ukraine

IMG_5939 by Sasha Maksymenko

Oscar-nominated Winter on Fire is bringing international attention back to Ukraine.

The story of the Hromovytsia Ukrainian Dance Ensemble story began in 1980. [...] It was when Roxana Dykyj, along with her husband, Ivan Pylypczak, and fellow dancers, embarked on a journey to establish a dance company that would showcase Ukrainian culture in the Ukrainian diaspora and the world.

Social media is changing "business as usual" for governments, opening up democratic processes, delivering services both to understand and surveil constituents, managing threats and conducting direct diplomacy. Even so, adoption of social media is slow and uneven, with vast differences both between and within states. As more and more governments move towards e-government, their use of social media will grow. 

Two friends start climbing the world’s peaks, higher and higher. During the process, they discover the mountains inside them. [...] The two men are the creators of Adventure Diplomacy, a project that wants to combine networking with mountain climbing.

All Coca-Cola wanted to do was to wish consumers a happy new year, but instead it ended up stirring anger in [...] Russia and Ukraine, over [...] Crimea […] In a new year’s message on VK, the most popular Russian social media network, Coca-Cola published a map of Russia that did not include Crimea. Faced with barrage of criticism [...], it published the map again on Tuesday [...] including Crimea, and apologized.

Witnessing the ninth-largest country in the world (Kazakhstan) do battle with a satirical character (Borat), I decided it was important enough to start writing about from an academic perspective. [...] Kazakhstan continues to reap the benefits of the free press it received as part of Baron Cohen’s innovative marketing campaign for the [2006 Borat] film, though the Borat connections still stings a bit. 

The former British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan once commented that the most difficult thing about politics was "events, dear boy, events." Events can be helpful or unhelpful coincidences for statesmen. [...] The West needs to engage seriously with Turkey. 

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