Using its political stability, great economic wealth, and diplomatic ties with various local affiliates across the Middle East, Qatar developed a soft power strategy in several high-profile negotiations, from securing a key peace agreement in the Darfur conflict, to seeking political consensus in Lebanon, and mediating between the Yemeni government and the Houthi rebels.

"By promoting the development of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, China has injected a strong impetus to the common development in Eurasia," said Bogomolov, adding that member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization believed that China's development would bring hope for world peace and global development.

A look at the events in 2014 likely to have the most lasting impact on the region and beyond.

Ethiopia's perception and analysis of challenges and opportunities in the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) region have become increasingly dominant. Owing to the following four reasons, Ethiopia's pivotal role within the IGAD and to a limited extent in the AU will continue to grow.

The participants of the session discussed joint efforts of friendship societies and individual foreign countries to promote cultural values.

Without much fanfare, Malaysia assumed the chairmanship of Asean at the recent summit of the regional grouping in Myanmar. From this vantage point, there is much the country can do in moving the larger aims of the new Asean.

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall signaled the collapse of the Kremlin’s grip on eastern Europe, Russia is reasserting some of its lost influence.  That is most obvious in Ukraine, where unmarked tanks roll across the countryside in support of pro-Russian separatists.