The Advocate hosted Marco Jaramillo, a Colombian journalist who launched one of the country’s most prominent LGBT multimedia outlets, EgoCity. Jaramillo was the first out journalist to take part in the International Center for Journalism’s multipart fellowship [...] which brought experienced journalists from five different Latin American countries to the U.S. to work in 10 different newsrooms. 

Tags: colombia, united states, lgbt, advocacy, non state pd, international exchange, journalism, latin america, human rights

Kuwait is one of the masters of soft power in the Middle East. As I was having dinner with two Emiratis, two non- Kuwaiti Arabs were having dinner at a table beside ours; the two non-Kuwaiti Arabs were stuck to one phone watching the second episode of “Swar Shuaib,” Kuwait’s Shuaib Rashed’s popular talk show. 

Tags: kuwait, middle east, smart & soft power, culture, influence, foreign policy, international image

According to Matthew Barzun, U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, diplomats in the digital age have a lot to learn from the story of Encarta, Microsoft’s ill-fated digital encyclopedia. In the early 2000s, Encarta briefly outsold the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica, historically the top seller in the field. But by 2009, despite being backed by the richest company in the world, Encarta had been discontinued. It was unable to compete with Jimmy Wales’ user-generated, user-audited Wikipedia, which had become and remains the predominant model for sharing knowledge.

Tags: wikiplomacy, wikipedia, encyclopedia, encarta, Digital Diplomacy & New Technology

There are a number of no-go zones in the world for President Barack Obama these days. [...] But this week, President Obama is in Havana, and the greeting crowds have been enraptured. Such a trip was inconceivable back in 2008, when Obama was running for president. But as he finishes his last year in office, the president is determined to make his détente with Cuba irreversible.

Tags: president obama, united states, cuba, government pd, diplomatic relations, havana, economic development, human rights

The culture and education organization of the Yunus Emre Institute has laid out a 15-article road map for its 2023 goals during a recent advisory meeting in Ankara. The meeting [...] set forth that the institute will strive to establish 55 centers on five continents by 2017 in efforts to strengthen communicative ties with the international community. 

Tags: turkey, yunus emre institute, ankara, Cultural Diplomacy, smart & soft power, international image, arts, turkish language

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a ¥600 million grant-in-aid pledge to Zimbabwe on Monday to help bring more Japanese companies back to the former agricultural powerhouse amid an aggressive foray by China. [...] also said Japan would maintain close consultation with Zimbabwe to counter the severe food shortages there.

Tags: japan, zimbabwe, africa, china, global aid & development, government pd, shinzo abe, economic development, bilateral relations

The incident was the latest in a string of cultural flashpoints surrounding the centuries-old Indian practice, and has made many a yogi rethink the lines between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation.

Tags: yoga, america, india, united states, Cultural Diplomacy, university of ottawa, cultural appropriation, western supremacy, cultural exchange, religion

In some respects the editorial direction of China’s international media reporting can be seen as an extension of the nation’s diplomacy. While the first principal of diplomacy is that it is the pursuit of national interests, one of the foundations of successfully diplomacy is promoting common interests. 

Tags: australia, china, media, capitalist democracy, television, online, national interest, nation branding, government pd, journalism