The memorial service at Washington’s Kennedy Center last week had the trappings of a state funeral. President Barack Obama was there, former president Bill Clinton, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan flew in for the occasion, as did scores of other dignitaries.

A few thousand people will gather today in Washington, D.C. to honor the life of ambassador Richard Holbrooke, one of the world's finest diplomats, whose life ended suddenly one month ago...The ambassador was known to work round the clock, though he never lost sight of personal priorities. He had hired me in 2001 to help build his HIV/AIDS outfit, the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

A week before the Tunisian government collapsed on Friday, with its longtime dictator fleeing the country in the face of massive popular protests, a Washington, DC public relations firm that had been hired by the government abruptly severed its relationship the North African nation.

Diplomats from many countries complained to U.S. government officials Thursday about the decision by several American banks to close the accounts of their diplomatic missions and their difficulty in finding new banking facilities.

Airports are great, but on a continent where people fly, as some of my seat-mates on this itinerary have, from Washington to Addis Ababa in order to get to Lagos, what is needed most are flights -- many more flights -- both between the U.S. and Africa (there are currently precious few), and between African countries themselves.

Katie Couric's recent comments recommending a Muslim Cosby show to combat anti-Muslim bigotry has been decried by some as a naïve, simplistic remedy for the festering sore of Islamophobia in America. However...authentic and accessible American Muslim narratives can emerge as popular, effective tools of cultural diplomacy in helping bridge the divides between Muslim Communities and the U.S.

I went to Angola as a delegate with the American Documentary Showcase, a State Department-funded program that sends American documentaries around the world, accompanied by filmmakers who teach filmmaking workshops.

The digital revolution is finally starting to penetrate that most traditional of organizations: the foreign ministry. Not surprisingly, given the pace of change in the digital world as a whole, the conduct of diplomacy is set to undergo a major evolution as these technologies shake up the status quo.