Through WaterCredit, we have explored the application of microfinance to water and sanitation needs. The potential of microfinance to democratize access to capital is paralleled by the potential of technology and social media to democratize access to information.

Conditions within Iran, from rising inflation to widespread unemployment to economic stagnation, suggest that Tehran could still go the way of Tunis, Cairo and Tripoli. Against that backdrop, renewed “engagement” with the Iranian regime wouldn’t just be futile; it would be fatal to prospects for real grassroots change within Iran.

The BBG brands...face intense competition from...emerging media choices as well as the challenges of censorship and extremist voices. To address these challenges and advance the nation’s strategic priorities, BBG’s plan features innovative initiatives: to create a global news network; to leverage new delivery technologies...and to devise sophisticated new means of countering Internet blocking and other forms of censorship.

As part of our new relationship with Iraq, for the first time in more than 20 years the United States has returned to Iraq’s largest annual trade fair. Over 80 American corporations, universities, and travel and tourism organizations will showcase their products and services to Iraqi businesses and people for the purpose of building greater trade ties.

...the outcome [Palestine's admittance to UNESCO] has obliged Washington, under U.S. law, to cut its $80 million annual financial contribution to Unesco, weakening an important vehicle of U.S. "soft power" influence through the projects supporting U.S. goals in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Monday's vote to admit Palestine as a full member of Unesco, the U.N. cultural arm, was a sharp reminder of just how limited Washington's influence -- hard, soft and smart -- has become in respect of the Middle East's most intractable conflict.

This is part of a larger international cyber diplomacy effort, that the State Department is undertaking that’s weaving all of these different aspects of cyberspace together, and that includes everything from...internet freedom, to economic issues and governance issues on the internet, to cyber security issues...this basket of issues is now a foreign policy imperative or a foreign policy priority.