If America can be said to have a public diplomacy — that is, government-directed outreach to international publics — then someone needs to throw it a lifeline. In only the last few weeks, we have seen evidence of a coming crisis for defenders of America’s international image: The State Department budget, as previewed by the President in his speech to Congress this week, is set to take a serious hit. 

A major 2013 report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences warned that at “the very moment when China and some European nations are seeking to replicate our model of broad education,” including the humanities, the U.S. was instead “narrowing” its focus and abandoning its “sense of what education has been and should continue to be.” The paper caught the attention of policy makers, including members of Congress. 

The Peruvian Embassy in the United States and the U.S. Congressional Caucus on Peru organized a gastronomic festival at U.S. Parliament headquarters. The meeting was attended by legislators, officials from both chambers and members of the Executive, plus other civil society organizations based in D.C.

You might not be able to snag Hamilton tickets, but you can catch the play’s Pulitzer Prize-winning creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, on last night’s episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. The playwright joined comedian and host John Oliver to ask the US congress to do something about Puerto Rico’s crippling $70 billion debt crisis.

In Washington, D.C., home to most national museums in the country, should there be a museum expressly dedicated to Asian Pacific American history and culture? For Franklin Odo, the founding director of the Smithsonian's APA program from 1997-2010, that has since been upgraded to a "center," the time has come for an even further upgrade to a full-fledged museum.