The only surprise about the Egyptian revolution is that it took so long. Demonstrations have been increasing in the past few years, despite the brutality of the regime, and with them deep distrust and hatred for President Hosni Mubarak and his government.

Earlier today, the Egyptian military announced that it had taken "necessary measures to protect the nation and support the legitimate demands of the people."...CNN at the moment is quoting a senior military official denying the characterization, but one thing is definitely for sure: you're unlikely to hear the word coup from President Obama or any other senior administration official.

Crises have always existed in diplomacy and will always come upon us, and as a result, there are several traditional mechanisms for crisis management and crisis prevention that are more relevant than ever.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is hosting a global town hall at Twitter headquarters to talk foreign policy with users of the online messaging service. Ambassador Susan Rice will be taking questions from around the world Thursday morning via Twitter and from employees at the company's San Francisco office.

The State Department -- already pretty good at the social media thing -- is now using Twitter to transmit its thoughts to the Arab world in ... Arabic. Foggy Bottom is using @USAbilAraby, which in English means "USA in Arabic."

The Study Abroad Office announced in an e-mail today that applications for fall programs in Egypt will not be approved. The decision, which will affect the fall 2011 study abroad plans of eight students, including this reporter, came in response to a travel warning posted by the U.S. Department of State in light of the political unrest in Egypt. University policy prohibits processing applications for study in countries with travel warnings.

Gallup is out with a new national poll on Americans' views of the pro-democracy protests in Egypt. The results show that fear-mongering by some in the media about a post-Mubarak Egypt has apparently not taken hold, with huge majorities expressing sympathy for the protesters.

Frustrating anti-government protesters, the U.S. is now openly backing the Egyptian government's proposed transition process...We're starting to see a number pundits turn against President Obama's cautious strategy, saying the only risk to democracy is Mubarak and his immediate departure should be encouraged.