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.

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.

Sunday's election in Turkey was another reminder of the country’s astonishing rise, which has been one of the most dramatic geopolitical stories of the last decade. Turkey has become not just a safe haven, but a model for what many Arabs would like to see their countries become. Finding a way to stabilize the ever-more-turbulent Middle East is Turkey’s most urgent task.

A rising power with a vibrant, free economy and a U.S. ally that aspires to join the European Union, Turkey is held up as an example of marrying Islam and democracy and has been an oasis of stability in a region convulsed by "Arab Spring" uprisings.

I’ve been tracking elements of China’s complicated and ambitious policy of expanding its information sphere to a possibly waiting world. In late May, I heard Dr. Hu Zhengrong, one of China’s most distinguished ambassadors to the international academic world, give a talk on this “going out” policy to the International Communications Association in Boston.

Pope Benedict XVI has given his strong backing to Croatia's bid to join the EU, on his first visit to the nation. He said he understood fears of a loss of cultural identity from joining the bloc but said Europe needs to be reminded of its Christian roots.

Serbia's road to the EU has cleared significantly, though there are still many kilometres to go... This dealing with the past at a judicial level occurs in parallel, as witnessed in other historical precedents, with the longer-term work of society with itself.