Young Iranians today have more access to American cultural products than ever before [...] In his new book, After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East, Brian Edwards writes how popular, cinema, literary, digital, and academic culture from the U.S. reaches North Africa and the Middle East, is stripped of its Americanness, and is recontextualized in a different light. 

This driving energy has taken the group to global venues like Australia's Womad, Lisbon's Music Box, and Malaysia's Rain Forest World Music Festival. It's bringing them to the U.S. for the first time this autumn for a tour as part of Center Stage, the ambitious cultural exchange program initiated by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Cuba is in a position where it could use some soft power appeal, particularly on the same social issues—like unemployment or the treatment of Afro-Latinos—that neighboring countries are going through. If Cuba is aiming to have a rap scene with actual international appeal beyond the club circuit, the state should relax its hold.

A historically-grounded narrative is needed to counter China’s charges, which have real implications for American and other national policies. The PRC plays the “victim” card to its advantage [...] to indoctrinate internal opinion to support the regime, to stoke “nationalism” for leverage, and to arm psychological warfare that positions Beijing as “just.”

Those in charge of foreign policy, be they the president of the United States or the prime minister of Great Britain, face situations their predecessors never experienced. Literally every important event around the globe is instantaneously reported, most of the time on television. 

Something of a musical exchange-student program, the organization brings young musicians from all over the world to the U.S. together for a month each year to collaborate on music. Started in 2012, OneBeat hopes to celebrate the ways that the arts can impact local and global communities, as well as help people connect across cultures through music. 

Sports are an intrinsic part of the American life — bringing folks together on the field, in the backyard and around the TV. But sports are also bringing people together in an even bigger way — people from different continents, cultures and walks of life — thanks to a concept called sports diplomacy.