With reference to Pakistan, our busy diplomats in the world’s power hub of Washington DC are gradually embracing social media but are not sufficiently trained to engage in debates on social media. That is unfortunate because social media has become the new public diplomacy tool and is far cheaper than the bloated budgets of fancy diplomatic events. In this age of rapid-fire peer-to-peer connectivity, the Pakistan embassy is still boxed in in the world of achingly slow government-to-government negotiations. 

Ireland’s overseas aid programme has come out top in an international comparison of how richer countries help poorer nations. Irish Aid’s performance was declared a “stand-out” after earning top four places in all categories under which the programme was evaluated. It was ranked first under the heading of fostering institutions which means supporting recipient countries to strengthen their state institutions and structures so that they can better nurture their own development as a way out of poverty.

On May 30, the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS) at Brookings hosted a discussion examining the use of public diplomacy in Northeast Asia. Leading experts discussed the objectives, practices, opportunities and challenges in public diplomacy for China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.