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.

On January 28, 1979, Mr. Deng Xiaoping, then China’s vice premier, started his nine-day official visit to the United States, the first such visit by a top Chinese leader since the founding of the People’s Republic. There are many memorable moments from his tour, but the most iconic is undoubtedly when he put on a ten-gallon cowboy hat and waved to the audience in a Texas rodeo. That moment humanized Chinese leaders, who had been demonized by American leaders and mass media for nearly two decades.

Swapping the lush green soccer fields of Australia for the arid dusty plains of Kenya, Adelaide United star Awer Mabil will make the long journey back to his birthplace at the Kakuma refugee camp to deliver hundreds of pairs of soccer boots and sports gear to children. Mabil said he was prompted to contribute in some way to the lives of the 180,000 refugees living in Kakuma after returning to visit last year and seeing scores of children playing soccer barefoot in the dirt.

Ken Taylor, the former Canadian ambassador for Iran and centre of the so-called Canadian caper in 1979, gave a speech to the school’s graduating class at the Jubilee Auditorium last week. Born in Calgary, Taylor graduated from Crescent Heights in the 1950s. He played basketball and football for the school (“I wasn’t drafted,” he jokes) but yearned to travel the world. He got his wish, embarking on a globe-trotting career in the foreign service.