Bill Richardson, a former US presidential candidate and currently governor of out-of-the-way New Mexico, grabbed world headlines over the weekend. He travelled to North Korea and, amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula, announced a wide-ranging deal with Kim Jong-il's regime.

...Thanks to an unwritten agreement between Holbrooke and Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, the American Cultural Center in Belgrade, closed by order of the US government through its now-defunct United States Information Agency in the mid-1990s, was reopened not long after the 1995 Dayton Peace accord -- with Milosevic footing the bill!

The strategic nuclear arms treaty passed a key procedural hurdle on Tuesday when the Senate voted to bring the weapons pact between the United States and Russia to the floor of the Senate for a final vote.

The United States–which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month–is doing things a bit differently in the chamber today. About two weeks ago, Ambassador Rice solicited feedback from young people around the world for the kinds of topics and issues they would like taken up by the Security Council.

On Dec. 15, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rolled out the State Department's first ever Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) at an internal town hall meeting -- a year behind schedule. No surprise, it turns out to be more of a public relations document than a disciplined strategic review.

The philosophy is that the military can secure an area, while civilians implement quick impact development projects meant to win the support of Afghans. Hillary Clinton calls the strategy “smart power” and praises the inter-agency coordination it has brought to U.S. involvement there.

In a bid to streamline diplomacy and foreign aid, the State Department will "fundamentally change our management approach by turning to the expertise of other federal agencies where appropriate -- before engaging private contractors," according to the department's inaugural quadrennial review.