innovation
"Education and cultural diplomacy is the only way forward to strengthen relationship between the SAARC countries. We should, therefore, like to have focused university to university linkages between our countries for mutual capacity building in education, research technology and innovation," Irani said.
The private sector, innovation and the Asia-Pacific region will be the main focus of Foreign Minister Julie Bishop's "new approach" to foreign aid. Ms Bishop announced the policy on Wednesday during a speech at the National Press Club, with the focus on economic partnerships, rather than a "donor-recipient" top-down approach to aid. The changes will come in the form of a new innovation hub at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra.
The seventh session of the World Urban Forum, started Saturday, is set to discuss a wide range of urban issues facing the world today inColombia’s second largest city and 2013′s most innovative city of the year, Medellin.
![](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/Global%20Health.jpg?itok=7qWYpEgt)
The third volume of the Global Health Diplomacy Series, 21st Century Global Health Diplomacy edited by Thomas E Novotony, Ilona Kickbusch, and
![MPD students meeting at the State of São Paulo Governor's Palace with Helena Monteiro de Oliveira, Coordinator of International Cooperation for the State of São Paulo's Office of Foreign Affairs. Photo credit Neftalie Williams](https://uscpublicdiplomacy.org/sites/default/files/styles/275x168/public/uploads/Screen%20Shot%202014-03-10%20at%2010.11.07%20AM.png?itok=krQP2rsc)
In early February, 7 USC Master of Public Diplomacy students embarked for São Paulo, Brazil. We arrived with just a day to get acclimated to the city before our meetings began on Monday. As students of diplomacy, the logical choice for a research trip to Brazil might be Brasilia. As the capital, it hosts the country's diplomatic corps and would certainly make a worthy case study of how diplomacy works in Brazil. While traditional diplomacy will always be worth pursuing, we are not going to Brazil to study it.
Estonia may not show up on Americans’ radar too often. It is a tiny country in northeastern Europe, just next to Finland. It has the territory of the Netherlands, but 13 times less people—its 1.3 million inhabitants is comparable to Hawaii’s population. As a friend from India recently quipped, “What is there to govern?”
If you have a compelling start-up idea, the Chilean government will give you $40,000 to move there and build it. The Chilean embassy in your country will grant you a one-year visa within days. When you arrive in Chile, you’ll have free offices, fast Wi-Fi, unlimited coffee and croissants, and a community of intrepid friends. Not surprisingly, the Chilean program has received thousands of applications from entrepreneurs worldwide.
Recently Yazheng Huang warned that, because of dysfunction in the U.S. financial and political system, the United States is likely to lose its lead in technological innovation to China. Huang argues that state support for science in China is likely to exceed that in the United States soon, and this will eventually allow China to overtake the United States.