The civil unrest that erupted in Syria in March last year has left the country's scientific community in turmoil, researchers say. Heavy cuts have been made to research budgets, and work at the majority of Syria's universities and research centres has ground to a halt.

While for the U.S. ambassador to UAE, ethnic conflict appears to largely be rooted in a cultural misunderstanding, which the diplomat has been trying to dispel by arranging culture missions to the Middle East that would counter the image of the U.S. as a global soldier, for many recipients of American and other Western cultural packages, the answer is rather cultural disrespect.

“We consider cultural exchange to be a critical part of building ties between the United States and Russia,” McFaul told the CSO musicians Tuesday night at a reception and recital at Spaso House. “As far as I’m concerned, you are the real ambassadors. You are the ones making real connections with the people in Russia.”

The United States Embassy in Cambodia is financing the publication of new textbooks for minority Cham Muslims, a public diplomacy initiative that will revive a forgotten traditional writing system and attempt to discourage the use of Arabic as a language of instruction in this predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian nation.

"Six years ago, the two countries had decided to sign an MoU with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, but it was stuck for cultural exchange. But we want to carry the MoU forward to promote people-to-people contact. Every Pakistani heart is open... India should also open the door of its heart to Pakistani art and culture," Nasir said.

“I hope that through this, the first of our cultural dialogues with China, we will develop deeper ties across all the areas that interest us. China is a country with a vibrant cultural past and a growing economic future. There is much that we can learn from one another.”

There is no doubt that the Chinese government tries to present to the world a cultural landscape that accords with its own political narrative...But there is equally little doubt that Chinese publishing today is a vast and varied field in which it is not hard to find writers who both satirise and criticise the Communist party and its record.

Women’s Entrepreneurship in the Americas (WEAmericas) leverages public-private partnerships to increase women’s economic participation and address three key barriers women confront when starting and growing SMEs: access to training and networks, access to markets, and access to finance.