Up until last year, according to a report in the New York Times, the US State Department was still doing things the traditional way: through diplomatic cables, official communiqués and government to government transactions involving diplomats travelling to other countries to negotiate agreements.

Some 46 percent of Israelis believe that President Barack Obama is “pro-Palestinian,” according to a Smith Research poll this summer. Since then, that figure most likely has ticked higher. After all, in July, the president upgraded the Palestinian delegation’s diplomatic status in Washington...

Google can be seen as an American political tool, argues cyber diplomacy analyst Evgeny Morozov in a new editorial pegged to the announcement of an Iranian national search engine. Furthermore, he indicts many Silicon Valley companies for collaborating with the State Department to turn business matters into political questions.

A U.S. “Legacy of Waste” in Iraq, by Liz Sly, Los Angeles Times, documents the culmination of seven years of failed public diplomacy...

One of the lessons of Iraq, he [President Obama] said, is that “American influence around the world is not a function of military force alone.” “We must use all the elements of our power, including our diplomacy, our economic strength and the power of America’s example, to secure our interests and stand by our allies,” he said.

Under U.S. law, nearly all of our food aid is produced in the United States—predominantly by large agribusinesses like Archer Daniel Midland—and nearly all is delivered to stricken countries by American shippers. The system is shamefully rife with inefficiencies and misplaced priorities.

The continuing controversy over a proposed Islamic community center and mosque to be built near the site of the former World Trade Center has some in the counterterrorism community worried about the fallout in the Muslim world.

Jazz legend Mike Clark has confirmed plans for a tour of Russia next month, to promote cultural diplomacy and to introduce audiences in Moscow, Siberia, St. Petersburg and elsewhere to his acclaimed Owl Studios release, ‘Carnival of Soul'.