Will Internet companies help or hinder government authorities that try to restrict their citizens from using the Web freely? And will their customers, investors or shareholders care enough to do something about it? That debate was freshly stirred on Thursday as the UNHRC passed a landmark resolution supporting freedom of expression on the Internet.

While taking part in an energetic three-day convening at Georgetown University dedicated to “Global Performance, Civic Imagination, and Cultural Diplomacy,” it became clear that the meeting was itself evidence for the continued emergence of a global network linking artists, performers, cultural policy makers, human rights activists, social justice advocates, academics, diplomacy practitioners, and others in international affairs, all variously pursuing new intersections of the arts with cu

"Annie did a World Bank event at a critical time for us when we really needed to get the attention of mid-level staffers to get them to move stuff around autocrats. Usually you only get 50 people to show up for a World Bank event. We had, like, over 500.”

The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has agreed to set up an international scientific advisory board to provide him with guidance on science-related issues, and enable him to provide advice to UN member states on such issues. The move was announced last Friday (22 June) at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) by Irina Bokova, the director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Organized by Dubai Women Establishment (DWE), in collaboration with Women 4 Sustainable Growth and MiL Institute, the Women Leadership Exchange Program is an innovative project created to facilitate knowledge sharing on methods for sustainable and participatory leadership.

The presence and power of social networks to shape events emerged clearly during the first phase of the Arab Spring, and will continue to evolve as a tool for strategic diplomacy... The e-diplomacy hub opens a real-time window onto this world, and allows the user to interact with it as well.

The United States will not be able to maintain its global advantages if the country fails to craft policies that maximize information-age soft and hard powers.... But before defining an ideal high-tech foreign economic policy, one has to recognize that, as often as not, the sources of most policy lay in particular economic interests.

London's “world-class” universities can replace the military in projecting Britain’s influence overseas and bring long-term economic benefits to the UK, a top London academic said today...Universities could play a vital role in improving Britain’s future by selling their expertise to countries such as China, India, and expanding nations in central Asia and the Gulf.