Britain's Queen Elizabeth connects with people easily, Prince Charles sometimes struggles and Diana had connectivity in spades.The big test for William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, on their first international tour was how they would take to the crowds and how the crowds would take to them.

The financial crisis and Arab Spring migrants have given rise to a "new euroscepticism" inside the union, Polish leader Donald Tusk has warned as Poland takes over the EU presidency..Tusk said the Polish presidency "has enough energy" to fight the new EU-hostile trend.

In the last hundred days, the world has seen not only how weak and divided are the European members of NATO, but also how the once-celebrated European notion of "soft power" means very little in the world of perpetually savage nations. What stops China from carving out a new co-prosperity sphere in Asian waters...

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today said China may give Europe “a helping hand” with its current debt crisis – but warned in uncharacteristic tones for a second successive day against European officials and media that “meddle” in China’s affairs. Mr. Wen ended a goodwill jaunt through Europe that is partly intended to put a better face on China, experts say.

UK aid agencies raised £71m in their Pakistan floods appeal last year, the third highest amount raised for a humanitarian disaster, according to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), the umbrella organisation of British humanitarian groups.

Whether or not Shakespeare fits the political message Beijing wants to deliver, a viewing of “Hamlet” is in keeping with the populist brand of public diplomacy favored by Mr. Wen, who has often added cultural events to his visits abroad.

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...

The European Union proudly claims to be more than the sum of its 27 parts, with a collective wealth and influence that gives it elephant status in the global zoo...The “cradle of democracy” had recently cast off six years of military dictatorship. Spain and Portugal had been invited to join the club specifically to help consolidate their emerging democracies