Three main strands run through the narrative: learning Japanese, creating camaraderie with Keio University students, and acquiring extropy. That ambassadors come and go is a truism. Yet, precious few make a permanent mark on the country and people where they are accredited. Aftab Seth is one such scholar-diplomat. 

The day after he retired in 2006, dairy specialist Archie Devore headed to Russia to help farm operations update their practices. [...] Devore’s trip to Russia was the first of 28 assignments in nine different countries that the Lincoln resident has taken through a U.S. government program that has sent more than 16,000 agricultural volunteers overseas over the past 30 years.

Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) held the Okinawa International Cooperation and Exchange Festival 2015 at the Okinawa International Center in Maeda, Urasoe. JICA’s interns, learning about technology from all over the world, and about 30 international cooperation and exchange associations in Okinawa ran booths.

Cameroon exchange student Nouredine Mama was given two days’ notice before he was flown to Alaska this fall. The 16-year-old was already settled in Washington, D.C., and had started school when the exchange program he was with found him a host family. Two days later, he moved across the country and started school at Homer High School.

#longstorySHORT, an innovative initiative that has raised the profile of African literature on social networks and in the public imagination, has its first reading outside South Africa in December. Launched in March 2015, #longstorySHORT is produced by Pretoria-based boutique content agency Kajeno Media. The project manifests through live readings and recordings by high-profile celebrity performers in spaces like public libraries, book cafes and cultural hubs.

I met not one but three remarkable social entrepreneurs here in Haiti. The first is a young woman who is leading a local effort to help other entrepreneurs in Haiti, the second a young man who now runs the larges plastic recycling business and the last, a returned political exile from the Duvalier era that now runs a promising hydroponics business off of his roof!

Brazil should build a lot of soft power and strengthen cooperation and partnership with other countries in undergoing socioeconomic development, a Brazilian expert has said. [...] However, even during the Lula administration, in which Brazil expanded its soft power, it did not manage to go beyond its stereotyped image of a country of soccer, Carnival, coffee and samba.

First Lady Michelle Obama recently published a piece inThe Atlantic, making the case for the White House’s Let Girls Learn initiative. She wrote, “Right now, 62 million girls worldwide are not in school. They’re receiving no formal education at all.”