July brings us our nation's birthday, which allows us to reflect on the beginning of America's history...The State Department's request of $2.14 billion for the contributions to International Peacekeeping Activities account, and recover $322 million cut from public diplomacy in 2008.

Today, the Soviet Union has vanished, and Chinese power is growing. Some in the US argue that China's rise cannot be peaceful, and that the US, therefore, should now adopt a policy of containing the People's Republic. Indeed, many Chinese officials perceive that to be the current American strategy.

The Vail Valley Foundation staff had received a call that the Bolshoi Ballet Academy, in the midst of its first U.S. tour, had to cancel its shows scheduled for Texas. Would Vail be willing to host the world-renowned ballet company's first U.S. performance instead?

Washington, especially Obama’s State Department, has a democracy problem. Too many see democracy promotion as a Bush-era priority, others see democracy as “cultural imperialism,” and still others see dangers, not opportunities.

SINGAPORE --- “Just turn on the faucet.”

That’s the answer most Americans and others in the developed world would give if asked how to get plenty of clean water. But for about two billion people, such a response is meaningless. These people – almost a third of the world’s population – do not have access to water that can be drunk without adverse health effects. An even greater number lack access to adequate sanitation, which is a principal reason that more than two million children die of diarrheal diseases each year.

The U.S. Corp. for Travel Promotion, which bills itself as a partnership between the public and private sectors with the mission of promoting increased international travel to the U.S., is on the hunt for a global agency to help boost tourism to the country.

In the 21st century, the democratization and diffusion of information is dissolving traditional barriers to power. People in every part of the world are clamoring to be heard and demanding a role in shaping their own future. This change is irreversible, unstoppable, and eminently desirable.

Thanks to the rise of social media, news is no longer gathered exclusively by reporters and turned into a story but emerges from an ecosystem in which journalists, sources, readers and viewers exchange information. Journalists are becoming more inclined to see blogs, Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media as a valuable adjunct to traditional media.