soft power
Turkey uses Hagia Sophia as a tool of cultural diplomacy to exert both soft and hard power. The monument is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has been a museum since 1935. [...] At this stage, the Turkish government is expected to use Hagia Sophia as a negotiating tool in its diplomatic struggle over Kurdistan and other geopolitical issues.
Finish July off strong with these top announcements, blogs, and PD Hub features.
As stated by The Soft Power 30 in their report, not long ago, museums were a form of hard power. They acted as safeguards of the spoils of war and conquest of mankind. It was a form of expression of the state hegemony and cultural diplomacy. However, the role of museums has gone through some changes in the past years.
Canada reportedly plans to increase the number of police trainers it has in Iraq with a focus on training female police, a move welcomed by Nineveh officials and Mosul’s women. Canada’s national broadcaster CBC reported this week that the Canadian government will soon announce a plan to increase the number of police they have in Iraq from four to 20 and they will prioritize training female Iraqi police to improve policing efforts related to domestic violence and human trafficking.
Nicholas Cull discusses the growing role of city diplomacy and the emergence of the global city.
Ties between India and Armenia, a former Soviet republic in the Caucasus region, have been growing rapidly in recent years. The country has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with various institutions, including with IIT-M, Anna University and Ramachandra Medical College, to promote educational links with the country.
The French leader said that migrants were destabilizing Libya and Europe by fueling people-smuggling, which in turn funded terrorism. "The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum. We'll go to them," he said on Thursday at a naturalization ceremony in the central city of Orléans.
It was the Spring and Autumn period’s diplomatic practice called “fushi yanzhi,” by which one used or quoted poems to express one's intention. Feudal lords of the period even hired officials whose job was to collect poetry to be used for diplomacy.