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.

Recently, Embassy Bangkok introduced the new U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Kristie Kenney, using social media as the vehicle. With the help of the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP), Ambassador Kenney filmed two short introductory videos -- the first discussing her excitement about coming to Thailand and the second highlighting her love of Thai food.

The Obama administration is hoping the aid program to Pakistan [USAID], the second-largest recipient of U.S. civilian aid after Afghanistan, will help stabilize the fragile but strategically important country and boost America's image among ordinary Pakistanis.