President Barack Obama's top cabinet members stressed Tuesday that devoting money and resources to overseas diplomacy and development is essential to U.S. national security. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner agreed that in addition to a military approach, a strong focus on development would reap many benefits for the U.S.

LAST Sunday, it emerged that the UN was set to appoint a Malaysian astrophysicist called Mazlan Othman to lead international efforts to respond to visitors from outer space. As the article in the Sunday Times explained, Dr Othman is the head of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa).

I've written in The Huffington Post about the State Department, as part of its plan to privatize American public diplomacy, creating a bogus nonprofit corporation and compelling the IRS to give it tax exempt status so that the nonprofit, Shanghai Expo 2010, Inc., could attract corporate sponsors, the State thus avoiding any need to seek funding from Congress

African governments and business communities hope that South Africa's success in hosting the 2010 World Cup will spur a massive increase in investment and private sector development for all of Africa.

Twenty young Saudis are marking the 20 years of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and Saudi Arabia by participating in a forum hosted by the All-China Youth Federation.

Canberra is often criticised for being a city of monuments. Mahatma Gandhi has been immortalised in bronze and perhaps most controversially, the late Labor-stalwart Al Grassby. Now there is one more luminary to add to the list - the long-dead but still influential Chinese philosopher, Confucius.

IT WAS operation damage control this week, as the Elysée tried to revive the president’s standing abroad after sharp criticism of his expulsion of Romanies...For all the president’s defiance, the French have been knocked by the response to the Romani row. Fully 71% of respondents to one poll said that they thought France’s image abroad had been tainted.

British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt met with Ambassadors from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states Thursday at the Foreign Office to discuss methods of developing ties between the two sides...
As Burt set out, the forthcoming "GCC Days in Europe Expo" (cultural event), which will take place in London on the 18-22 October, will be an excellent opportunity to exchange more ideas and build the relationship even further.