arab spring

It is absolutely clear that the Syrian government is running out of time. They are either going to allow a serious political process...and engage in a productive dialogue with members of the opposition and civil society, or they're going to continue to see increasingly organized resistance,

Washington’s close Kurdish allies cracked down hard. After 62 days of street protests, 10 people were dead. The carefully crafted image of Kurdistan as a democratic island in an ocean of regional dictatorship was in tatters.

Against the backdrop of the Middle East's ongoing upheaval, especially the violence in neighboring Syria, Turkey's once-vaunted "zero problems" foreign policy strategy now looks severely outdated. Though Turkey will continue to seek a balanced, multivector foreign policy...

June 29, 2011

With the proliferation of information technology across all societies, people around the world are participating in shaping the political lives of their countries to an unprecedented degree. That drove us to an understanding that the United States government had to take a different approach to public diplomacy.

The fact that the Syrian authorities have given the green light for leading opposition figures to meet openly may be unprecedented, but it is not the sign of progress that many might hope for...the conference appears to be nothing more than part of a public relations exercise by a regime that is intent on showing the world it is serious about reform, but without actually being serious.

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.

Proposals to reorient European policy have come from the European Commission and..European External Action Service...through advocacy of a “Partnership for Democracy and Shared Prosperity” and...to create a European Endowment for Democracy and a Civil Society Facility...

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed al-Orabi said Egypt would adopt the principle of "soft power" in its foreign policy, taking into account the social, economic and cultural dimensions of relationships. The minister also said the foreign policy would be in complete harmony with the 25 January revolution, adding that it aims to retain Egypt’s leading regional and international roles.

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