North Korea's current foreign policy is based around only two things -- surviving and respect. "Ultimately they want to be recognized as a nuclear power and then reset their relations with some of their antagonists, South Korea and then the US, as a nuclear power," he said.

The Dubai Government Media Office on Monday announced the agenda for the Public Diplomacy and Government Communication Forum (PDGCF) that will be held next Sunday in Dubai. [...] Aims to support government organisations in optimising their communication strategies through a discussion of global best practices and success stories from around the world.

Asia continues to be a major focus of American diplomacy under President Donald Trump. Top officials from the administration -- including Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- are set to underscore America's continued commitment to the geopolitically important region by soon visiting Asia.

Mexico's nominee to be its next ambassador to the United States said Thursday that the two countries' relationship is at a “critical” juncture with the new administration of President Donald Trump. Ahead of high-level talks scheduled for next week in Mexico City, ambassador-in-waiting Geronimo Gutierrez Fernandez said Mexico must pursue a good relationship with Washington but that should not come “at all costs nor under just any conditions,” or in a way that is “to the detriment of national interest.”

Much work was concluded in Beijing of late by Singapore ministers and their Chinese counterparts, related to the bilateral government-to-government projects in Suzhou, Tianjin and Chongqing. [...] Yet for all that, there is an abiding sense of realism that even old ties are subject to the vicissitudes of geopolitical changes. That was borne out in past months when diplomatic friction surfaced between the two countries.

Bad guys can possess soft power. I know—I wrote a book about it. But over most of the past century the U.S., as the soft power hyperpuissance, has largely set the standards of what constitutes effective national image projection. The United States has drawn its soft power, the “ability to shape the preferences of others,” as put by Joseph S. Nye, who devised the term. 

Now a new initiative called Republic TV, bankrolled by the nationalistic Indian politician and media baron Rajeev Chandrasekhar, stands the best chance to break the inertia and enter the big league in the world news business. [...] Should Republic TV deliver the goods, soft-power benefits will flow to India as an open and argumentative society bringing its distinct non-Western narrative to illuminate the world’s problems and offer solutions.

Core to Donald Trump’s appeal, both at home and abroad, is that he doesn’t seem to care how he’s supposed to behave. He certainly doesn’t fuss over offending Chinese nationalist sensibilities. This perhaps explains, in part, his curious adventure in China-Taiwan diplomacy. [...] And now he’s walking back his moves on Taiwan: On his first phone call with President Xi Jinping, Trump said he would honor the One China policy.