The AIIB is an international financial institution whose founding was proposed in 2013 by the government of China. The general purpose of this multilateral development bank is to provide finance to infrastructure projects in the Asian region. Analysts of international affairs and finance in China, the United States, and Europe say that the unexpected success of the bank represents a major turning point in an undeclared contest for global influence between Washington and Beijing. 

For the first time, climate change has received full treatment in an important State Department planning document, joining terrorism, democracy, and the global economy among the nation’s top diplomatic priorities. It’s the clearest sign yet that the warming climate has the full attention of the Obama administration.

On May 9, the European Union embassies in Washington open to the public as part of a programme known as "Shortcut to Europe". If you happen to be in Washington this Saturday, I would urge you to take a look at the programme, as it offers what are technically known in the art world as "hidden gems". 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with a six-member bipartisan US Congressional delegation on Monday, including Rep. Karen Bass (D-California) who was among 58 members of Congress who skipped his controversial speech to Congress in March. One government official said that while the speech in Congress did come up during the meeting, the main focus was on the Iranian nuclear negotiations. Netanyahu is continuing to be outspoken in his opposition to the Iran deal

China’s resilient authoritarianism – or at least Beijing’s continued adherence to a distinctively non-Western polity – has for the moment refuted the democratic “end of history.” Still, the first part of Fukuyama’s polarizing thesis, the liberal part in the “liberal democracy” declaration, has been celebrated by political pundits around the world as the irreversible path of humanity. The term “Chimerica” has been the epitome of the wishful thinking of liberal intellectuals around the world who deterministically infer that U.S.

President Barack Obama has nominated Gayle Smith, a White House adviser, to run the US international development agency. If the move is confirmed by the Senate, Smith, a former journalist and long-time Africa expert, will be in charge of the Obama administration’s development agenda for the final years of his presidency.

Indeed, in the immediate aftermath of the brutal state-sanctioned killing of two Australian citizens, the shallowness of any trust between Jakarta and Canberra - between Australians and Indonesians - has been fully exposed.The expected recall of both ambassadors - theirs in direct retaliation to the unprecedented withdrawal of ours already announced - is as inevitable as it is regrettably, largely pointless. Ditto for other gestures of Australian unhappiness in the diplomatic sphere.

The initiative announced on Tuesday will receive $300-million over the next five years. Proponents see the move as a good first step that could eventually put Canada in the ranks of other developed countries that are making a profit on loans and other financing options for Canadian, international and local businesses operating in developing countries.