In his opening remarks, Ambassador of Romania to Azerbaijan Nicolae Ureche said the round table had significant importance for public diplomacy. He said the public community should be informed about the missions and commitments of the North Atlantic alliance in details.

It is hard to remember the time when the Georgian leader was the reform darling of the Euro-Atlantic community, blitzing corruption with one hand, building infrastructure with another and trying to use soft power to win back the loyalties of people in the breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

It looks great on paper. But there is no transparency. There are no benchmarks and no opportunities for public input or oversight...The talks are used as a public relations exercise that allow the EU to isolate human rights issues from other top-level negotiations.

Lord Patten is adamant that the best way to appreciate the BBC is to go abroad. The last governor of Hong Kong and former European Commissioner said his love of the World Service made protecting it a priority, describing it as “an institution to be proud of”.

Guerrilla Diplomacy’s central argument, in its most highly distilled form, is that if development has in large part become the new security in the age of globalization, then diplomacy must displace defence at the centre of international policy.

The problem facing the Administration is that international impatience with the stalled U.S. peace process has reached a point where more photo-op diplomacy won't suffice. The world wants to see progress on a two-state solution, and believes Israel has to be pressed on the matter.

The blistering farewell speech to NATO by U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates warning of a "dim, if not dismal" future for the Alliance drew the Western public's attention to a longstanding debate about the state of the transatlantic relationship, with prominent commenters voicing concern about much more than just a two-tiered defensive alliance.

By no means has Turkey emerged as a mature power. Its handling of events in Syria and other countries - consisting mostly of rhetoric - shows that it is has yet to assume a position to influence, let alone manage, events on its periphery. But it is still early in the game.