“Diplomacy and the Arts, Then and Now,” brought focus to the importance of government-sponsored tours by performers in international relations on Thursday. The seminar was sponsored by the Department of Romance Studies and the program in Medieval and Early Modern Studies Dorothy Ford Wiley fund.

An affiliate of the largest and most powerful Kurdish party in Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), opened its first official mission abroad — in Moscow. Given the amount of military and political support the PYD has received from the United States, this decision is likely to be received with some shock and confusion in the West. But a closer examination of the PYD’s historical experience and core interests suggests that the politics behind a potential realignment with Moscow makes strategic sense.

In the course of the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Egypt on January 20-22, 2016, Egypt and China announced a five-year, multi-sector cooperation agreement. [...] On a symbolic level, Egypt and China also declared 2016 as “the Egyptian-Chinese cultural year.”

Buhari must realize that public diplomacy in an era, when digital diplomacy has been added to international relations, such that presidents and governments now use social media to pass their messages to foreign countries, there’s need for circumspect

Chang highlighted the shortcomings of the “al-Kitaab” textbook series, which graces the shelves of college bookstores fromStanford, CA to Medford, Mass. She pointed out how early chapters of the textbook, which in congruent levels of learning Spanish or French would include colors and months, are riddled with vocabulary about the United Nations, the State Department and diplomacy.

The overwhelming impression given by the bulk of historical scholarship on pre-modern China’s foreign relations, as well as by official dynastic histories, is that generally the Chinese empire sustained its regional pre-eminence through civilisational and economic ‘soft power’ while adopting a defensive military posture and conservative grand strategy.

French President François Hollande arrives in India for a three-day visit. Mr. Hollande will be the Chief Guest at the Republic Day parade on Tuesday [...] the French President appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi “for his diplomacy reflecting both a sense of proportion and a strong determination. He recently took important steps to engage in a dialogue with the political leadership in Pakistan.”