So far, Duterte has toured Laos, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. [...] the tours are potentially beneficial for Duterte, who lacks experience in national politics and international diplomacy. He intends to gather insights from various ASEAN states to strengthen engagements and build a common action agenda on regional issues. Just how this corresponds to Duterte’s broader foreign and security policies remains to be seen.

On the eve of Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union in 2007, the Russian Ambassador to Brussels, Vladimir Chizhov, declared that “Bulgaria would be Russia’s Trojan horse in the EU.” Though he added that he meant this “in a good sense,” his words ended up being disturbingly prophetic. Over the last ten years, all the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have felt the chill wind from the East.

In the Foreign Service, career officers are warned about the dangers of “localitis” or the development of so close an attachment to the place of assignment that one loses one’s nationalism or patriotism. [...] what can be called “collectivitis”: an inclination that later grew into something like a passion for collecting memorabilia of the history and culture of the countries we lived in or visited to take back home. 

For much of the past two decades, progressive foreign policy has been defined by what it is against—[...]  But it is much less clear what a progressive foreign policy stands for, and what it would look like in practice. It is especially important to try to define one now, after the election of Donald Trump.

Kuwait said yesterday it is imperative to confront terrorism by promoting Islamic cultural heritage in order to debunk stereotypes about the religion of Islam. [...] He expressed belief that response to extremism and terrorism should proceed from promoting Islamic cultural heritage as well as establishing the concepts of amity, tolerance and fraternity.

A year after COP21 and the adoption of the Paris Agreement, international policymakers are still struggling to convert targets into action. This is clearly indicated by the title of the recent followup COP in Marrakech: Turn the Promise of Paris into Action. But as the international community putters along, cities and local communities are already staking out the front lines of the fight against climate change.

"I think it's a great idea, when civil society takes the initiative in resolving this long 'frozen' conflict. [...] I am absolutely sure that if public diplomacy starts its work, this should lead to tangible results, because it usually becomes a signal for the government to start an active resolution of existing conflicts."

India and Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday signed six MoUs including in the fields of tourism, agriculture and food industry, youth development and broadcasting and exchange of audio-visual programmes. The agreements were inked after the delegation-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the visiting Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Sharshenovich Atambayev in New Delhi.