In recent years the lines between official government communication and social sharing have become increasingly blurred, with platforms such as Twitter and Facebook emerging as legitimate (and even preferred) ways for government agencies to interact with both their employees and private citizens.

In testimony to Congress last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the existence of an ongoing “information war” that the United States is losing. In addition to saying that “Al Jazeera is winning,” Clinton pointed to the major investments in international broadcasting being made by China and Russia.

In testimony to Congress last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged the existence of an ongoing “information war” that the United States is losing. In addition to saying that “Al Jazeera is winning,” Clinton pointed to the major investments in international broadcasting being made by China and Russia.

The Chinese effort is of particular importance. As Secretary Clinton said, “We are in a competition for influence with China; let’s put aside the moral, humanitarian, do-good side of what we believe in, and let’s just talk straight realpolitik.”

Rumor has it that when Canadians travel abroad, especially in the Middle East and increasingly in Western Europe after the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq, they tend to wear something authentic to the distant corners of their country to recognize each other as true Canadians in foreign lands.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — On the third floor of a shopping mall here, around the corner from a Gap Kids and a Wedgwood china outlet, a new tenant is busily promoting what is perhaps the world’s biggest brand: America.

Armed with a bachelor’s degree in home economics from the University of Georgia and a heap of idealism that only a 20-something could have, Debbie Manget traveled to the Caribbean island of St. Lucia as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1978. She planned on sharing her homemaking skills with villagers.

Washington hosted two high-level Turkish diplomats this week and had a chance to listen to the Turkish administration’s foreign policy vision spanning from Eurasia to the Middle East and North Africa during various think tank discussions.

It's too early for President Barack Obama's administration to formulate a new long-term strategy for the Middle East; no one knows what it will look like six months hence, or for that matter, next week. But it's already clear that the Middle East which Obama addressed in his Cairo speech in June 2009 no longer exists, and thus that the premises of the strategy behind that speech no longer apply.