The United States is applying different standards in its public criticism of the human rights record of authoritarian states of the former Soviet Union (FSU), according to a new report released here Monday by the Open Society Institute (OSI). The key variable, according to “Human Rights and the Failings of U.S. Public Diplomacy in Eurasia”, appears to be the perceived strategic importance of the specific country.

I was heartened this week when I read former prime minister Paul Keating's comments that no country is more important to Australia than Indonesia. As an Indonesian exporter, who for a long time has seen Australia as a partner rather than a market, I have felt for the first time real optimism regarding the relationship between our two countries.

As a way of entrenching the values in culture into the lives of Nigerian children at early stage, the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) on Thursday hosted its annual Children’s Cultural Festival at National Theatre, Lagos.

In discussions of the so-called Asia pivot, the roles of the U.S. Navy and Air Force have been prominent, especially given the Pentagon’s development of the Air-Sea Battle concept. But the U.S. pivot to the Asia-Pacific cannot be reduced to Air-Sea Battle.

The Trey McIntyre Project will bring its unique style of contemporary ballet to Kingsbury Hall this week. It’s easy to see that this isn’t a company that rides on its laurels: All three of the ballets on the program were choreographed in 2012, including "The Unkindness of Ravens," which premiered earlier this month at New York’s highly acclaimed Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Indonesia was not on US President Barack Obama’s Southeast Asian itinerary as he made his first trip abroad since winning reelection. But like many visitors to Southeast Asia, he might have enjoyed a brief respite from worries back home when he was in our region.

President Barack Obama is underscoring the administration’s ‘strategic pivot’ to Asia with his current trip to the Pacific. This column has criticised this pivot and the botched public diplomacy campaign that managed to irritate friends, allies and, of course, China. The Pentagon attempted to minimise the PR damage, renaming the pivot “rebalancing”.

Talk of PDA… Our own Prince Charming-politician Shashi Tharoor may have won some well-deserved acclaim from his wife Sunanda Pushkar recently for his very public display of affection with her, but Tharoor, it appears, has much to learn in the department of hands-on diplomacy from US President Barack Obama.