The Minnesota Orchestra recently returned from a highly publicized and well-received trip to Cuba that has left many people in both countries feeling good about improving relations between Cubans and Americans, as well as their governments.

Hans Morgenthau’s Politics Among Nations, originally published in 1948, is the bible of the realist school of international relations. A less well-known work, Truth and Power, is a collection of essays that he wrote during the 1960s which includes a 1968 piece entitled “The Far East,” wherein Morgenthau applied his realist approach to the balance of power in Asia and envisioned a world where China is the most powerful nation on earth.

Many in the country and across the globe believe that the US is slipping away from being the world's most powerful nation. [...] He (Joseph Nye) corroborates his arguments with facts and figures on the indices of America's favourable geography, demographics, military power and soft power, purchasing power parity and science and innovation. 

The fall of the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra to the Islamic State this week marked an opportunity for the militant group to push its propaganda forward. [...] The militants’ decision to publicize their victory via social media is typical of the group’s strategy as it strives to use the Internet to push its propaganda forward – and it comes as the Obama administration faces increasing scrutiny of its policies for combating the extremist group on both fronts.

As the new government gets started, the main actors in the Mideast diplomatic drama are all pulling in very different directions. 

Despite the strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo and other challenges, the South Korea-U.S. alliance is “more resilient, deeper and broader than ever,” former U.S. ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens said. 

Four female koalas have just made their debut in front of an adoring public at Singapore Zoo – the latest in a long line of animals used for diplomatic purposes. [...] As Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s media release says, the koalas' visit will “further build on our long-standing constructive relationship”.