Diplomacy is traditionally carried out behind closed doors, in hushed rooms, with perhaps a bowl of Ferrero Rocher to hand to put ambassadors at ease. Diplomacy 2.0, though, is carried out in public and, like everything else on social media, with a fair amount of sarcasm. 

Russian officials have responded to a mocking tweet from Canadian delegates over the escalating Ukraine crisis. Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been in the spotlight since Canadian officials posted a snarky map to help Russian soldiers who keep “getting lost in Ukraine”. Moscow officials have hit back with their own map, with the disputed Crimea region clearly marked as Russian territory.

Infectious diseases know no borders, whether it's Ebola spreading fromGuinea to Liberia, measles in the Fraser Valley brought to Canada from the Philippines, or MERS claiming victims across the Middle East. These health crises are grim reminders that new and old infectious diseases often strike where and when we least expect them, in ways that confound us.

Sagy, a former pilot with the Israeli Air Force made the switch to commercial brewing in 2008, although he says he had been home brewing for about 30 years. “Now I’m trying to make peace in another way,” he said, with a smile. “Through beer.” Eitan Weiss, head of public diplomacy at the Embassy of Israel, matched Sagy with Fournier, who founded the craft beer festival, as a means of bridging cultures through beer.

Ottawa is providing $5-million in new humanitarian assistance for the victims of the ongoing crisis in Iraq, vowing to come to the help of displaced civilians and religious minorities.  “Canada continues to stand by the people of Iraq in these difficult times and condemns the terrorist actions of ISIS and the killing of innocent civilians in northern Iraq in the strongest possible terms," International Development Minister Christian Paradis said in a statement on Sunday.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is turning to social media in an effort to engage in online diplomacy, practice “open policy development” and improve international trade ties. The government is also looking to Twitter and other social media to retool what it acknowledges has been a “closed” diplomacy and policy model that “emphasized control over information and access,” show newly released federal documents.

The museum has “a very broad ambition in terms of programming and our audience,” says director Henry Kim. It aims to introduce the art, material culture and performing arts of Islamic civilizations – with artifacts largely from the Aga Khan’s family collections, spanning more than 1,000 years of history from Europe to India, and from manuscripts to contemporary dance.

Torontonians will naturally be focussing on local issues like transit and taxes and when they go to the polls in October. But we should also spend some time thinking about how the candidates stack up when it comes to municipal diplomacy, the ability to make smart connections for Toronto in the wider world.