Diplomacy took a backseat to head-to-head competition Tuesday night as chefs from 12 countries vied for the title of top embassy chef. The third Embassy Chef Challenge, sponsored by by Cultural Tourism DC at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, highlighted world cuisine ranging from Baba ghanoush from Iraq to Peruvian ceviche.

The Georgetown University men's basketball team will travel to Shanghai and Beijing this summer as part of a "people-to-people" exchange program between the U.S. and China geared toward strengthening ties between the countries.

Under normal circumstances, Terry Hardy, 18, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Noy Ilan, 17, of Rishon Lezion would have never met and would have never had anything in common. But the brutal acts of terrorism that struck both their families changed their lives forever...

Elements with the State Department are attempting to silence an American diplomat who believes he was personally charged by the White House with promoting President Obama's interfaith initiatives. The diplomat is the U.S. ambassador to Malta, Douglas Kmiec...

[President Obama] had particularly productive and substantive meetings with the leadership of these three countries and also engaged with representatives of the private sector and civil society. The president’s message, and the dozens of agreements completed during the trip, underscored how tremendously significant the region is for the United States...

One implication of this is that the burden on U.S. public diplomacy has never been greater. As the role of publics expands, it becomes ever more urgent that the U.S. better understand them and effectively engage with them across a far wider spectrum (it's incomprehensible that Congress wants to slash funding for these functions at precisely the time they are most needed).

In Indonesia, home to 205 million Muslims — the greatest Islamic population in any nation— the administration recently opened in an upscale shopping mall a state-of-the-art, high-tech cultural centre. It is focused specifically on the country’s vast number of teenagers and twentysomethings.

APDS Blogger: Emina Vukic