The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs will host its second EducationUSA Forum to promote U.S. higher education overseas. With increased global competition in the field of international education, students need reliable, comprehensive and unbiased information about study opportunities in the United States, and EducationUSA provides that information.

Even though the administration has reportedly initiated secret, serious high-level contacts with representatives of the Taliban and has touted nuanced shifts in diplomatic language far less consideration has been given to how the United States can encourage a shift in the Taliban's perceptions and behavior. Fighting must continue, but talking and engagement are even more urgent.

In a story yesterday the New York Times stirred up a huge amount of excitement about the so-called "Internet in a suitcase." The idea is that a relatively small amount of equipment could be parachuted (either literally or figuratively) into a region where one force is suppressing the ability of the general public to communicate using the Net. This is our newest tool for global information sharing.

The Aspen Institute Global Initiative on Culture and Society and the newly built state-of-the-art Royal Opera House Muscat (ROH Muscat) of the Sultanate of Oman have announced their strategic partnership and the planning of an unprecedented ROH Muscat - Aspen Creative Arts World Summit to be held in Muscat, Oman, November 28-30, 2011.

The people of the United States and the people of Ireland are working together to find more ways to improve maternal and child nutrition in the 1,000 day window between pregnancy and when a child turns 2 years old, when nutrition is most critical for saving lives and promoting cognitive and physical development.

The United States in 2003 committed $15 billion over five years to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Although not labeled as such, this is public diplomacy as it should be done. It is about service, not advertising. It improves (and protects) people’s lives, and as a result wins friends and serves the diplomatic interests of the United States.

Thirty years ago this month, the first cases of what was to become known as AIDS were diagnosed. The World Health Organization estimates that more than 25 million persons have died from AIDS. More than 60 million people have been infected, and in southern Africa alone there are 14 million children orphaned because of AIDS.

The number of people using Facebook during May fell in the US, UK, Canada, Norway and Russia, according to new data. The slowing growth in user numbers may indicate that Facebook has hit the limits of expansion in the countries where it was first successful – and perhaps even that some early adopters from those countries have stopped using it.