Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith A. McHale will travel to Tunis and Sfax, Tunisia through April 17th, 2011. The Under Secretary arrived in Tunis on April 14th.

Elements with the State Department are attempting to silence an American diplomat who believes he was personally charged by the White House with promoting President Obama's interfaith initiatives. The diplomat is the U.S. ambassador to Malta, Douglas Kmiec...

[President Obama] had particularly productive and substantive meetings with the leadership of these three countries and also engaged with representatives of the private sector and civil society. The president’s message, and the dozens of agreements completed during the trip, underscored how tremendously significant the region is for the United States...

One implication of this is that the burden on U.S. public diplomacy has never been greater. As the role of publics expands, it becomes ever more urgent that the U.S. better understand them and effectively engage with them across a far wider spectrum (it's incomprehensible that Congress wants to slash funding for these functions at precisely the time they are most needed).

Yet while last week's cuts failed to do much about the deficit, they could do serious damage to U.S. foreign policy. On Tuesday, the axe fell: The State Department and foreign operations budget was slashed by $8.5 billion -- a pittance when compared to military spending, but one that could put a serious dent in the United States' ability to positively influence events abroad.

During her visit to Los Angeles, Coordinator McCall will visit the University of Southern California’s Stevens Institute for Innovation, Center for Public Diplomacy, and Annenberg Innovation Lab to meet leading thinkers and directors who are creating web and mobile applications at the intersection of entertainment, gaming, technology, and academia.

Just weeks after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained to Congress that America is losing the information war against Al Qaeda, China and Russia, it appears that Clinton’s own State Department is one of the impediments to success.

As I write this, there remains a slight possibility that the federal government will not shutdown at midnight tonight, furlough all “non-essential” employees, and cease many of its functions.