Hardliners on both sides have ramped up their efforts to sabotage the deal, while both governments are trying very hard to defend the deal and present it as a historical victory, which it truly is. The publicity that the Iran Deal debates has gotten has allowed both the Iranian and American governments to portray their countries as pragmatic, pro-diplomacy, and pro-peace—thereby enhancing their soft power, as opposed to repellently boasting about their hard power.

Despite decades of U.S. sanctions against Iran, change came when the U.S. worked with Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the EU to forge the diplomatic agreement. The glue holding those relations together is U.S. credibility.

Diplomacy has resumed its role, trumping 'go it alone' military interventions. [...] The fruitful culmination of negotiations between world powers and Iran over its nuclear program, are yet another indication to the global shift in International Relations, away from unilateral military solutions, and back towards multilateral diplomacy.

This second stage of reform includes a reboot of the priorities of the ministry and its personnel, the implementation of modern approaches to personnel management, improvement of consulates' work, and the adoption of a new edition of the law on diplomatic service. In addition, Betsa said that the ministry had announced the launch of a new focus public diplomacy, with cultural diplomacy included.

Diplomat Thomas R. Pickering draws upon his 40 years of experience in the US State Department to give the Bulletin’s Dan Drollette Jr.

Global health diplomacy is the interdisciplinary field where health sciences, including medicine, meet policy-making. A simple definition would struggle to capture the broad spectrum covered by this emerging field, which exceeds the disciplinary boundaries of public policy and health sciences. The discipline relies on training, advanced research and critical exploration of cultural, social and political affairs and their relation to healthcare.