Since that time, the Soviet Union has disappeared, and the U.S.-China relationship has grown from secret shuttle diplomacy to nearly $400 billion a year in trade accompanied by expansive academic, cultural and even military contacts.

Why is it that the country with the largest economy in the world can’t get the welcome mat right? It is now more than nine years since 9/11 and to have the premier international gateway to this nation’s capital resemble an airport in a “shambolic banana republic or poorly managed police state,” in Brûlé’s ascerbic words, is unconscionable.

Female students from a local Jalalabad high school recently spent a morning chatting online with three female Soldiers from Forward Operating Base Fenty September 21st. The students were participating in a State Department sponsored program called the Global Connections and Exchange program.

U.S. President Barack Obama has once again appealed directly to Iranian people over the BBC Persian service on Friday, in a rare showcase of technology surpassing the boundaries of official communication channels.

A majority of military officers — especially the mid-career officers in the O-4 and O-5 paygrades — support giving more money and strategic emphasis to nonmilitary initiatives such as diplomacy and economic development in order to advance U.S. security interests, according to a recent poll.

If competition is healthy—most conservatives believe it is—the challenge presented by China and other nations in the field of public diplomacy ought to be a wakeup call to the U.S. government.

The United States doesn't always do the best job of promoting itself abroad. Lots of people in lots of different places like to burn American flags and chant anti-U.S. slogans. It's stock footage at this point. But yesterday the New York Times highlighted an encouraging U.S. cultural diplomacy effort in a pretty unexpected area: French banlieues.

President Barack Obama has proposed Carlos García-Pérez, a Cuban-American lawyer in Puerto Rico, to head the Radio/TV Martí stations that broadcast to Cuba, sources said Tuesday.