Earlier this year, StandWithUs (SWU), a pro-Israeli American advocacy group that coordinates its activities closely with the Israeli government, finally unveiled an SWU-China division for its organization in an event that marked a joint celebration of the Chinese New Year and Jewish Tu B’Shvat in Jerusalem.

Tags: china, israel, united states, Cultural Diplomacy, public diplomacy, international exchange

Saudi Arabia's new foreign minister, a US-educated connoisseur of Washington's diplomatic scene and longtime adviser to the Kingdom's rulers, is an articulate spokesman for his country's new assertive approach to the Middle East's growing conflicts.

Tags: saudi arabia, united states, public diplomacy, public opinion, al jubeir

In an article Braude wrote for The American Interest in 2014, he explained how China’s Arabic-language television and radio outreach efforts are specifically targeted to niche audiences in Middle Eastern countries that can go on to influence those states’ broader societies to be more pro-Chinese.

Tags: china, middle east, arabic, international broadcasting, soft power

Fraser is the director of the Pushkin Prizes, a unique creative writing competition which unites the most promising young Scottish and Russian writers. It was founded in 1988 by Lady Butter, the great-great-great granddaughter of the celebrated author Alexander Pushkin, with the aim of fostering a community of writers from both countries.

Tags: scotland, russia, writing, Cultural Diplomacy, international exchange

The failure of the U.S. campaign to dissuade allies from joining China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was greeted in some quarters as a sign of American decline. But this episode was not a crisis of American power, which remains unequaled. And while the threat that the bank poses to that power and to the international order it undergirds has been much touted, it is in fact overstated. In fact, the main portent of the episode is not Beijing’s overturning of the international economic order or the arrival of China as a U.S.

Tags: united states, china, bank, development, power, policy making, economic power, economic order

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has opened one of the world's biggest collections of Pacific artwork at an event in Sydney. More than 60,000 artefacts from 16 Pacific nations and territories are on display at the Australian Museum's Pacific Spirit exhibition, which opened today.Ms Bishop told Pacific Beat she "jumped at the chance" to support the gallery, as part of a wider campaign of cultural outreach within Australia and across the Pacific.

Tags: Australian museum, julie bishop, foreign minister, cultural outreach, Cultural Diplomacy, pacific artifacts

Over the next year, the United Nations will make a critical choice. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s term ends Dec. 31, 2016, and a new leader will replace him. In the past, the election of a successor has taken place in the fall of a secretary-general’s final year in office, but the debate is heating up early this time around.Since the birth of the United Nations in 1945, eight men, from Norway, Sweden, Burma (or Myanmar), Austria, Peru, Egypt, Ghana and South Korea have held this important post. The next secretary-general should be a woman.

Tags: united nations, secretary general, woman, ban ki-moon, successor, public diplomacy

Robert Pszczel said he felt like he was in a Monty Python skit when he made a routine call to Russia's Defense Ministry back in June 2013."We cannot talk to you!" came the agitated reply in a hissed whisper, says Pszczel, acting out the scene for comic effect.This was how Pszczel, NATO's envoy in Russia, found out his line of contact with the ministry had been terminated.(...)Pszczel says incidents like this have been business as usual at the NATO outpost he runs in Moscow.

Tags: public diplomacy, united states, russia, nato, envoy, cold war, post-cold war