The U.S. State Department has condemned Thailand for its failure to live up to standards we set for the treatment of migrant workers.

The fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago this month signaled the unmatched strength of U.S. economic and military power, but it also reflected the seductive charisma of American democracy and its open, pluralistic, prosperous society — or so Americans thought at the time.

Turkey's image in the global arena is an extremely negative one. To be honest, the world has never seen Turkey as an advanced democracy. There is an emerging almost mainstream international approach to Turkey that is very negative, if not humiliating.

Activists in other countries who led their own Arab Spring movements said they were “jealous” of Tunisians Sunday. “We voted in Egypt but we lost our Arab Spring,” said Khaled Mansour, a student in Alexandria who took part in the 2011 protests.

On the surface, the turmoil in Hong Kong is caused by Beijing’s decision regarding general elections. In reality, the deep sources of the conflict are not so different from the recent large-scale outbreaks of social tensions in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Taiwan.

What Share America is serving up is bite-sized nuggets of video, photos and text, all optimized to be as shareable as possible on the Web. The goal is to feed content aligned with stated American values -- "democracy, freedom of expression, innovation, entrepreneurship, education, and the role of civil society," reads the site -- in the ever-hungry maw of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social networks.

From August 4-6, 2014, United States President Barack Obama will host the first ever US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC. The summit will be attended by more than forty African Heads of State, along with other business and social leaders, at a time when Africa is often described as one of the fastest growing regions of the world. 

Foreign direct investment in Indonesia rose 7.3% in the second quarter, suggesting improved confidence in Southeast Asia’s largest economy following peaceful legislative elections in April.  According to government data, Indonesia drew an additional $7.4 billion (85.2 trillion rupiah) between April and June compared to the three months prior. FDI year-on-year was up 2.8%.