In recent years a considerable amount of policy energy has been focused on ensuring the vitality and relevance of the U.S.-Japan security alliance. Now, with Japan’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks (TTP), attention has refocused on the economic aspect. Somewhat less consideration has been paid to the fundamental foundation of the relationship: people-to-people exchange. Total human flow from Japan to the U.S. has declined significantly over the last 15 years, and while the numbers of U.S. arrivals to Japan have grown, they remain low.

Despite soggy conditions, including a brief downpour, more than 100 people still showed up for the St. Petersburg, Russia-based youth ensemble, Golden Gates at Poinciana United Methodist Church last Thursday. By imitating dancers, sampling instruments or copying the rhythmic clapping and foot stomping of Russian dance, the audience got a taste of faraway culture when the youth ensemble performed a 90-minute show providing an entertaining and authentic glimpse into Old Russia.

Thanks to the 2013 Chinese Training Program for EU Employees, some 30 officials got the opportunity to know more about China. Launched by the Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) and organized by Beijing Foreign Studies University, the program, which lasts from July 20-28, is the first such cultural exchange platform in China designed for European Union employees, said Jing Wei, deputy director-general of Hanban.

The Republic of China on Taiwan continues to strengthen its partnership with St. Kitts and Nevis in many areas, but a key area of focus for both countries is education, which is the basic pillar of growth and development in any society. With the introduction of a student exchange Programme between both countries, the importance of the role that education plays in development is underscored.

Cultural exchange takes on many forms. In Cloquet, the pulp and paper mill’s viability as an employer is intact because of its willingness to travel and learn what the rest of the world’s mills offered. So, there’s that. There’s also this: without cultural exchange, Adam Kangas may have gone a lifetime believing Swedes drove on the left side of the road. Why not? It’s a common assumption all Europeans drive on the left side.

An Auckland-based Samoan Tongan poet has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to write creatively about cultural diplomacy for three months in Hawaii. Leilani Tamu is this year’s recipient of the 2013 Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency. She told Sara Vui-Talitu her inspiration for the residency will be to write about one of the last heirs to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Princess Kaiulani.

Both my academic and professional careers were hugely influenced by my volunteering experiences. I have always worked with ethnic minority communities, who have often been marginalised from the wider and dominant culture of society. I have actively participated in projects focused on advocating for the rights of women who had no recourse to UK public funds and were experiencing domestic violence. This influenced my decision to apply my knowledge of social work principles, techniques and practices to complex cases and community issues in international development.

At its core, the Latin Alternative Music Conference is a gathering of dedicated underdogs, rallying behind music that envisions a polyglot, multicultural, border-hopping 21st-century culture but faces stubborn barriers, in the United States, of language and radio formats. The term “Latin alternative” makes room for pop, indie-rock, electronica, hip-hop, punk and hard rock, all loosely connected by a willingness to push past divisions of genre and geography.