People's opinions of the UK have improved markedly since 2012. That suggestion is based on a BBC World Service survey of more than 26,000 global citizens, whose positive views pushed the UK into third place, behind Germany and Canada.

The two Narromine residents are part of a 28-person exchange program to all parts of New Zealand. This is a cultural exchange program that has been running for 24 years and the program has been used by several Narromine students during this period. Local Rotarian and mentor for the students, Geoff Smith, said the students would attend school as part of their exchange and they would be exposed to several experiences only available in New Zealand.

Prof. Wilfried Lulei, a German researcher of Vietnam Studies, highlighted the significance of the event, saying it will help strengthen the bilateral friendship and mutual understanding about the cultural traditions and customs of each country.

Looking back over 50 years of the Union, 'cultural diplomacy' has a greater chance of creating understanding between peoples than what I will call for the purposes of this article, 'conventional diplomacy'. As such, over the next 50 years, we should throw down the challenge to the AU to put cultural diplomacy at the top of its agenda.

Scholars around the Muslim world were alarmed five years ago by news reports that Turkey planned a new, possibly heretical, compilation of the Prophet Mohammad’s sayings that might scrap those it thought were no longer applicable.

Given all that, out of the TV shows to send to the mother country, surely this one could be skipped? I'd argue just the opposite: This is exactly the kind of cultural product America should be exporting.

Over the past decade there has been a near universal surge of interest in public diplomacy. Yet, as more nations venture into the PD realm it is becoming increasingly clear that understandings of PD concepts and practices are anything but universal. One area where different views are emerging is the role of the public. Who is the “public” in public diplomacy?