united states
American public diplomacy has been the subject of many reports and much discussion over the past few years. But one rarely examined element is the true impact of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which for all practical purposes labels U.S. public diplomacy and government broadcasting as propaganda.
This week, a new US non-profit organization – Open Hands Initiative – started its first project in Syria. Disabled children from the US will meet with their Syrian counterparts in Damascus, producing a comic book featuring a disabled hero, while an American music producer will work with Syrian artists to record material to promote abroad.
It's been important for me … to do these shows because it shows the world that the people of the Middle East are global citizens and appreciate laughter just like anyone else," [comedian Maz] Jobrani says afterward. "It helps bring the East and West closer with laughter. Kind of a comedic diplomacy.
It was a moment of sports diplomacy— two groups of boys separated by language, culture and food but united in their love for an American game that only recently has been exported to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
"Once one starts listing the examples of Japanese culture infiltrating the United States, it's pretty hard to stop," wrote Entrepreneur.com's Laura Tiffany in 2008... Of the ten bestselling graphic novels in US bookstores in November that year, six were Japanese...

Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to teach Corporate Diplomacy and Geopolitics for the MBA School at the University of San Francisco. My students were part of USF’s Executive Program—all working full-time while pursuing their degrees. Unlike my experience teaching this past spring at USC, where I had the luxury of a full semester, here I was given 6 weeks to cover the world.
A group of young American religious scholars and teaching assistants from Egypt 's oldest and renowned Azhar University engaged in a two week interactive project in an effort to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the US.
[Program of Academic Exchange] works diligently to bring international teens and American families together for 5 or 10 month stays. The U.S. Department of State recognizes the high school exchange program as the single most influencial outreach of citizen diplomacy in our country today.