From students and interns to researchers and teachers, throughout the Western Hemisphere the opportunity to live in each other’s countries, learn each other’s languages, study together, and share knowledge is essential to our connected economies and our relationships. This is the premise of President Obama’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative that aims to increase educational exchanges between the United States and Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. 

The American Innovation Center (AIC) teamed up with software giant Microsoft Corp.'s Taiwan branch Tuesday to jointly promote digital learning among Taiwanese young people. The AIC Taiwan is the first of its kind in Asia. It was established by the U.S. Department of State in January this year, offering over 70 courses designed to encourage young people to think innovatively.

Brazil’s jogo bonito is globally recognized as an ideal combination of sports, culture, and national personality. Given this backdrop, Cobi Jones and Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak, visited Manaus, Brasília, Fortaleza, Natal, and Recife as U.S. Department of State Sports Envoys to share more about their experiences off-the-pitch than on it.  The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs together with Mission Brazil partnered to implement the “Sports for All” strategy that uses sports to engender greater social inclusion, promote education, and teach job skills. 

Liz Williams, executive director of the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, and Ryan Hughes, who will be the chef at the museum's restaurant Purloo, have traveled to Moscow to build good will through good eats, reports the Advocate. Williams and Hughes are part of a delegation funded by the U.S. State Department that also includes musicians Donald Harrison Jr., Keith Frank and the KIPP McDonogh 15 Middle School marching band.

When John Kerry succeeded Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in February, Clinton’s emotional departure from the State Department received blanket media coverage. Kerry’s arrival received next to none. “So here’s the big question before the country and the world and the State Department after the last eight years,” Kerry said in a speech to State Department employees on his first day on the job. “Can a man actually run the State Department? I don’t know.”

For all the growing interest in public diplomacy, the field still suffers from a lack of specificity in use of the term. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but it is a source of confusion. A look at the CPD blog demonstrates the wonderful breadth of issues that fall under the rubric of public diplomacy. A survey of peer-reviewed literature from the last five decades yields more than 600 articles employing the term – each with its own understanding of public diplomacy.

The State Department has long cautioned Americans about visiting North Korea, but on Tuesday it went a big step further, issuing a blanket warning against all American travel to the country. This was the first such State Department warning since North Korea began allowing American tourists in 1995, immediately raising the question: why?