It has been inaugurated within the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, the Hemingway Bar, in homage to the famous American writer and as part of an effort to bridge Havana with public opinion in this country. "I've been asked many times in recent weeks, the reason for this our humble tribute to Ernest Hemingway...

"This is an outstanding appointment," Douglas Wilson, the assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, told The Cable today. "This is great news for those who care about public diplomacy. Tara Sonenshine brings a multiplicity of talents to this job...

Tara D. Sonenshine is the Executive Vice President of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Prior to joining USIP, she was a strategic communications adviser to many international organizations including USIP, the International Crisis Group, Internews, CARE...

Wang Guoqing, vice-minister of State Council Information Office (SCIO), led a panel discussion of public diplomacy...To help foreign countries improve the understanding of China, the Chinese government is making great efforts to enhance its public diplomacy skills...

Although most political observers in this region take Ghannouchi at his word, any political party or individual with the label “Islamist” attached is viewed with great suspicion in the West. Part of this stems from the lack of knowledge about Muslims’ faith and culture...

If ever there were a country that was once ripe for soft-power diplomacy, it was modern Iran. Yet the west misread Ahmadinejad and then misread such dissenters as Mohammad Khatami and parliament's speaker, Mehdi Karroubi.

...The outing is a reminder to press freedom and open internet advocates of how U.S. public diplomacy folded into local media culture can construct political reality in emerging democracies that can change the outcome in the ballot box.

“We communicate through baseball,” Ripken said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Japan loves their baseball, maybe equally as much or more than we do..." This will be Ripken’s third trip as a Public Diplomacy Envoy. He traveled to China in 2007 and to Nicaragua in 2008.