Sports diplomacy builds on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s vision of “smart power", which embraces the use of a full range of diplomatic tools, including sports, to bring people together to foster greater understanding. Since 2003, SportsUnited has brought almost 900 athletes from 58 countries to the U.S. to participate in Sport Visitor programs.

The conspicuous failure of American hard power — in Iraq and Afghanistan — obscured the way American soft power has flourished over the past decade. For a while soft power was undercut because the U.S. reputation was tarnished, but the Arab awakening has demonstrated how powerful American-driven social media are in opening up closed societies.

During the confrontation, the CIA also conducted revenge attacks in Pakistan; as following differences between American State Department and the CIA, at the occasion of almost every high level meeting between Pakistani and American authorities, the CIA carried out a drone attack. American premier agency effectively undermined public diplomacy of its own government.

Pentagon officials talk about “demilitarizing” US foreign policy, which one can understand after the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the conventional wisdom now puts too much weight on “soft” power. We should not overestimate how much the world loves us because of our virtues, nor underestimate how much our influence still depends on hard power and our ability to provide protection in a pinch.

The U.S. force size in Asia-Pacific will increase...not to prepare for some Cold War-style showdown with a rising China... Obama seems to mean it when he talks about America's "Pacific Century," and putting a military presence there is a great way to extend U.S. hard as well as soft power.

A Chinese scholar recently said that China is catching up to the U.S. and is becoming a superpower. But according to a media survey, most Chinese don’t think so...The Chinese public’s pessimism about China’s rise as a superpower is shared by Chinese intellectuals...

Josh Rogin and others reported last month on the Secretary Clinton’s new Foreign Affairs Policy Board. Organized as a Federal Advisory Committee, it is reasonable to expect that all of the meetings will be closed door, which is unfortunate.

Learning another language will open the door to another culture and enhance your career opportunities in the increasingly global economy...The new language deepens your capacity to communicate and to understand the challenges of all cross-cultural relations.