Recent strategic decisions by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) on Voice of America (VOA) broadcasts to China suggest that the time has come for Congress to take a serious look at the way the U.S. government manages its international broadcasting services.

Diaries were cleared in Downing Street and the Foreign Office recently for meetings with two Americans who tweet for their country. You might not have heard of them, but through Twitter the Arab protesters monitor their every tweet.

China has become such an important market for U.S. entertainment companies that one studio has taken the extraordinary step of digitally altering a film to excise bad guys from the Communist nation lest the leadership in Beijing be offended.

Rhythm Road artists represent the new generation of musical ambassadors, reaching beyond concert halls to interact with other musicians and the general public.

I read the news on a friend’s Facebook page (one of my primary sources of news and analysis out of Egypt these days), that a coalition of Egyptian youth groups had rejected an invitation to meet with U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Each president of the United States enters office thinking he will be able to define the agenda and set the course of America’s relations with the rest of the world. And, almost invariably, each confronts crises that are thrust upon him—wars, revolutions, genocides, and deadly confrontations.

A new musical group will literally be jazzing things up today at an annual charity performance by Harvard University here. A capella singers Harvard Voxjazz will join the Harvard Krokodiloes, the Radcliffe Pitches and the Harvard Din & Tonics for ‘Harvard in Hamilton For Habitat V’.