President Barack Obama’s reliance on soft power and engagement as his principal foreign policy tools faces a test, as he joins a summit of world leaders in Germany this weekend with multiple unfolding international crises. Leaders of the Group of Seven nations gather at the exclusive Schloss Elmau resort, at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, with an agenda of worries: Russia’s backing of Ukraine separatists, the spread of Islamic State, Chinese saber-rattling in the Pacific, Greece’s attempt to reach a deal with its creditors and negotiations on Iran’s nuclear p

For years, Chinese communist ideologues have complained that the People’s Republic of China does not have enough “discourse power” (from the Chinese term, “huayu quan”)—meaning, the ability to speak and have others listen, and determine the bounds of debate—in international affairs. [...] China was the guest of honour at BookExpo America, held at the Javits Center from May 27 to May 29. There were over 500 hundred Chinese exhibitors occupying 25,000 square feet of floor space.

Mike Tabor and Esther Siegel have had a tough time settling back into their lives in Fulton County after visiting rural villages in Tanzania.

"It was like visiting another planet," Tabor said. "I just feel bad for the people."

Tabor and Siegel aren't missionaries. The married couple operates an organic farm near Needmore and their customers live in the Washington, D.C., area.

They volunteered for a two-week visit to farm villages at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro as part of the Farmer to Farmer program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The news that Lyudmila Alekseyeva, head of the Russian Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) the Moscow-Helsinki Group, will be returning to the Presidential Council for Human Rights, has been heralded by many in the liberal establishment in Russia as a victory for their cause.

DOHA, June 1 (Reuters) - "It will blow over" tends to be Qatar's unofficial response to criticism of its World Cup bid, but with a FIFA corruption scandal exploding onto the world's front pages, the Gulf state has glumly realised it may have a real fight on its hands. Super-rich Qatar would suffer no economic pain if it lost the right to host the world's top soccer event. At stake is influence, including its use of sport as a platform to operate on the global stage, opening doors to finance, media, diplomacy, property and tourism.

Should public servants consider cultural impact when developing policies? Julianne Schultz says cultural policy has been undervalued, but combating Australia’s cultural deficit has been stymied by equating culture with arts, and arts defined quite narrowly as the non-commercial sector. It’s time to think much more seriously about culture. For years we have bought the Clinton truism, “it’s the economy, stupid”, but this simple binary no longer provides sufficient guidance for the future.