Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Duluth Scott Laderman gave a lecture last Thursday entitled “Surf Diplomacy in the Twilight of the Cold War” on how the activist culture of surfing developed globally in the Reagan era.

But Cyclone Pam is more than just a natural disaster. It is a demonstrable effect of worldwide climate change, which scientists and development experts have long warned will hit Pacific Island states the hardest.

Malaysia's government has unveiled plans to create a new airline and signed a $1.5bn (£1bn) deal with Bombardier for 20 new aircraft. The new carrier would be called flymojo and be based out of Johor Bahru in the south and Kota Kinabalu in East Malaysia.

Belden found himself leading his band Animation in Tehran, with Iranian listeners cheering him on. That performance last month made him the first American musician to play Iran since the country's 1979 revolution and, perhaps, the spearhead of a kind of cultural diplomacy.

Public diplomacy scholars and practitioners frequently discuss the “say-do gap,” which refers to the discrepancy between discourse and actions. This discrepancy has an adverse effect on the credibility and legitimacy of a nation brand.

The notoriously hermetic and isolated country of North Korea closed its borders to tourists last fall due to concerns about the threat of Ebola. Remarkably, it has recently decided to reopen them in order to hold a sporting event: the Pyongyang Marathon. 

The U.S. and Cuban presidents announced last December a restoration of diplomatic relations after more than half century. The skaters are hoping their efforts help things get off to a flying start.