Clark, who led the campaign to drive Serbian forces from Kosovo in 1999 and is now the chairman of a Canadian energy company called Envidity, was responding to questions regarding the outfit’s desire to turn Kosovo’s estimated 14 billion tonnes of coal deposits into synthetic diesel fuel.

When you turn diplomatic missions into something resembling Fort Apache, and when diplomatic practice is limited by inordinate restrictions arising from concerns about personal safety, the establishment of vital local connections, and of relationships based on confidence, trust and respect, is next to impossible.

While the world watched the demise of Egypt’s political leadership last year, some Egyptians were tuning online to YouTube clips lampooning the Egyptian state channel’s fumbling version of the events. In early 2011, Bassem Youssef began filming clips in his laundry room to provide comic relief amid a crumbling political situation in his home countr

The group Os Kuduristas is a kuduro-based roadshow/cultural exchange programme put together to raise the global awareness of Angolan dance, music, culture. It has been on an international tour.

In a bid to continually improve its ties with Nigeria and promote cultural exchange, the Korean Cultural Centre in Abuja hosted its third annual film festival at the Silverbird Entertainment Centre.

Through strategic planning and investment in research and technology, as well as strong political will and effective governance, Singapore has emerged from water insecurity to become a global hydrohub... It has earned international recognition as a model city for water management. This has also led to its water diplomacy changing in character from being centred on securing water supply from Malaysia to a new direction in its water diplomacy.

Last week, the Pew Research Center released its annual survey of European attitudes to America. While anti-Americanism has declined in Europe, a large "values gap" remains between Europeans and Americans. Meanwhile, anti-Americanism in the rest of the world seems actually to have increased since 2009, with confidence in President Obama noticeably down, especially in Muslim countries. Will America's reputation and influence abroad improve under Barack Obama's second term?

Ravi Shankar has passed away. He will of course be best remembered as one of the first and longest lasting global rock stars of Indian classical music – if the world knows what a sitar is, if the strains of the sitar are used in pop culture to suggest eastern mysticism, it is likely due to Ravi Shankar.