Brazil is known worldwide for its soccer players and supermodels, its lively parties and an appreciation for living life passionately. Another well-known characteristic of the country is its high inequality spurred on by ineffective income distribution practices and clientelistic political systems.

Tags: soft power, non-state actors, corporate diplomacy, brazil, economy, world bank, multinational corporations

The web is about to have its big bang. About 1,000 new generic top-level domain names, or gTLDs (the last bit of an internet address, such as the com in qz.com) will come into existence this year. On Feb. 4, anybody will be able to create and start running a website on the first of the new domains.

Tags: new technology, digital diplomacy, icann, domains, gtlds, cctlds, languages

Non-governmental organizations, together with government institutions have been major stakeholders in Turkey’s African initiative. Humanitarian assistance, development aid, humanitarian diplomacy, and exchange diplomacy are central to Turkey’s existing involvement in Africa. Turkey, as the natural heir of the Ottoman Empire, has inherited both a historical baggage and a legacy in North and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Tags: africa, non-state actors, turkey, aid diplomacy, development, trade diplomacy, humanitarian aid, tika

I first got a glimpse of Hawaiian public diplomacy a few years ago at the Taipei Flora Expo in 2011. Following a stint in Taiwan as a Visiting Fellow at a thinktank researching Taiwanese public diplomacy, I stopped in the Expo, which featured different countries exhibiting and showcasing their unique flora.

Tags: Cultural Diplomacy, japan, asia pacific, hawaii, paul rockower, substate diplomacy, paradiplomacy,

After hearing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s promise the Knesset this week that his government would support Israel “though fire and water,” one could excuse Israeli lawmakers for thinking that they had died and gone to hasbara heaven.

Tags: israel, australia, religion, canada, benjamin netanyahu, christianity, stephen harper, demographics, lobbying, conservatism

An internationally respected Egyptian political scientist said Wednesday that prosecutors had filed espionage charges against him, making him the second such scholar targeted this month in a widening crackdown on dissent against last summer’s military takeover.

Tags: middle east, egypt, muslim brotherhood, mohamed morsi, espionage, political prisoners, authoritarianism, emad shahin, academia

A long New Yorker profile of President Obama provides a great deal of insight into how the president and his administration view the undeniable expansion of jihadist groups claiming allegiance to al Qaeda. “The analogy we use around here sometimes, and I think is accurate, is if a JV team puts on Lakers uniforms that doesn’t make them Kobe Bryant,” President Obama said, distinguishing between groups that are “actively planning major terrorist plots against the homeland” and those who are “engaged in various local power struggles and disputes.”

Tags: united states, non-state actors, barack obama, terrorism, al qaeda, violence, los angeles lakers, islamic state of iraq and al-sham, kobe bryant

Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a Columbia University assistant professor of international and public affairs who is also a resident physician in East Harlem in New York, is a practicing Sikh. As part of his faith, he wears an uncut beard and a turban. Last September, he was attacked not far from his home in Harlem by a group of young men who, while yelling “terrorist” and “Osama,” kicked and beat Singh, fracturing his jaw and dislodging some of his teeth.

Tags: united states, Cultural Diplomacy, india, faith diplomacy, religion, immigration, sikhism, prabhjot singh