Public diplomacy

Skip to content Frosina Antonovska Chevening Scholar Guest blogger for UK in North Macedonia Part of Chevening Conversations UK in North Macedonia 28th November 2019 Skopje, North Macedonia Greening Western Balkans’ Environmental Behaviour When it comes to tackling any of the environmental threats that humanity is faced with today, the first key challenge is to raise the awareness of the problem and the need for change of behaviour. This is a worldwide quest, and definitely not unique to the Western Balkan region. However, it is evident that Western Balkan countries are lagging behind in this process, and that they have many common issues to overcome. That is why we decided that the focus of the annual Macedonian Chevening Alumni Association (MCAA) conference this year should be exactly “Greening Western Balkan’s environmental behaviour”. We tried to tackle the key environmental awareness raising drivers from all relevant perspectives, beginning with the classical approach, and closi..

Skip to content Alasdair Hamilton Head of Science and Innovation Team, British Embassy in Beijing Part of Global Science and Innovation Network 28th November 2019 Beijing, China FINDING PULSARS: RADIO ASTRONOMY & SPACE SCIENCE OUTREACH IN RURAL CHINAThe FAST Radio Telescope“The greatest danger facing us is ourselves, and irrational fear of the unknown. There is no such thing as the unknown. Only things temporarily hidden, temporarily not understood.” If you can identify this quote and who said it then you have done well. If not you may be surprised. I’ll come back with an answer to that at the end of this blog. There a lot to take way from these words, particularly the last three. Space does provide an irrational fear of the unknown, though mainly in the form of Sci-Fi in books, films and TV shows. It’s usually what gets children interested in space – I know I did through watching Star Wars and Star Trek. But children do have a wonderful curiosity about them and getting them intereste..

Weaponized information campaigns emanating from Russia, China, Iran and non-state actors such as ISIS continue to threaten the United States and its allies at the close of the first decade of the 21st century. A new briefing paper published by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) examines the institutional constraints behind the U.S.'s limited counter-strategies. Even though the U.S. State Department's Global Engagement Center (GEC) was given the authority to tackle state-sponsored disinformation in 2016, efforts still remain scattered throughout U.S. government agencies. International cooperation is needed, the paper says, to make up for the lack of an integrated U.S. strategy. New policies, coordination plans and collaboration with the private sector will be needed to bolster U.S. efforts against disinformation campaigns. "The lack of a strategy and an effective interagency coordina..

Skip to content UK in North Macedonia Part of #BeyondPlastic UK in North Macedonia 18th November 2019 Skopje, North Macedonia Climate change and plastic free environments – we are all responsible to #ActGreen Introduction by Her Majesty’s Ambassador Rachel Galloway, British Embassy Skopje: Climate change presents an existential risk to global prosperity & security, and I am proud that the UK are leading in the fight to protect our environment. This year, we have become one of the first major economies to commit to ending our contribution to climate change altogether by reducing our emissions to net zero by 2050. This is consistent with the science of what is needed globally to avoid dangerous climate change. The next Climate Change Conference (COP25) will take place in December and we will post a series of environmental related blogs by some guest bloggers to share information & ideas. Next year, the UK has successfully bid to co-host with Italy the 2020 Climate Change Conference (COP..

The Easter Sunday terror attacks dealt a blow to the Sri Lankan tourism industry, the third largest source of foreign exchange in Sri Lanka....

Albanian popular support for fascism and Nazism was widespread. Nazi Germany exploited the Greater Albania nationalist ideology to gain popular support for the Nazi German occupation of Kosovo.

The use of social media in politics becomes a major player in building consensus. The new technologies have deeply affected the working methods of diplomats and their communication style, says H.E. Stefano Baldi, Ambassador of Italy in Bulgaria, in an interview to Europost.

Turkey and China will fight the spread of propaganda through the media together, Turkey's Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said on Wednesday.

Skip to content Leigh Turner Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna Part of UK in Austria 4th November 2019 Vienna, Austria British education: major visa reform for post-study visas I commend a recent British Council blog, written by Education Director Maddalaine Ansell. Ms Ansell writes about the major reform to post-work study visas for international students which the UK Government has announced will enter into force from 2020. “From next year,” she writes, “students graduating from British higher education institutions with at least an undergraduate degree can apply to stay for two years to work or seek work. If they find skilled work, they can switch into the skilled workers immigration route, which can lead to permanent settlement in the UK.” The change will not directly affect Austrian students, who can already study in the UK for courses starting in the 2020-21 academic year on the same basis ..

"The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in Social Media: A Critical Discourse Analysis" analyzes the strong role of Twitter in shaping Pakistan's positive national narrative of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the portion of China's Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) that cuts directly through Pakistan, border-to-border. The authors note that Pakistan's population of 200+ million people is one of the world's largest and fastest-growing social media audiences. “In nearly 70 years of friendship and close cooperation between China and Pakistan, the CPEC has emerged as a climax bringing both countries closer through greater Chinese investment under the BRI," write Ahmed, Rojratanakiat and Taekasem. "Twitter..