Our diplomacy must be more nimble–setting priorities, forming coalitions around shared values and interests, and working assiduously to maintain the broad appeal of the international order. 

Six months after taking office, Indonesian President Joko Widodo is starting to step away from his predecessor’s foreign policy of keeping everyone happy. Widodo, known as Jokowi, criticized the United Nations and International Monetary Fund at this week’s Asian African Conference in Jakarta. He’s pledged to increase defense spending, ordered foreign boats seized for illegal fishing to be destroyed, and declined to pardon two Australian drug smugglers facing a firing squad, leading to warnings of damaged ties.

After a quarter of a century since the end of the Cold War, many challenges and threats, as well as opportunities today define a transformation process still ongoing at the global level. With its political stability, vibrant economy, young and dynamic population and active diplomacy, Turkey is an emerging powerhouse. (...) On this basis, the four fundamental elements of Turkey’s multi-dimensional foreign policy are; relations with neighbors and nearby basins, opening up to new geographies, effective role in international organizations and platforms and depth in strategic relations.

While commemorating the 1955 Bandung Conference, China and Japan lay out competing visions for Asia and Africa.(...) While Japan and China’s strategies for Asian-African cooperation sound similar, in practice the potential for the two countries to collaborate is slim. China will pursue engagement with both Asia and Africa through the framework of its “One Belt, One Road” strategy, and Japan is hardly going to link its own outreach programs to a Chinese-led initiative.

How might a Republican White House engage Asia?(...)At a Council on Foreign Relations symposium on U.S. Rebalance to Asia held earlier this week, Daniel Russel, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, cautioned against the “politics of China” in the 2016 presidential campaign. Republican candidates might consider three elements in appropriating the rebalance within a Republican foreign policy rubric.

Although the Saudis like to emphasize their independence from U.S. policy, Western analysts say their actions thus far have not seriously challenged Western strategic interests in the region. The airstrikes in Yemen, for example, have not jeopardized the multinational nuclear talks.

After a decade of swimming against the tide, the Australian Government is slowly engaging in the world of digital diplomacy. (...) Today, digital diplomacy is a foreign policy essential. We live in a world where state and non-state entities all compete for influence and power in the same online space. 

Sanctions have become as sacred to western armouries as nuclear bombs were 50 years ago. No one dares question them for fear of being thought a dove or a wimp. They cost little to the aggressor but make them feel good. They repress trade rivals. They attract macho adjectives, such as tough, meaningful, targeted and smart. They are chiefly aimed at domestic consumption. Only the poor (and a handful of rich) in the victim states suffer.