Europe’s largest student union on Monday issued its support for the social protests taking place across Israel, two days after more than 400,000 Israelis took to the streets in the movement’s biggest series of demonstrations yet.

The restoration of mosques carried out by the Foundation of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet Vakfı) and the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) constitute solid ground for Davutoğlu’s public diplomacy in the Balkans.

Either Europeans will develop the security and defense identity they have advertised for so long, so Europe can have its own credible voice in a world not only run by soft power, or given the expense and difficulties of defeating even Libya, they will simply stop trying. The jury is out, but the verdict is important.

With the twin crises of the American budget deficit and the European public borrowing emergency, China has ample worries. China is nonetheless active in bilateral relations with EU member states, and this involves commercial diplomacy, high-level visits and public diplomacy. The last increasingly revolves around the notion of “helping friends,” whether these are nations in need of investment or simply cash.

It remains to be seen how Europe will solve the many questions posed by continuing migratory flows...But if it wants to keep its “soft power” and “transformational value” as part of efforts to effect change in its neighbourhood, any policy will have to be in line with the EU’s much trumpeted core values and principles.

Tens of thousands of people marched across Syria on the first Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan....Clinton repeated that the United States believed Assad had lost legitimacy in Syria...The European Union also agreed to further extend sanctions on Syria.

APDS Blogger: Kimberly DeGroff Madsen