Kosovo has been in a visa liberalization dialogue with the EU for nearly five years now, and has been working towards this goal for much longer than that. Its neighbors in the region have all but forgotten what they went through over six years ago, by now so used to this basic freedom. Is Kosovo so different from its neighbors? 

In the next few years, the UK’s constitution will be re-shaped. As a nation, we are yet to recognise the enormity of this. It’s exciting - and terrifying. And this includes the BBC. Why? Not only because it is the single most important media operation in the country, but because it belongs to the peoples of these islands and is part of our informal constitution.

The latest fashionable export from Denmark, following on from interior design and high-quality television drama, hygge is the Scandinavian country’s latest gift to the world. But this particular export is a concept. Roughly described as a feeling of cosy contentment, tips on how to achieve a sense of hygge fill lifestyle and fashion magazines. As is often the case with lifestyle concepts, an older cultural practice has been commodified. 

On 7 October, President Obama signed an executive order lifting nearly all of the remaining economic sanctions on Myanmar’s government [...]  Despite China’s enduring influence over its neighbour, the United States enjoys several unrecognised advantages over the Asian giant, flowing from its substantial soft power, an asset China has failed to cultivate.

Twenty-first century statecraft, they say, is about “smart power”, the effective leveraging of both hard and soft power. [...] Leaving aside India’s soft power advantages and its hard power – both military and economic – which is poised to increase exponentially if it maintains its present trajectory, let us examine the concept of strategic communication within India’s policy structure. 

The precise ramifications of the Brexit vote will take a while to shake out, but many people overseas have interpreted it as the UK pulling up the drawbridge and retreating from its international role. This is both unfortunate and troubling. We must show everyone that we are more committed than ever to international cooperation economically, militarily and, above all, through our “soft power.”

Corruption, disorganisation, empty, expensive, violence and fear are just some of the words used to describe the Rio Olympics held this summer in Brazil’s cultural capital. The sporting competition itself came off without a hitch, but the impact the negative perception that this Games will have on Brazil’s nation brand is yet to be seen. 

This month, the Chinese government plans to introduce codes for some 3,000 Chinese characters as part of a grand project, known as the China Font Bank, to digitize 500,000 characters previously unavailable in electronic form. Until now, only 80,388 characters have been encoded in the international computing standard, Unicode.