Isabella is one of the first chefs to be tapped by the State Department to serve as a culinary ambassador abroad, part of an ambitious new undertaking to use food as a diplomatic tool. Initiated by the U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Penavic Marshall, the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership aims to “elevate the role of culinary engagement in America’s formal and public diplomacy efforts."

Chief Diversity Officer John Robinson penned a column in the department's latest edition of "State Magazine" advising readers on some rather obscure Ps and Qs. Robinson ticked off several common phrases and went on to explain why their roots are racially or culturally insensitive.

Rendered razor sharp against a blurred background, the small flowers of late summer burst with reality. These are discrete examples of meadow flowers that our eyes usually gather in flattened focus massively and whole.

Entitled A Snapshot of Public Diplomacy, the mailing gives reports on public diplomacy (PD) activities underway around the world. The most recent issue I’ve received, covering the last two weeks of July, reports on support by the Bureau of African Affairs of an NGO called the Idea Builders Initiative.

And now that she’s plugging a new program co-sponsored by our nation’s travel and tourism industry and the U.S. government, I’ll just go ahead and say it right out: “I love the way Rosanne Carter sings “Land of Dreams,” both for the pure joy she conveys in her music and the power of the message contained in the song.

Ediplomacy promotes social networking technologies such as Twitter and Facebook to reach out to citizens, companies and others. "I define it as building on traditional forms of diplomacy to account for the technologies, the networks and the demographics of the 21st century," says Ross. "The key role for me is to be an accelerant."

The U.S. presidential nomination conventions largely will focus on domestic issues, but a number of high-profile foreign policy issues -- including immigration, U.S.-Russia relations, and the role the United States plays as a major world power --could also be highlighted in convention speeches and the parties' platforms. Three experts from international policy institutions weigh in on possible foreign policy themes in the 2012 conventions.

Honduras is under siege. Its judicial system is almost completely dysfunctional, and more than 10,000 complaints of human rights abuses by state security forces have been filed in the last three years, according to the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras. At least 23 journalists have been killed since 2009. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have all raised grave concerns about the country's dire situation.