Joseph S. Nye Jr., an expert on the projection of U.S. soft power abroad, says these incidents will make it increasingly hard for the United States to succeed in the Afghan war effort, and complicate relations with the Muslim world.

In addition to leadership, brand name also transcends the fields of business and national security. “Notre Dame has a brand … America has a brand as well. It’s our value system,” [Tom] Ridge said. “We have to be consistent with [our value system]. The rest of the world is watching.”

The pastor of a small Florida church, under pressure from President Barack Obama and other world leaders, said he is abandoning plans to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

US troops rely on local Afghan interpreters in the mission to win hearts and minds in the Afghanistan war. But many learn crucial languages on the job, resulting in deadly mishaps.

Diplomats, entrepreneurs and future leaders joined Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the U.S. State Department's annual iftar dinner in Washington on September 7. Secretary Clinton praised 70 young American Muslim leaders who attended the iftar...

In her well-received remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton let slip a statement that immediately sent the inter-American affairs semantic fashion police scurrying. She referred to the on-going threat posed by Mexican drug cartels and their allies to Mexican society as an "insurgency."

British Muslim activists plan to burn the U.S. flag outside the U.S. embassy on September 11 to voice anger at plan by a U.S. Christian pastor to burn copies of the Koran the same day, a hardline Islamist said on Thursday.

If the underlying intent of international aid projects is to “win the hearts and minds” of the Afghan people, then by many measures the United States is failing. Despite investing nearly $50 billion in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, only half of Afghans polled last year have a somewhat favorable or better view of the United States.