“Economic development does work, but it does not work overnight,” Andrew Natsios, former Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (AID), told The Cipher Brief. The problem with common criticisms of aid programs – that they are wasteful and do not produce real results – is that results are often measured only in the short term. As a result, intra-governmental audits and external studies may miss the true dividends of economic development programs, which could come to fruition decades down the line.

President Barack Obama's act of restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba at the end of 2014 could drastically change the cultural and artistic course of the island. But Cuban artists have used video and new media to explore its past and contemplate its future for decades. The new exhibit “Hope,” which opens to the public Sunday, Sept. 17, at the art laboratory ESMoA (El Segundo Museum of Art), looks at Cuban society through new media art, from the 1970s to present day with apps, projections and other installations. 

Bhutan was never going to be an early adopter. It is a small and remote place — a little more than twice the size of Los Angeles and Orange counties combined, perched at the eastern edge of the world’s highest mountain range. The Buddhist constitutional monarchy, however, is steadily moving into the modern era, even as its 800,000 people struggle with how much of it to embrace.

2017 has become the year when absurd jokes appear to be coming true. When Dennis Rodman made his first trip to North Korea back in 2013, it was amusing to imagine the eccentric NBA legend acting as the United States’ de facto ambassador to the country. [...] In an interview with Good Morning Britain, the five-time NBA champion offered to “straighten things out” between Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, emphasizing that he considers both men friends.

According to reports from the Brazilian Army’s Social Communication Center (CCOMSEx), CBEMs are military diplomacy tools for the alliance between partner nations. “International understandings and commitments support the geopolitical needs of both countries’ interests,” CCOMSEx explained to Diálogo. [...] “Brazilian and U.S. service personnel can expand partnerships for exchanging defense products from both armies and for planning and executing maneuvers in the areas of logistics, intelligence, communications, cybernetics, and command and control,” said CCOMSEx.