The week leading up to the anniversary saw an onslaught of headlines about Rwanda, declaring it a peaceful and forgiving nation, a modernized and tech-savvy pioneer, and an Africa-gone-right success story. 

Tags: rwanda, genocide, africa, central africa, rwandan genocide, media, social media, twitter, op-ed, western media, hutu, tutsi, paul kagame, central african republic, civil war, conflict, reconciliation

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and opposition coalition representatives agreed Tuesday to hold talks on ending two months of anti-government protests that have left 39 people dead in their oil-rich nation.

Tags: venezuela, the vatican, pope francis, faith diplomacy, non-state actors, non-state pd, pietro parolin, cardinal pietro parolin, nicolas maduro, leopoldo lopez, unasur, south america, catholic church, democratic unity roundtable, chavismo, hugo chavez, popular will, conflict, protest

 The Philippine navy will soon return to a South China Sea island it lost to Vietnam 40 years ago to drink beer and play volleyball with Vietnamese sailors, symbolising how once-suspicious neighbours are cooperating in the face of China's assertiveness in disputed waters.

Tags: philippines, vietnam, china, Cultural Diplomacy, united states, military diplomacy, naval diplomacy, vietnamese navy, philippine navy, south china sea, malaysia

Despite a mild economic slowdown amidst China’s economic rebalancing and the U.S. Federal Reserve tapering—and despite a dip in Indonesian shares following asurprisingly weak performance by the favorites in Wednesday’s parliamentary election—the general direction of Indonesia’s economy seems clear: onwards and upwards.

Tags: indonesia, united states, economy, china, asia pacific, military diplomacy, hard power, soft power, southeast asia, diplomacy

After the World Trade Center attacks in 2001, al-Qaeda became one of the great modern bogeymen, claiming credit for terrorist attacks all over the world. However, the jihadist group is less a centralised organisation than a loose coalition of franchises, writes Annabelle Quince.

Tags: al qaeda, terrorism, sulaiman abu ghaith, osama bin laden, united states, kenya, networks, non-state actors, non-state pd, bad actors

When it comes to the world’s most popular royal, there is no contest. Britain’s Kate Middleton, aka the Duchess of Cambridge, is the undisputed queen, able to sell out dresses just by wearing them and sell out crowds simply by showing up and waving. But there are other royals who inspire America’s aspiring fashionistas.

Tags: sheikha mozah, kate middleton, jordan, queen rania, women in the world, gender, qatar, fashion

Last week I joined several hundred other scholars at the 2014 International Studies Association convention. As expected, opinions on events in Ukraine abound. I was struck by the multiplicity of versions of the same events. More interesting still was how readily scholars were to label different versions as “propaganda.”

Tags: ukraine, propaganda, Cultural Diplomacy, conflict, relational propaganda, informational propaganda, joseph goebbels, history, russia, international studies association

In December 2012, Shaun Donovan, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was on vacation in Berlin when he decided to detour to the Netherlands. He wanted to get a firsthand sense of the famed Dutch approach to water management. 

Tags: united states, disaster assistance, disaster, netherlands, FEMA, water diplomacy, aid diplomacy, henk ovink, hurricane sandy, europe, development, environment