Contemporary Udmurt Culture. I, II

Many interesting books are born out of international cooperation. Often cooperation agreements between academic institutions are purely formal, their function primarily declarative: we have many good partners abroad, we are connected with so many international institutions. But sometimes this cooperation indeed exists and gives good results. This is the case with the two-volume work being reviewed here: Contemporary Udmurt Culture, published by the University of Tallinn, but relying on work conducted by both the Udmurt Research Institute and the Estonian Literary Museum. Behind the institutional reality, however, there is human agency: the initiators of this book, the editors, are a group of scholars who have long been acquainted through different international events and have had the opportunity to discuss several issues which led to the desire to achieve this work.

Leveraging Smart and Sustainable Development via International Events: Insights from Bento Gonçalves Knowledge Cities World Summit

During the last couple of decades, making cities smarter and more sustainable has become an important urban agenda. In this perspective, knowledge-based development is seen as a strategic approach for cities seeking to thrive through innovation and resilience. Accomplishing a knowledge-based development agenda is, however, challenging, and cities need support mechanisms to effectively develop and then incorporate such agendas into their decision-making processes. This study investigates the role of international events as one of these support mechanisms for the development and implementation of local knowledge-based development agendas. The study aims to address how international events contribute to the local knowledge-based development efforts. This study takes the Knowledge Cities World Summit (KCWS) series as the exemplar international event, and the Brazilian city of Bento Gonçalves as the case study city. The methodological approach of the study consists of semi-structured interview-based qualitative analysis and case study investigations. The findings of the study revealed the following: (a) international events can be fundamental drivers of local knowledge-based agendas; (b) these events contribute to host cities’ development, especially at an institutional level, by generating outcomes such as engagement in cooperation networks and leveraging local actors’ influence on the development process; and (c) KCWS was instrumental in placing the local university as a protagonist of the knowledge-based development movement of Bento Gonçalves. The study reported in this paper provides invaluable insights for cities seeking to use international knowledge-based development events for smart and sustainable city formation.

United Arab Emirates will push global ambitions

Significance This will be Abu Dhabi’s first time on the Security Council since the 1980s, and it is promoting it as a marker of global leadership status, together with its ventures into space and hosting of key international events. Impacts The UAE will also intensify efforts to raise its global profile by hosting more cultural, sporting and related events. Abu Dhabi’s first UNSC presidency, which it takes up in March 2022, will allow it to set the agenda on key topics of interest. The UAE may take the opportunity to draw attention to its longstanding ‘Three-Island Dispute’ with Iran.

Menuju Surabaya Green City Melalui Kerjasama Kota Kembar Surabaya-Kitakyushu

The sister city collaboration between Surabaya and Kitakyushu is an example of the active cooperation of local governments in Indonesia. Conceptually, this kind of cooperation is also called paradiplomacy or diplomatic activity carried out by local governments with other regions in foreign countries. This article takes a case study of the sister cities of Surabaya and Kitakyushu to then look at the institutionalization aspect as a dimension that can be seen from paradiplomacy. Using the Surabaya point of view, the institutionalization points that the writer will review in this article are (1) the formation of a special ministry or department; (2) establishment of permanent subnational offices; (3) official visits of regional authorities to foreign territories and countries; (4) participation in various international events organized by foreign actors; (5) formation and participation in multilateral global & cross-border regional networks and working groups in specific fields; and (6) regional authorization participation in international events organized by foreign entities in official delegations of the central government.

Development of architecture and spatial environment of the city of Turkestan in modern conditions

The city of Turkestan is one of the oldest settlements in Kazakhstan, founded more than 1,500 years ago and has always had a special cultural and historical significance for Central Asia and the Turkic world. Since 2017, Turkestan has been recognized as the cultural and spiritual center of the Turkic world, becoming a venue for international events, and since June 19, 2018, the city has become the regional center of the Turkestan region. In connection with the new status of the city, there is a need to consider the architecture of modern Turkestan through the prism of socio-economic, image, architectural and spatial changes.

Strategic humour: Public diplomacy and comic framing of foreign policy issues

This article explores persuasive applications of humour in public diplomacy. I propose a new concept of strategic humour – the use of humour by state and proxy actors to promote instrumental interpretations of contested international events to foreign and domestic publics. Through strategic humour, states frame events in ways that advance their interests, deflect external criticism, and challenge narratives of other actors. In an entertaining form, strategic humour delivers a serious message that is simple, accessible, memorable, suited to the new media ecologies, and competitive in capturing news media and public attention. I focus on Russia as a state recently involved in a range of major controversies and demonstrate its use of strategic humour in three case studies. I argue that strategic humour is a fast-emerging, multi-format tool in public diplomacy, facilitated by the rise of social media and post-truth politics and less dependent on the state’s broader power resources.