In the age of digital diplomacy, governments often turn to social media following a crisis, be it a terror attack or natural disaster. Social media may be used by governments in order to comment on crises as they develop, offer a narrative of events and demonstrate that the government is functioning and attempting to regain control of the situation. 

Young overseas Chinese can now go on an (almost) free two-week trip to China. Since 1999, the Office of Overseas Chinese Affairs (OOCA), an office of China’s powerful State Council, has organized annual trips, called “root seeking camps,” to help Chinese children growing up abroad stay in touch with their national heritage. Many of these camps used to charge tuition and fees. 

British television network BBC2 is planning TV shootings in Thessaloniki and Imathia from July 24-31, with the support of the Greek National Tourism Organisation (EOT), with the view to promoting popular and lesser-known Greek destinations abroad, through the entertainment industry. Other “filming trips” with the support of EOT are ongoing in Athens, Peloponnese and Crete by the Australian television travel programme “The Travel Bug TV Show”. 

Taiwan's youth ambassadors will visit the nation's diplomatic allies and friendly countries for a stay of up to three weeks starting next month to showcase Taiwan's soft power internationally, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) official announced on Thursday. [...] "The MOFA-initiated annual youth ambassador program aims at expanding their responsibility and also promoting the relationships between Taiwan and other countries," Shen said.

Last week, days after The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration awarded the Philippines a victory in its case against China in the dispute over rights to the South China Sea, Beijing began a massive public relations campaign to press its position. Part of China’s campaign includes shoring up international support to denounce the ruling and approaching other nations to voice their backing for Beijing.

Foreign aid is a key instrument of international engagement in Japan’s foreign policy toolkit. Although Tokyo is no longer the world’s top aid donor that it once was in the 1990s, it still was the world’s number four aid donor in 2015 with close to a US$10 billion annual budget. It is not just the size of the aid budget that has changed. So has Tokyo’s thinking behind foreign aid.

Recent comments by Donald Trump in the New York Times should and will frighten Americans and our allies around the world. In response to questions about the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) the Republican nominee suggested that he would abandon our friends and fail to protect our allies if they didn’t pay a high enough price. 

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded his five-day, four-nation tour of Africa on July 11. He spent two days in South Africa and made brief visits to Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. As he left Nairobi at the end of the tour, Modi had covered 42 countries in his 51 trips abroad. Antarctica is now the only continent he has not visited in his two years in office.