U.S. missile defense: deliberately minimalist?;
Chinese missile capabilities changing Pentagon's Asian calculus;
More Aegist ships on the horizon;
The PRC plans for conflict in space;
Rethinking missile defense in Japan
Beijing finds environmental policies ignored;
Anti-corruption drive catches another leader in its net
Lebanon gets a new government;
The IMU ascendant;
Saudi joins fray against rebels in Yemen;
Iraq clears hurdle for national election
Medvedev's eco-friendly agenda;
Another stage-managed electoral win
The primary purpose of U.S. public diplomacy is to explain, promote, and defend American principles to audiences abroad. This objective goes well beyond the public affairs function of presenting and explaining the specific policies of various administrations. Policies and administrations change; principles do not, so long as the United States remains true to itself. Public diplomacy has a particularly vital mission during war, when the peoples of other countries, whether adversaries or allies, need to know why we fight. After all, it is a conflict of ideas that is behind the shooting wars, and it is that conflict which must be won to achieve any lasting success.