On June 10 and 11, Kazakhstan hosted the Fifth Congress of World Religions.

We have a problem—not a problem from hell, but one that claims to come from heaven. That problem is sometimes called radical, or fundamentalist, Islam, and the self-styled Islamic State is just its latest iteration. But no one really understands it. In the summer of 2014, Major General Michael Nagata, the commander of U.S. special operations forces in the Middle East, admitted as much when talking about the Islamic State, or ISIS. “We do not understand the movement,” he said. “And until we do, we are not going to defeat it.” 

Recent developments in the Israeli Foreign Ministry seem to take this approach to a whole new level. At the first meeting with her staff, Tzipi Hotovely, freshly appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, delivered the following message: no need to be wise, being RIGHT is quite enough.

In this Idea Exchange moderated by Sushant Singh of The Indian Express, German ambassador to India Michael Steiner and wife Eliese talk about taking diplomacy ahead through steps such as a concert and music video, the German language row, the difference between UPA and NDA, and the challenges facing Europe.