In the eyes of the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the events of Sept. 11, 2001 revealed that public diplomacy efforts with predominantly Muslims countries had been neglected for many years. Soon afterwards they helped establish the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange Study (YES) program.

China and India have set in motion several bilateral cultural initiatives, including a massive people-to-people contact exercise, to get an edge in cooperation in culture which has fallen behind the volume of trade between the two nations