A curated selection of public diplomacy-relevant news from a global cross-section of English-language media outlets, including independent, corporate-owned, and state-sponsored sources. The stories featured don't necessarily represent CPD's views nor have they been verified by CPD.
Iran’s View of Syria
Iran is a close ally of Syria, so officials in Tehran are following the Syrian conflict closely. But so are ordinary Iranians, who worry that the crisis could distract their government from pressing matters at home, like the economy. Anchor Marco Werman discusses Iran’s reaction to events in Syria with Iranian journalist Shirin Jaafari.
Putin’s PR Blitz - Win or Lose?
All this excitement over recent Russian public diplomacy on Syria is a bit odd to those of us who have been following that diplomacy strategy for over a decade. That Vladimir Putin chose to write an op-ed in The New York Times this week is not at all shocking. It is part of a broader pattern of Russian outreach that began in 2001.
Medellin Strives to be Latin American Capital of Innovation
Medellin authorities announced Thursday that Colombia’s second largest city aspires to be the principal technological innovation city of Latin America by 2021 aspires to be the principal technological innovation city of Latin America by 2021.
Will Russia Regret “Owning” Syria?
With the Russian proposal for Bashar al-Assad to allow the international community to take control of his chemical weapons stockpile, the Obama administration happily claimed that coercive diplomacy worked. The details of such transfer remain complicated, and it’s certainly possible that ultimately there will be no actual transit of the weapons.
Should Governments Try to Make Us Happy?
When a Guardian journalist visited Bhutan recently, the country’s “mystical” quotient did not disappoint. Among other things, the writer noted “men and women laboring in song,” a woman “scampering around churning a pot of yak butter tea,” and the “sound of mule bells ringing in the valley.” As he reaches the remote mountain home of a local herder, the man quips, as though starring in a tourism commercial, "You know, happiness is a place."
The Future is Soft
The business world is awash with talk of soft power. It is, say gurus and thinkers, the key to durable success and it's largely thanks to women that the trend has risen to prominence. But what is it? Well, simply put, soft power is the application of emotional intelligence.
Gunfight Follows 2 Suicide Bombings at a U.S. Consulate in Afghanistan
Taliban militants set off two suicide bombs in an attack on a U.S. Consulate in western Afghanistan Friday morning, triggering a gun battle with security forces that left at least two Afghans and seven attackers dead. The U.S. said all its personnel from the consulate in the city of Herat were safe and American forces later moved in to secure the site.
Say What? Kerry Loses Something in Translation
Something got lost in translation between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday - and it served to illustrate the level of distrust in U.S.-Russian relations. It happened when the two diplomats delivered opening statements before their high-stakes talks about how to inventory and dismantle Syria's chemical weapons.
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