The Kremlin and Russian Foreign Ministry have released an official strategy for Russia’s participation in the BRICS association. Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Ryabkov has stated that the strategy was approved by President Vladimir Putin back on Feb. 9. “The BRICS association will continue to strengthen its international reputation and influence by using soft power — i.e., through economic and social achievements of its members, as opposed to creating some kind of military alliance,”

When he first came into office in 2009, President Obama had a clear foreign policy agenda. He wanted to restore the United States’ good reputation. After eight years of unilateralism under Bush, US soft power was at its weakest and the financial costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were doing serious damage to the longterm stability of the US economy. By not being Bush, Obama was able to mend relations with several historical US allies.

Chinese fashionistas and regular folk have been cooing for days over the sky-blue scarf, the handsome handbag and the classic updo of Peng Liyuan, the wife of President Xi Jinping of China, who seemed to shatter a tradition when she stepped out of an Air China plane in Moscow last Friday with her husband, smiling and waving, her outfit matching his. The tradition was that the wives of Communist Party leaders hung about dowdily in the background.

Peng Liyuan's debut on the international stage as China's first lady has put her into the international limelight. Along with her husband, Chinese President Xi Jinping, she has just paid a highly successful state visit to Russia.. China needs a high-profile staging of its new top leader and his family to be presented to the world, to empower its state and public diplomacy.

When assessing America's power toolbox, comic book culture is rarely discussed as an effective instrument, but likely stands as one of the most globally influential...Tampering with the art form by amateurs is dangerous and can lead to terrible results. That is exactly what happened in the case of the EU's online comic, Captain Euro (www.captaineuro.com). It seeks to entertain by portraying its nonviolent crusader as the protector of democratic peace.

The International Conference on the African Union & Cultural Diplomacy is a gathering within the African continent that seeks to highlight Africa´s self-attained achievements with regards to its standing in the international community as well as it´s increasing emancipation from the often assumed dependency on the Western world. Applications to participate in the conference are now open.

After 25 years of almost no contact between Canada and Myanmar, Ottawa will launch an era of new and hopefully warmer ties this spring by opening an embassy in Rangoon and appointing a veteran Asia hand as the first ambassador there. Though Ottawa has yet to confirm the appointment of 50-year-old Mark McDowell, it was announced Saturday in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper and independently confirmed by The Globe and Mail.

The arrival of two giant pandas from China today will likely generate a good deal of fanfare in Toronto, where the bears will be on display at the city zoo starting in mid-May. Excitement is a fairly common reaction to these odd and incredibly rare animals. But why do people seem so obsessed with pandas?