This week, Gallup released "Rating World Leaders: What People Worldwide Think of the U.S., China, Russia, the EU and Germany," the first-ever Gallup report on global public opinion about these major world powers. 

In periods of the 19th and 20th centuries, the United Kingdom and United States maintained absolute dominance in a unipolar world, which was why they were called "British century" and "American century." Based on this, predictions of a so-called "Chinese century" must meet two preconditions -- a unipolar international configuration and absolute Chinese dominance.

In addition to the state's renewed interest in Belarusisation and cultural initiatives, support for these changes in society is also on the rise. The 'soft' Belarusisation policy and the activity of the organisations such as Art Siadziba are in growing demand in Belarus.

As Sweden's government intensifies the campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council 2017-2018 the rights-based foreign policy the government claims it wants to carry out will be put to the test. The diplomatic entanglements with Saudi Arabia and the Arab League show clear differences between the nations of the world when it comes to their view of human rights, not least the rights of girls and women. Sweden must continue to make its voice heard.

Most people have a stereotypical image of the Palestinians — sitting in refugee camps and the 67 years of agony since they were uprooted from their homeland showing on their faces, or covering their faces with the checkered black-and-white keffiyeh and throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. But a few young Palestinians are showing the world a completely new face of Palestine. They include a great singer, a talented musician and a gifted gymnast. These artists join the ranks of a few Palestinian poets and writers who have gained international fame.

In 2002, Benjamin Netanyahu declared during a US congressional hearing that "there is no doubt" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that the way to solve the Iraqi threat was by toppling Saddam Hussein's regime. Toppling the Saddam regime, Netanyahu predicted, would have tremendous positive regional consequences: The region's nations would rise up against their tyrannical rulers and the Iranian regime would be undermined or would collapse.As we all know, what ended up happening was different.

Controlling a multilateral investment bank will give Beijing greater influence over the Asia-Pacific region that needs a whopping $8 trillion-worth of infrastructure investment until 2020 to keep pace with global technological and demographic changes

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party discovered the effectiveness of “soft power” early on in its rule. Soft power was successfully used to promote Turkey as a modern Muslim democracy. Unfortunately, this has now gone into reverse gear due to the increasing authoritarian trends of Turkey's leadership.