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.

The BBG said it would shut down VOA's Chinese radio and television broadcasts while making its Mandarin-language service available only on the Internet. Forty-five journalists, or more than half of the branch's full-time staff, will be let go.

...the United States is an economic and military powerhouse in a way that Britain is not...Britain has some strong historical relationships with a number of countries that the United States does not. And Britain...has so-called “soft power” that the United States might have been lacking in recent years.

Judith McHale’s departure from her position as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs presents an opportunity not only to appraise her tenure, but also to consider the future direction of U.S. public diplomacy.

There has been some criticism of Obama being long on rhetoric and short on specifics, but that is what public speeches are all about. They are supposed to appeal to our hearts, not our heads....This is the very essence of "soft power".

The news transmitted by the U.S. government to Cuba via Radio/Television Martí is keeping pace with the times in its use of social networks and multimedia platforms. Internet, Facebook, Twitter and text messaging are the latest media being used to aid the free flow of news to the island.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu invited Palestinians back to the bargaining table Tuesday with a U.S. speech that promised “painful” Israeli concessions in exchange for peace but also outlined a tough negotiating stance that was immediately rejected by key Palestinian officials.