Hardliners on both sides have ramped up their efforts to sabotage the deal, while both governments are trying very hard to defend the deal and present it as a historical victory, which it truly is. The publicity that the Iran Deal debates has gotten has allowed both the Iranian and American governments to portray their countries as pragmatic, pro-diplomacy, and pro-peace—thereby enhancing their soft power, as opposed to repellently boasting about their hard power.

Like Joyeux Noël (2005), The Last Samurai (2003), and The Pianist (2002), Tangerines is a war film about enemy soldiers who become friends after they are forced to interact with one another. The point is to highlight the various reasons why people fight, and then to show why these reasons are inadequate. [...] The film is a passionate plea for diplomacy and coexistence. Urushadze creates a cinematic world where enemy soldiers can lay down their weapons and have a conversation.

Friends Beyond Borders is a virtual peace building course wherein an Indian and a Pakistani has been paired to be “Indo-Pak E-Pals”. Through this eight-week interactive course, the fellows are guided by a mentor who gives them weekly plans/activities based on a curriculum designed to familiarize them with the ‘other’, its culture, society, politics and the existence of divergent narratives. 

“The traditional approach of foreign offices and chancelleries, of strategic command centres, now needs to be supplemented and expanded and re-fashioned by public diplomacy and cultural outreach. I draw your attention to a very successful cultural diplomacy policy that the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has been vigorously promoting in the last year or so,” he said.

Those in the know at Rashtrapati Bhavan will tell you President Mukherjee used to hate travelling abroad. He specifically disliked ceremonial visits, because he believed the role of the President of India, especially during foreign visits, should be in the national interest—proactive and dialogue-driven, while keeping the country’s geopolitical and economic priorities in mind.

The feminist discourse lacks homogeneity. However, the greatest pitfall of our day has been the tendency and practice to regard the needs and challenges faced by women globally through a single feminist lens: Western feminism.