Even normally quiet streets were electrified early Monday by Germany’s dramatic 1-0 win of the World Cup in extra time, a victory that symbolized, at least to fans, not just the country’s dominance of Europe, but its global prominence. Car horns and vuvuzelas honked, and fireworks and firecrackers exploded. On the Kurfuerstendamm, the gleaming street of stores and restaurants that was the symbol of West Berlin during the Cold War, cars quickly jammed traffic and fans draped themselves in the black, red and gold of the German flag.

Tags: 2014 fifa world cup, sports diplomacy, soccer diplomacy, german national soccer team, germany, nation branding, europe

Sunday’s final concluded a monthlong tournament that presented a jarring contrast between Brazil’s hosting of the tournament and its achievement on the field. The World Cup was well organized despite fears that it would be chaotic. The Brazilian people were hospitable. The soccer was largely attractive and attacking. Some have called this the best World Cup in recent memory. Soccer became so absorbing that widespread protests - against perceived wasteful spending on the World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics - did not occur after undermining a warm-up tournament last year.

Tags: brazil, FIFA 2014 world cup, germany, nation branding, 2016 Rio Olympics, sports diplomacy, soccer diplomacy

Germany and the United States sought on Sunday to restore vital ties badly frayed by a spying row which led to the expulsion of the CIA station chief in Berlin. Secretary of State John Kerry emerged from talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier to offer reassurances that the two vital transatlantic allies remain "great friends". In a bid to lighten the atmosphere and use sports diplomacy, Kerry even wished his counterpart "good luck" in Sunday's football World Cup final when Germany will take on Argentina.

Tags: germany, united states, john kerry, angela merkel, spying, sports diplomacy

“Migrants from everywhere, entrenched along the rail ties. Far away from where they come, further away from where they go,” singer Eddie Ganz croons in Spanish over the Caribbean beat of the marimba, a wooden xylophone-like instrument from Guatemala.  The song, and others like it, are part of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection campaign to deterring illegal immigration to the United States.

Tags: united states, immigration, propaganda, music diplomacy

Amid the spiraling bloodshed in Gaza, Turkey continues to send aid to the Palestinian enclave through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in coordination with the Israeli army. Turkish agencies have been flowing aid into Gaza worth a total of $2.5 million and most of the assistance is based on local procurement, a Turkish official told the Hürriyet Daily News. 

Tags: aid diplomacy, foreign aid, gaza, turkey, israeli-palestinian conflict, israel

The Korea Culture and Diplomatic Mission (KCDM), a group established to help Koreans build awareness of global cultures, said that it will host the three-day Youth Ambassador Academy at the International Youth Center in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, Aug. 4.

Tags: public diplomacy, government diplomacy, youth diplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy, south korea, youth education

After a month of football in a country where the sport is regarded a religion, we look at how the World Cup has affected the volatile political situation in Brazil and what will happen now that the tournament has come to an end.

Tags: brazil, FIFA 2014 world cup, global image, nation branding, image building, national image

In 2011 Achref Aouadi and his friends, who fought for “Bread, freedom and human dignity!” during the revolution, established I Watch, a youth watchdog fighting against corruption on all levels of society. “We declared Sunday 13 July as National Voter Registration Day, and it has been really viral across social media,” explains Aouadi.

Tags: democracy, tunisia, social media, new technology, digital diplomacy, FIFA 2014 world cup