What started as a transatlantic video chat between students at Hampton High School and students in the Republic of Georgia in the former Soviet Union has now become an opportunity to build stronger economic and cultural relations.

AFRICOM, with headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, was launched with great fanfare in 2007 as the first and only military regional command that would focus primarily on “soft power” and include a heavy mix of civilians in its ranks.

Today, the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, a bi-partisan board, created by Congress whose members are appointed by the President, met to discuss the State Department’s performance on outreach and engagement with foreign publics.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of attending a performance at the California International Theatre Festival in Calabasas. The annual festival offers an array of presentations meant to broaden “cultural understanding by means of community outreach, student training and cultural exchange through the performing arts”.

What happened to China's much vaunted "soft power" and "good neighborly" diplomacy about which we have heard so much in recent years? China's supposed "soft power," always overstated, has passed from the scene in short order.

Ninety-eight per cent of the visa applications from Pakistan are rejected for being relied upon fake documents. Even strong candidates make their cases doubtful by just attaching one fake document to their application. This was stated by US Consulate Consul General Carmella Conroy while addressing the students of Government College University on ‘the role of the United States for promotion of education in Pakistan’ here [Lahore] on Tuesday

While U.S. public diplomacy since September 11, 2001, has focused on countering terrorism and the radicalization of the Muslim world, China has been moving ahead, taking a page out of the U.S. playbook. Aiming to promote their model of governance, the Chinese have invested heavily in public diplomacy.

What sort of creeping threat is posed by public diplomacy theorists? Is it a particular theory and or scholar that threatens the bedrock of practical pedagogy in public diplomacy?