'Global in perspective, regional in focus' is the mantra underpinning Australia's forthcoming International Cyber Engagement Strategy -- but with trade come norms of behavior, and enforcement. [...] Australia's diplomatic engagement on cyber security matters will be detailed in the government's International Cyber Engagement Strategy, to be launched next Wednesday.

Increasing development aid, rebooting European climate policy, partnering with green technologies in emerging economies: the French president has made his diplomatic priorities clear. [...] In front of a distinguished audience, he listed France’s new ambitions “in the current state of affairs”: security, independence, and influence. This motto, he stressed, does not mean to “make France a small and reluctant country, jealously guarding its security”.

Brown’s upcoming visit to Beijing will focus on keeping up the COP21 Paris accords momentum Trump wants to radically reverse. California’s aggressive stance on pollution controls and environmental standards will be highlighted. The governor wants to make a lasting difference in the world. [...] California’s interest and right to combat climate change and seek China’s support is understandable and has precedent. But what’s in it for China?

China has employed tens of thousands of scholars to write an internet version of its national encyclopaedia, which will go online next year to compete against Wikipedia. [...] Designed to be the nation’s first digital book of “everything”, it will feature more than 300,000 entries, each about 1,000 words long, making it twice as large as the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and about the same size as the Chinese-language version of Wikipedia.

An analogy usually works as a low-risk way to make a point. The secret is to stick to comparisons that garner near-universal support. President Trump did it in February when he talked about the need for bold infrastructure projects like Eisenhower’s Interstate Highway System. Last year Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed a Marshall Plan for the Middle East. President Obama launched the Cancer Moonshot, a nod to the Apollo program.