The U.S. Department of State and U.S. Missions abroad have developed a range of initiatives to showcase U.S. diplomatic leadership in leveraging digital networks and technologies in service of its foreign policy goals.

@america is the State Department’s newest and most innovative American Center and is located in a popular shopping mall in downtown Jakarta. American Centers are public places where the U.S. Government engages with foreign publics through a variety of outreach activities...

Now that the events of 2011 have turned Arab politics upside down, U.S. policymakers are facing what they hate most: irrelevance. Those who were so long ignored by American public diplomacy are finally gaining power as evidenced by the successes of the Ennahda Party in Tunisia...

Another reason why the United States government tries its level best to ensure a free Internet is because it serves its foreign policy goals with respect to public diplomacy and outreach at very minimal cost. Internet-enabled protest movements are bringing down undemocratic governments faster

For a while soft power was undercut because the US reputation was tarnished, but the Arab awakening has demonstrated how powerful American-driven social media are in opening up closed societies. But when IBM invests massively in Africa - which it has identified as the next major emerging growth market - it is also investing in an openness that advances US interests.

What this rescue shows us, however, is that national and international ends are not necessarily in conflict. This operation has helped the United States Navy develop genuine, if hard to measure, “soft power” value in terms of U.S. relations with Iran and the Gulf

APDS Blogger: Hend Alhinnawi

Established thirteen years, the role of the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs has been an enduring question of the State Department, the Defense Department, National Security Staff, the Congress and the many others interested in America’s efforts to understand, inform, and influence global audiences.