Israel announced Thursday that it will loosen its blockade of the Gaza Strip and allow more goods to enter the territory. The decision came in response to international pressure on Israel to end its siege of the strip following an Israeli raid on a Turkish aid ship that left nine activists dead.

Ögumundur Jónasson, a member of Althingi for the Left Green and former Minister of Health, wants the Icelandi authorities to send the government of China a clear message that closer cooperation between the two countries does not mean that Iceland will ignore human rights violations in China.

Going beyond the notion of "economic peace," Palestinians are purposefully building and preparing for political independence...the Palestinians aim for a convergence between the program of building the essential elements of statehood and the diplomatic negotiating process to end the occupation, and the conflict, in order to achieve a sustainable peace.

Dan Sreebny has joined the Office of Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale as a Senior Media Advisor.

Turkey's political stock has plummeted in Washington over the last few weeks. For decades Turkey was widely viewed as a reliable Nato ally, prickly at times but safely in America's corner. Now, suddenly, it is being denounced as a turncoat, a "frenemy", a defector from the coalition of the virtuous and budding convert to to the Islamist cause.

Today, a dynamic neo-Ottoman spirit animates Turkey. Once rigidly secular, it has begun to fashion a moderate Islamic democracy. Once dominated by the military, it is in the process of containing the army within the rule of law. Once intolerant of ethnic diversity, it has begun to reexamine what it means to be Turkish. Once a sleepy economy, it is becoming a nation of Islamic Calvinists. Most critically of all, it is fashioning a new foreign policy.

Throughout the first year of his administration, Barack Obama felt the need to apologize for the perceived arrogance and moralizing of his predecessor. The notion of American exceptionalism was rejected, as were the clear lines of good and evil...The Obama administration initiated a new diplomacy of "mutual interest and mutual respect"...

Any development in the relations between India and the United States of America is preceded by great hype. This has been the pattern ever since Bill Clinton’s visit to India as president, the first such visit of a US president in decades. It is hardly surprising then that the recently concluded first strategic dialogue between the two countries should generate great expectations.