Obama's Middle East speech last week laid out a policy of support for the growth of democracy and peace in the area... to support self-determination, equal opportunity, democracy, political and civil rights and religious tolerance.. It is not obvious that the Turkish government could make the same declarations.

Although we must remain vigilant in our efforts to defeat Al Qaeda and must continue our support for the Afghan people, there is simply no justification for the continued deployment of 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan.

Interest in China is a recurrent theme in Latin America...Close ties specifically with the Asian giant are encouraged not only by Colombia’s status as a rising world power, but also by China’s use of “soft power.”

I bring a personal history as a problem-solver and an effective manager...I will approach the U.S. Mission in China in much the same way, looking for ways to engage in public diplomacy that work best to get our message across to the Chinese government and out to the Chinese people.

McHale's most valuable contribution may have been to structurally reinforce public diplomacy within the State Department...she took a big step toward increasing the centrality of public diplomacy in American foreign policy.

Why did Mr Obama risk stirring such bad blood between his administration and Israel’s, to no apparent diplomatic gain and at a time when the pro-Israeli lobby in America, already in pre-election mode, still wields so much clout?

What had been a challenge to US power is now a "historic opportunity", as Barack Obama put it in his Middle East speech last week. But he does not mean an opportunity for the people who have risen up; it is a chance for Washington to fashion the region's present and future, just as it did its past.

Paying homage to history, Obama saluted the English for developing the rule of law and the rights of citizens, values that he said inspired the United States and set a model for the world. With allied powers, he said, they built the modern global order.