About the Author: Barbara De Rosa-Joynt serves as Division Chief for BioDiversity in the Office of Ecology and Conservation.
World Wetlands Day is here! Join us in congratulating our Wetlands Photo Celebration fan favorites -- with images and photographers from around the globe. We have four categories of favorites within our wetlands and tourism theme: plants, landscape, tourists, and wildlife. In the slideshow, you'll see a silt village in Ghana, a gorgeous river in West Virginia, a diver in the coastal wetlands of Mexico, and a beautiful damselfly in Cambodia. Also, many thanks to all of our wetlands tourists and photographers for the hundreds of photo submissions. You can learn more about our World Wetlands Day Photo celebration on our Flickr page. We salute the world's wetlands for their beauty and many critical benefits to humankind. Happy World Wetlands Day 2012! more »
About the Author: Alec Ross serves as the Secretary of State's Senior Advisor for Innovation.
Technology and new innovations are changing the world in which we live. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is responding to these challenges by adapting our foreign policy agenda to leverage new innovations in service of our diplomatic and development goals. This is 21st Century Statecraft -- complementing traditional foreign policy tools with newly innovated and adapted instruments of statecraft that fully leverage the networks, technologies, and demographics of our interconnected world.
Today marks the end of "21st Century Statecraft Month" at that State Department -- an entire month dedicated to using new tools and engaging new networks in pursuit of addressing today's challenges. During the month, I had the privilege to speak with a group of journalists and bloggers… more »
About the Author: Ambassador Eric Goosby serves as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.
Last week, I was proud to participate in a significant moment in the global AIDS response. I stood with leaders of the private sector at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as they committed to join forces to reach an ambitious, yet achievable, goal -- ending pediatric AIDS by 2015.
The launch of two groundbreaking initiatives -- the Business Leadership Council and the Social Media Syndicate -- will marshal the power of the private sector, converging business acumen, technology, and other assets to support country-led efforts to prevent new infant infections and save mothers' lives.
This exceptional commitment by the private sector stems from the Global Plan towards the Elimination of New Pediatric Infections and Keeping Mothers Alive, launched last year by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UNAIDS. The Plan's… more »
Seventy years ago, a group of men and women organized at Independence Hall in Philadelphia to lay a wreath before the Liberty Bell to commemorate the date -- February 1, 1865 -- that President Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th Amendment, banning slavery in the United States. The plan to set aside February 1 was led by Richard Wright, who was born into slavery in 1855. After Emancipation, Wright went to college, joined the army, and late in life became the first African-American in the United States to own a bank. A year after Wright died, in 1948, Wright's legacy was written into law when Congress passed a bill making February 1 National Freedom Day. Harry S. Truman was the first President to declare National Freedom Day, a tradition upheld every year since and reaffirmed again today by President Barack Obama.
As we mark that moment, when Lincoln sent to the states a… more »
On January 23, I joined seven other members of a joint U.S.-Russian Federation team that departed Christchurch, New Zealand, for the United States' McMurdo Station in Antarctica to conduct inspections of facilities maintained by other nations in Antarctica. Antarctica is the coldest, driest, windiest, and most isolated continent on Earth. Despite these challenging conditions, there are more than 100 facilities of various sizes and capacities in Antarctica established by almost 30 Antarctic Treaty Parties. The Department of State and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, joined by colleagues from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Russian Antarctic Expedition, co-led the first joint inspection conducted by either country. NSF provided invaluable logistical assistance.
After an eight-hour flight on board a New York Air National Guard ski-equipped LC-130… more »
DipNote is the official blog of the U.S. Department of State —a place to share stories, discuss experiences, and inspire new ideas on the important foreign policy issues of the day. more »
Across the eastern Horn of Africa, more than 11 million people -- a number greater than the populations of Houston and New York City combined -- are now in need of emergency assistance to survive. Learn more about the current crisis, including how you can help.
Dear Mr. Ford, Thank you for your support to the Syrian people. As you well know, the Asad regime is intent on using all means of violence, including…
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Spokesperson Nuland (Feb. 10): "We will have more of this declassified U.S. national available both on Robert's site in coming days but also on our new site www.stateondemand.com, where news organizations can find all of our content to pull down around the world. more »
Secretary Clinton (Feb. 9): "I want to underscore how confident we are in Italy, in Italy's future, in the extraordinary commitment that Prime Minister Monti and his government are bringing to the challenges confronting the Italian people..." more »
![Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Mike Hammer, center; responds to #AskMike questions from the Department’s official Spanish Twitter feed, @USAenEspanol, on January 24, 2012. Also pictured: Director of the Office of International Media Engagement Abigail Dressel, left; Specialist Assistant Mireille Zieseniss, third from right; Public Affairs Specialist Sarah Goldfarb, second from right; and Acting Director of Digital Communications Center Ed Dunn, right. [State Department photo by Ben Chang/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0201_twitter_qa_m.jpg)
![A child lights candles in front of a painting that depicts a red ribbon, at an event to mark World AIDS Day in Katmandu, Nepal, Dec. 1, 2011. [AP File Photo]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0201_child_aids_m.jpg)
![Members of a joint United States-Russian Federation team pose for a photo at the United States McMurdo Station in Antarctica in January 2012. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]](http://blogs.state.gov/images/Dipnote/behind_the_scenes/2012_0131_us_russia_antarctic_m.jpg)
