Ever since Ariel Sharon sank into a coma eight years ago, many have wondered whether he would have taken the peace process with the Palestinians any further after the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. A series of cables from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv to the State Department that were leaked to Wikileaks show that in fact, even before the Gaza withdrawal, Sharon was planning his next big diplomatic move.

2013 has seen governments in the Middle East and North Africa venture further into the world of digital diplomacy. Some have fully embraced it, while some linger tentatively on the sidelines. No matter what kind of approach governments take, digital is undeniably a vital element in the MENA diplomacy toolbox. Certain countries in the region have already demonstrated an impressive command of digital platforms.

The town of Bor has already changed hands three times in South Sudan's three weeks of civil war, and whoever controls the strategically important state capital will have the upper hand in the long-awaited peace negotiations. VICE was invited to embed with South Sudanese government forces pushing north to retake Bor from the rebels, but the rebels were lying in wait for us along the road, waiting to strike back.

In its last-ditch attempt to get moderate Syrian opposition groups to the negotiating table, the Obama administration faces the prospect that a no-show wouldn't be such a bad thing. With less than two weeks to go before a long-planned peace conference in Switzerland, the main Western-backed moderate political group seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad has still not decided if it will attend. It's the latest frustration for the U.S. and allies who have spent the last 18 months trying to negotiate a transition of power from Assad to a new, representative government.

Just because both invoked the fictional evil wizard of the Harry Potter series, Lord Voldemort, the bickering between Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom Liu Xiaoming and his Japanese counterpart Keiichi Hayashi in the Daily Telegraph has been a huge media sensation. Which is perfectly understandable.

Nearly eight months after President Hassan Rouhani's surprise election victory, in which the centrist cleric trounced influential conservative candidates, Iran's hardliners are behaving as if they never lost. Shadowy vigilantes on motorcycles have menaced the family home of a pro-Rouhani filmmaker, and reform-minded journalists are showing up on target lists.

Colombian police reported that 292 cases of kidnapping were registered in 2013, of which 32 could be directly traced to the FARC, despite the rebel group's promise to cease the practice -- a government precondition for peace talks. In February 2012, the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced they would cease the practice of “retentions” (the guerrilla word for kidnapping), which was a government precondition for sitting down and negotiating an end to the 50-year civil conflict.

With the fog of war not yet lifted, the news out of Iraq's Anbar province remains ambiguous. What little we can see, however, does not look good. Al Qaeda in Iraq -- along with significant elements of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) -- has been able to take over government buildings in Ramadi, Fallujah, and Karmah. In response, government forces have amassed outside these cities and are preparing for an operation that could reverberate in Iraq's nascent democracy long into the future.