For a scholar focusing on Australia's public diplomacy, working as a recreational manager in China may never be part of his career path. But Bradley McConachie does have lots to say now about his special experience at a resort in the picturesque tropical coastal city of Sanya in South China's Hainan province.

To Nicholas Bonner, North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), is not as isolated as most outsiders believe. Bonner, who runs Koryo Tours in Beijing and offers Westerners trips to North Korea, believes that engagement with North Koreans is an important way to connect the country with the rest of the world, through travel, sports, art and films.

Sport and cultural exchanges between countries and individuals “who are not on the best of terms” could help ease tensions, Spavor said in an interview. “At the very least, the involved individuals … can break down or dismiss preconceived negative ideas about each other.”

The new top diplomat described the United States and European Union as essential partners to Egypt, he adding, noting that he believed more in Egypt's soft power, thus he will seek to enhance the cultural and developmental dismensions in the foreign policy.

Statues of Heydar Aliyev -- the leader of Soviet Azerbaijan from 1969 to 1982 and president of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003 -- have already been erected in Bucharest and Kyiv at the behest of Azerbaijani authorities, who often make large financial donations to the accepting cities or countries.

"We must open up our cultural products such as literature, film, music and heritage. Creators can be inspired by exchanging experiences and working together. This is why I call for the creation of a cultural visa", Marietje Schaake, a Dutch liberal MEP

Tunisia and Ishinomaki, one of the hardest hit towns, have over the past two decades developed a strong bond, albeit an unusual one in being between a country and a small town. Ishinomaki has named three streets after Tunisia, and as one Japanese blogger put it, the relationship is like "true love between lovers hailing from different classes."

Under normal circumstances, Terry Hardy, 18, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Noy Ilan, 17, of Rishon Lezion would have never met and would have never had anything in common. But the brutal acts of terrorism that struck both their families changed their lives forever...