tool. By contrast, NASA has a level of name recognition and positive association known the world over, but it underutilizes it.

Chinese leaders are obsessed with their nation's rise, and see it reclaiming its historic position as a dominant world power. Many Chinese strategists also believe the U.S. is in decline. But their opinion splits on what this means.

An initiative of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Center Stage brings compelling contemporary artists from Haiti, Indonesia and Pakistan to the United States to engage Americans in cultural diplomacy as a way to create opportunities for greater understanding.

Amazon will be responsible for upgrading software and enabling a text-to-speech capability on the Kindles. That latter requirement is aimed at integrating the Kindles into embassy-supported English teaching programs...Content on the Kindles will be sorted into “collections identified by the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.”