Foreign Policy Blogs

Public Diplomacy

Vietnamese Policewomen Shine Light on South Korea’s Commitment to Ensuring an Inclusive Society

Vietnamese Policewomen Shine Light on South Korea’s Commitment to Ensuring an Inclusive Society

“Korean Dream” stories of first-generation Vietnamese policewomen reveal that South Korea is indeed a mature democracy that cherishes multiculturalism and aims to protect the most vulnerable ethnic minorities. In South Korea, multiculturalism is not merely a symbolic recognition of the resource-abundant and high-status middle class immigrants’ bourgeois glory. Its “true guardians” defend it by realistically […]

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Is Extremism the Sole Reason for the Collapsing Order of ‘Worldliness’?

Is Extremism the Sole Reason for the Collapsing Order of ‘Worldliness’?

The ramming of identity-politics-based extremism disparately sprouting around the globe has reawakened the totalitarian madness.

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Soft Power: Russian and American University Students Find Common Ground

Soft Power: Russian and American University Students Find Common Ground

While U.S.-Russia relations remain uncertain, students at the Volgograd Institute of Management engaged their American counterparts in some diplomatic bridge-building.

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America’s Other Foreign Policy

America’s Other Foreign Policy

Thousands of ordinary Americans serve as unofficial ambassadors of the United States—many counter, or oblivious to official policy.

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Beijing-by-the-Bay: China’s Hidden Influence in San Francisco

Beijing-by-the-Bay: China’s Hidden Influence in San Francisco

The China Overseas Exchange Association poses as an NGO while acting in fact as an overseas propaganda agency of the Chinese government and the Party.

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Florence Fang’s “100,000 Strong Foundation”: Education or Indoctrination?

Florence Fang’s “100,000 Strong Foundation”: Education or Indoctrination?

For the Communist Party, there is no such thing as education or cultural exchange for its own sake: everything is political, everything is ideological.

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Causeway Bay Incident: Swedish Diplomacy under Challenge

Causeway Bay Incident: Swedish Diplomacy under Challenge

The Causeway Bay Bookstore incident and Beijing’s response has posed a serious challenge to Sweden’s “human rights diplomacy.”

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Candid Discussions: Charles Crawford on Speechwriting

Candid Discussions: Charles Crawford on Speechwriting

Charles Crawford CMG is a public speaking and negotiation expert. He worked for 28 years in the U.K. Diplomatic Service, including three postings as British Ambassador to Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Warsaw, before starting a private consulting career in communication technique. In his early diplomatic career he served as Speechwriter in the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth […]

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If It’s Sunday, It’s…Time to Bash Russia

If It’s Sunday, It’s…Time to Bash Russia

(With apologies to “Meet the Press,” which — oddly — hardly mentioned it) Several of last Sunday’s talk show guests pointed fingers yet again at a Russia that, in their implications, refuses to be transparent or recognize human rights. First up, the temporary asylum in Russia granted to Edward Snowden. On CBS’ “Face the Nation,” […]

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The Sun Never Sets on Britain’s Eternal Question: To Be or Not To Be a European

The Sun Never Sets on Britain’s Eternal Question: To Be or Not To Be a European

By Sarwar Kashmeri “Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role,” former Secretary of State Dean Acheson presciently observed in his 1962 speech at the U.S. Military Academy/West Point.  It is the epigram with which David Hannay, the former British diplomat, and one of Britain’s most distinguished foreign service veterans, introduces […]

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Does a Pope Need a Foreign Policy?

Does a Pope Need a Foreign Policy?

  When the last conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI was underway, a colleague stopped by my office and remarked on CNN’s seemingly nonstop coverage. My non-Catholic colleague’s point boiled down to: “I don’t get it. Why should we care about this?” Stipulating that the world’s many Catholics care deeply, why should it matter to […]

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Prove China spy allegations or “shut up”

Prove China spy allegations or “shut up”

  In a radio interview airing Nov. 17 on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Zhang Junsai, China’s ambassador to Canada, told radio host Evan Solomon that Chinese firms are not involved in foreign espionage, “I can assure you that our companies working in other countries are strictly doing business according to the local laws.” Zhang blamed the […]

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Digital Diplomacy in the 21st Century

Digital Diplomacy in the 21st Century

Since coming into office as Secretary of State in 2009, Hillary Clinton has pushed an agenda of “21st Century Statecraft” to adapt foreign policy to the 21st century world. A major part of this agenda involves increasing and encouraging the use of connection technologies in foreign policy. The State Department is not alone in this […]

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“The Two-State Solution Just Died, Mr. President”

“The Two-State Solution Just Died, Mr. President”

UNITED NATIONS – On the final day of a three month deadline set by the Quartet – Brussels, Washington, Moscow and the UN – for Israelis and Palestinians to resume bilateral peace talks, Israeli attorney Daniel Seidemann convened an exclusive briefing with the UN Correspondents Association to unveil a grim message he will deliver to […]

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US Counterterrorism Law May “Backfire”: UN

US Counterterrorism Law May “Backfire”: UN

On New Year’s Eve, President Barack Obama signed into law the post-9/11 practice of detaining terrorist suspects indefinitely without charge. Shock and awe waves rippled through the blogosphere in response to the move, not least because Obama had threatened to veto an earlier version of the bill. Other grumbles included its lack of temporal or […]

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