The Russians thought that the way forward was to give tech companies some money and put them near a great university. Presto: a new silicon valley. For their part, the American delegation assumed that you could pour in some social networking and create a civil society.

A new report says the United States can advance its interests around the world by investing in a strategic global health policy. It says besides saving lives, a new policy could bolster national security and build new partnerships.

US President Barack Obama's administration has promised to engage more deeply with Pakistan, which has long seen Washington as interested only in securing its military cooperation in the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda.

She has asked the State Department to host a conference later this year to share how the Irish American community succeeded in helping bring about peace in Ireland.

How should an architect approach the task of designing a building to represent his home country abroad? What happens if the result -- implicitly or explicitly -- is critical of that country's past, politics or most cherished values?

Actor Gabriel Byrne was appointed to the new position of Cultural Ambassador for Ireland, with the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, making the announcement in Washington on Tuesday. Based in the US since 1987, it’s a role the award-winning actor has been informally carrying out for some years now, promoting Irish culture abroad.

For millions of Chinese, the U.S. pavilion’s show at the Shanghai World Expo will be the closest they’ll ever come to an experience of America. What they’ll get — apart from long waits — is a warm welcome, a dose of Hollywood-style entertainment and, in May, an impression of San Antonio.

The US state department has unveiled an exciting new initiative: using the internet to solicit opinions from people through a website. Extraordinary. The site, called Opinion Space, is a joint project between the state department and the University of California's Berkeley centre for new media.