Turkey was the world’s third most generous country for the allocation of international aid in 2013, according to the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report released on Sept. 11. The country provided $1.6 billion last year for international humanitarian assistance, while the U.S. spent $4.7 billion and Britain spent $1.8 billion. Japan spent $1.1 billion and Germany donated $949 million.

In this week’s frantic rescue effort, one unexpected development is the army’s use of Twitter, WhatsApp, a messaging service, and Facebook to reach families. Twenty years ago, when social media first emerged, India’s government — like its counterparts in Beijing and Moscow — regarded it warily, as a force that could undermine state power. 

The government has ordered TV stations to increase the airing of “patriotic” shows, of which anti-Japan dramas are exhibit No. 1. On Aug. 15, the anniversary of Japan’s surrender, a headline in the Global Times, a party newspaper, said, “Prime time TV to be more anti-fascist.” China has a long tradition of producing war movies for propaganda purposes, mostly good-versus-evil dramas drawn from the all-too-real and brutal war against Japan. 

Pakistan and India have offered each other assistance in dealing with the devastation caused by the floods in the two neighbouring countries. Pakistan on Sunday offered assistance and help to India to mitigate the suffering of the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir due to the floods. While responding to a question regarding floods in held Kashmir, Foreign Office spokesperson said that the government and people of Pakistan express deepest condolences over the loss of precious lives of Kashmiri brethren on both sides of the Line of Control caused by torrential rains and flash floods. 

Turkey has condemned an Israeli plan to construct 283 new homes in Palestine's West Bank. "Israel's illegal settlement units are totally unacceptable," read a statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday. Israel issued tenders on Friday for 283 new housing units, according to the Israel Land Authority.

References to development (even to the word “development”) do not appear in most of the reports on the recently concluded U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit. In this regard, I want to distinguish between “assistance” and “development,” between discrete projects on the one hand, and, on the other, the larger, more complex process of transforming economies, polities, administrations, and societies. 

China's cultural scene has certainly flourished in recent years from art, to music and, of course, museums. Curator Cheng Guoqin says part of the reason the government supports the opening of new museums is that it improves the country's image. "The government has realized that economic success is not enough," she says. "It realizes that soft power and the creative industries must play an important role."

Libya is in civil war, fundamentalist armies are building a self-declared caliphate across Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan's young democracy is on the verge of paralysis. To these troubles are added a resurgence of tensions with Russia and a relationship with China divided between pledges of cooperation and public recrimination. The concept of order that has underpinned the modern era is in crisis.