The challenges posed by the new media landscape...will likely take years to fully comprehend. But as the contours of the role of social media in the Arab Spring and elsewhere begin to take shape in the academic and policy-making arenas, everyone seems to agree on one point: The revolution is far from over.

In fact, the State Department regularly uses nine different foreign language Twitter accounts, with more likely on the way. Ross tells TIME magazine that these new technologies give diplomats tools to exert "smart power" in advancing their interests.

The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs has actively embraced Web 2.0 tools so that it can engage with the widest cross-section of people in India and the around the world. We have also found social media a powerful medium to expand our outreach amongst younger audiences

Over the past two years, Ross, 39, has been incorporating those digital platforms into the daily lives of U.S. diplomats. Dozens of U.S. ambassadors around the world now use Facebook and Twitter, and the State Department boasts nine foreign-language Twitter accounts. These technologies, Ross argues, give the U.S. a new suite of tools for exerting "smart power" to advance its interests.

Digital diplomats broadcast messages and multimedia, attract commenters to specially designed forums in foreign languages and monitor trending topics in an attempt to take the world’s pulse. But whether conducted online or off, public diplomacy has always been an inexact science. how do diplomats know whether their efforts are paying off?

U.S. officials shift gears to a digital-first diplomatic strategy in the face of rising anti-Americanism worldwide...Posting content that influencers will spread themselves can maximize the State Department’s impact via network effects while economizing effort. And by learning about their audience, diplomats will be able to tailor their engagement strategy and make course corrections.

If Facebook were a country, its membership would make it the third most populous in the world. As its “population” continues to grow, the social network finds itself adapting to, and navigating within, a global sphere in which the importance of public diplomacy has also grown.

"We must open up our cultural products such as literature, film, music and heritage. Creators can be inspired by exchanging experiences and working together. This is why I call for the creation of a cultural visa", Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal MEP