Nigeria is falling in love with Star Wars. There are two reasons. There's a growing nerd culture in the country — young people who love science fiction and see it as a way to imagine our own futures as something better than our present […] The other reason: John Boyega, […] son of Nigerians who settled in Britain.

Ai Wei Wei, the renowned Chinese artist who is currently visiting refugees on the Greek island of Lesbos […] has been sharing pictures and videos on his personal Instagram account, drawing attention to the plight of the thousands of refugees risking stormy waters to escape war and hardship.

Professor Joseph Nye and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage correctly pointed out that to solve the biggest problems we need a mix of hard and soft power — which they termed “smart power.” […] What would a smart power campaign directed against the challenges represented by the Islamic State look like?

Hyseni stated that this project will involve more young people from Albania and Kosovo, who have the potential to promote their countries through implementation of their creative ideas. Albanian Deputy Foreign Minister further said that this memorandum will promote network of “digital diplomats” and will also assist in the implementation of public and cultural diplomacy.

The international security agenda and the theoretical ways to study it have expanded tremendously since the end of the Cold War. Once the strict control of the global east-west military ideological rivalry lifted, various new threats and ways to analyze them emerged. These were the issues discussed in a three-day workshop organized recently by the International Relations Council of Turkey.

There is a lot of talk about political leaders, foreign ministries and individual ambassadors in the social media, but there is a more important discussion when it comes to digital diplomacy. Rather than consuming digital content and playing with social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, the real challenge of online diplomacy is about "digital making."

The State Department wants to increase collaboration with the private sector and push for more data analytics on what is and is not working in its efforts to counter the Islamic State online, Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel said at a New America Foundation event on Dec. 16.