The first thing Kevin Smith did was call Amy Klobuchar. Could the senator help if Smith pursued this wild idea he had in January, to take the Minnesota Orchestra to Cuba and become the first major U.S. orchestra to play there since President Obama announced his desire to normalize relations? Klobuchar, of course, said yes. The Minnesota Democrat is leading legislation that would lift the 53-year U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba.

Tags: symphonic diplomacy, minnesota orchestra, Cultural Diplomacy, embargo, cuba, music

With the support of the European Union, the Diplomatic School of Armenia has organized an international conference on Digital Diplomacy. More than 60 participants, Directors of Diplomatic Institutes, Ambassadors and Heads of Department of Ministries of Foreign Affairs from all over the world will discuss the prospects and challenges of digital diplomacy during the two-day event.

Tags: international conference, digital diplomacy, summitry, armenia, european union

An Ethiopian Public Diplomacy delegation is paying a one week-long visit to the neighbouring Sudan in order to bolster and further expand existing relations between the two countries.The delegation headed by the Speaker of the House of Peoples’ Representative of the Ethiopian Parliament, Abadulla Gemeda, is holding discussions with senior government officials, business community, religious leaders and other members of the civil society in Sudan.

Tags: ethiopia, public diplomacy delegation, sudan, civil society, bilateral relations

Interestingly, the ‘Himalayan tragedy’ provided India with a readymade opportunity to score brownie points over its main rival and neighbour China on aid diplomacy and the Narendra Modi administration grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Although China had overtaken India as Nepal’s largest foreign investor in 2014, Beijing failed to catch up with New Delhi’s humanitarian diplomacy on this occasion.

Tags: natural disasters, aid diplomacy, international aid, india, china, nepal, pakistan

Diplomats are replaced every three or four years. However, this relatively fast departure and arrival of old and new faces, respectively, have little impact on their countries' cultural links with Korea because a group of dedicated people, such as the Seoul Garden Club, who help smoothen the transition.

Tags: korea, florists, flowers, diplomats, Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacy

Two years ago, the Obama administration announced a new strategy to curb online espionage.(...)The White House said it would increase public awareness of the threat, encourage the private sector to increase its defenses, focus diplomacy on protecting trade secrets overseas, improve trade secret theft legislation and make investigations and prosecutions of corporate and state-sponsored trade secret theft a top priority.

Tags: obama, united states, digital diplomacy, hackers, cyberattacks

Saturday’s Victory Day parade in Moscow was a compelling demonstration of Russian military might. More than 100 planes, 16,000 troops and 200,000 civilians carrying portraits of relatives who fought in the Second World War were involved. New weaponry on display included the Armata tank and a new intercontinental ballistic missile launcher that was developed in response to Nato anti-missile systems. 

Tags: russia, victory day, russian military, soft power, putin, public diplomacy

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will soon be completing his first full year in office. While he has his critics, there tends to be broad agreement that Modi has done a robust job in the sphere of foreign policy. Modi’s approach has focused on economics, soft power, connectivity, and maritime security. Modi has been deft at using what Joseph Nye has dubbed “smart power” – the right blend of soft power and hard power.

Tags: india, indonesia, narendra modi, foreign policy, bilateral relations, smart power, soft power, hard power