The Revolving Door to Public Diplomacy

With the first week of 2016 at an end, PD News headlines this week looked back upon the diplomatic breaks and breakthroughs of the year thus far. While some nations ushered in good diplomatic tidings, notably Japan and Korea, who reached a landmark resolution on the issue of “'comfort women' that has hitherto plagued relations between the two nations" since World War II, other nations were plagued with public diplomacy problems. Saudi Arabia “severed diplomatic ties with Iran,” while Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates also “downgrad[ed] or cu[t] off diplomatic relations with Iran.” Meanwhile, Brazil’s international image is under scrutiny following a series of “foreign policy failures,” and the European Union is facing an “existential crisis” as it works to resolve the refugee crisis, the Ukraine conflict, the eurozone’s economic downturn, and the possibility of the UK’s exist from the EU. What does the rest of 2016 have in store for world affairs?

• A Dangerous Year for China—Japan Times
• A Perilous Year for European Unity—The Wall Street Journal
• Brazil's Foreign Policy Failures—Foreign Affairs
• Iran's failed cultural diplomacy in Syria—The Guardian
• Saudi-Iran Rift Threatens Syria Diplomacy—Foreign Policy
• Saudi-Iranian Diplomatic Row Moves to Soccer—Fair Observer
• The Comfort Women Agreement: A Win for Traditional Diplomacy—The Diplomat

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Photo by Tory | CC BY-NC 2.0