Since the formation of the Afghan National Unity Government in 2014, Kabul has used “Pashtun Diplomacy” as an instrument to bring the bilateral Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship back on track and make grounds for re-initiating normal official talks. The Afghan government also seeks the support of Pakistani Pashtun nationalist and religious parties as facilitators and confidence-builders in the Afghan peace process.

The growing recognition of water’s strategic relevance reflects global developments. In the last three years, the Islamic State (ISIS) captured the Tabqa, Tishrin, Mosul, and Fallujah dams on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. ISIS subsequently lost control of all of them, but not before using them to flood or starve downstream populations, to pressure them to surrender. [...] The importance of water in the twenty-first century – comparable to that of oil in the twentieth – can hardly be overstated.

World powers meeting here said on Friday they would develop a package of economic and security incentives in the coming months to push Israel and the Palestinians to make peace, after months of violence that has left officials fearing that the two sides are primed for another full-scale conflict. Top diplomats from 26 nations said they would work to organize an international conference before the end of the year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drop-by diplomacy in Lahore has set a new paradigm in summitry: doing away with sherpas. It is designed to catalyse the peace process, grounded over ego and who sets the agenda. 

The United States has been privately leaning on France and other allies to hold off on pushing a measure at the U.N. Security Council that is designed to force movement on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process at least until negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program have concluded, diplomats told Foreign Policy.

Britain and France urged the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to set a framework to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians as New Zealand announced it had begun working on a draft resolution to reignite the process, according to a Reuters report.

Latin America’s Colombia and Turkey are sharing a mutual fate of ending decades-long conflict in their countries. According to experts, reconciliation in such processes could face obstacles, but with real commitment both sides can solve the problematic issues.