One of the biggest construction booms ever is taking place under the State Department's guidance and now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is seeking help in decorating some of those 38 new embassies and other offices with art that helps tell the American story.

Guests will have the opportunity to see firsthand some of the outstanding photographs of the original Jazz Ambassadors, part of the traveling exhibition – Jam Session: America’s Jazz Ambassadors Embrace the World. The reception will also feature performances by talented young jazz musicians – the jazz greats of tomorrow.

Amb. Patricia Haslach, a former assistant chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, will serve as the deputy coordinator for diplomacy, and William Garvelink, U.S. ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, will serve as the deputy coordinator for development, in the new office, starting in May, according to a memo issued by the secretary of state's office today.

Along the gradient of power, there's a possible mix of "soft" and "hard" varieties. The public diplomacy originating at the U.S. State Department is commonly associated with the "soft" power of peaceful persuasion and cultural appeal...

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.

The US State Department launched a new website on Monday seeking the opinions of people around the world on global issues and US foreign policy. The site located at state.gov/opinionspace is designed to "foster global conversations on foreign affairs," the State Department said.

Readers of this space know there’s been a recent flurry of public activity by those who set the course of U.S. communications efforts with foreign publics.

Hillary Rodham Clinton ran a presidential campaign notoriously insular and unhappy, managing a group of egos and backstabbers whose dysfunction may have cost her the White House.