W Doha Hotel & Residences, a luxury hotel in the Qatari capital, played host to the International New York Times’ “Art for Tomorrow” Conference organised with Qatar Museums and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar last week. 

The visit was part of a programme that works with students from both the US and Qatar and seeks to promote cross-cultural understanding and dialogue on public policy and diplomacy issues. Key themes of the 2015 conference included education, energy, health, and gender and equality.

The tour included various political, economic and  research aspects that raised questions about the way the American decision maker sees Qatar’s role in the Middle East, and the size of political relations between the two countries.

President Park expressed her hope that Seoul and Doha would take their cooperative relationship beyond politics and the economy.

The United Arab Emirates has embarked on an all-out effort to broaden its regional influence and achieve global acceptance of its autocratic definition of terrorism that encompasses all non-violent, legitimate expressions of political Islam.

The Thailand embassy in Qatar has presented Qatar National Library (QNL), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, with a number of valuable books as part of a visit by the Thai Ambassador Piroon Laismit aimed at promoting cultural relations and exchange.

Building on a legacy of connecting people through cultural exchanges, Qatar Museums officially launched Qatar Turkey 2015 during a VIP reception held at the Museum of Islamic Art on Tuesday evening.

In a world in which diplomacy has expanded from government-to-government contacts into public and cultural diplomacy and in which nations are ranked as much on their performance in high-profile international tournaments as on other attributes, autocratic abuse of sports and its impact on soccer, including performance, is nowhere more prevalent than in the Middle East and North Africa.