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AUSTRALIA – Well-known antibiotic amoxycillin found to be ineffective cough treatment.

AUSTRALIA – Bring the noise: has technology made us scared of silence?

INDIA – Biocon receives marketing authorization for novel biologic itolizumab for psoriasis.

ISRAEL – Aspireo reports Somatoprim Phase Ib interim data.

JAPAN – Daiichi Sankyo and Amplimmune announce strategic alliance to develop AMP-110 therapy for autoimmune disease.

JAPAN – Eisai signs agreement with Epizyme and Roche Molecular Systems to develop companion diagnostic.

THE PHILIPPINES – Asia-Pacific Analysis: The growth of stem-cell therapy.

THE PHILIPPINES – Is the world ready for scientific diplomacy?

UNITED KINGDOM – ARIAD and the U.K. National Cancer Research Institute to collaborate on SPIRIT 3 clinical study.

UNITED KINGDOM – Vision research collaboration on novel treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration.

UNITED STATES – Reducing medical mistakes: Two recently published studies support the use of DNA testing on biopsy samples to prevent misdiagnoses.

UNITED STATES – CoDa Therapeutics reports positive results from Phase IIb Study of NEXAGON® in chronic venous leg ulcers.

UNITED STATES – Inovio Pharmaceuticals to initiate clinical trial for its hepatitis C therapeutic vaccine later this year.

UNITED STATES – Jolt to brain eases pain without drugs.

UNITED STATES – Can a new vaccine prevent colon cancer?

UNITED STATES – Immunovaccine's DPX-Survivac produces sustained, dose related immune responses in Phase I ovarian cancer study.

INDIA – Rice diplomacy in South Asia.

INDIA – Indian court's Novartis ruling keeps door to cheap drugs open.

INDONESIA – A blueprint for changing diabetes in Indonesia.

SINGAPORE – Understanding abnormal proteins in degenerative diseases.

SINGAPORE – Singapore scientist wins coveted Chen New Investigator Award 2013.

SINGAPORE – Singapore single-cell research center opens door for Asian biological discoveries.

THE PHILIPPINES – Wild parent spawns super salt-tolerant rice.

AUSTRALIA – Women: Hormone therapy won't harm your head.

AUSTRALIA – QLD government's removal of "green tape" will achieve results for all.

AUSTRALIA – Chinese herbs help cut diabetes symptoms.

AUSTRALIA – iSonea launches new Asthmasense™ cloud technology.

EUROPE – Bone Therapeutics and Erasme University Hospital start Phase IIa trial in osteoporosis.

NORTH AMERICA – Medicago and IDRI reports positive results for its Phase I clinical trial for an H5N1 vaccine.

NORTH AMERICA – Civitas Therapeutics announces positive Phase II clinical results an inhaled L-dopa for Parkinson's disease.

NORTH AMERICA – Impel NeuroPharma completes industry's first nose-to-brain human imaging study.

NORTH AMERICA – A new treatment option for alcohol dependence: Reduced consumption rather than abstinence.

NORTH AMERICA – Targacept completes recruitment in Phase IIb schizophrenia trial.

UNITED KINGDOM – ID deadly pathogens without growing bacteria.

As Indonesia’s economy gradually improves, the government has been actively promoting its horizontal cooperation among developing countries by playing a prominent role as a non-DAC (Development Assistance Committee) provider. Though the country has been receiving aid over the past two decades, it has also been providing to other developing countries in the Pacific region. However, Indonesia’s relations with these countries face contention due to it being perceived as “big and aggressive.” This is evident in its decision to oppose the independence of Papua. After decades of seeking good relations, Jakarta has opened its Eastern door by creating a closer link with the Pacific countries through the provision of aid. As it moved from ignorance to awareness, Indonesia’s approach was aimed at solving domestic problems related to its national integration and territorial integrity in the east, particularly the issue of Papuan independence. The country made use of aid as its primary diplomatic tool in its “Look East” policy. This paper investigates the extent to which this policy has been instrumental in rebuilding, restoring, and improving Indonesia’s image among Pacific countries. It argues that the ethnic dimension is one of the critical determinants in diplomatic relations, and ignorance could lead to its failure. Furthermore, it shows that the use of aid has resulted in a constructive impact that has been evident in a decrease in support for Papua separatism in the South Pacific region.

On March 28, 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping detailed his vision for the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (hereinafter referred to as the Belt and Road) when attending the Boao Forum for Asia. After this, China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the “Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road”, a sign that the Belt and Road Initiative promoted by China as a foreign cooperation platform entered its first year of implementation. This vision covers over half of the global population and involves more than 60 countries along the routes, the economic aggregates of which account for about one-third of the world. During 2015, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang paid frequent visits to all continents in an effort to promote the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. At present, the Belt and Road Initiative has received positive responses from the countries along the routes, and a number of cooperation projects have been underway smoothly. With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, China is forming a grand diplomatic landscape with “double legs” (a new type of major power relations and the Belt and Road Initiative) and a “single circle” (peripheral diplomacy). The Belt and Road Initiative highlights the spirit of the age, characterized by “peace, mutual respect, openness, and inclusiveness”, and has major international significance in helping China break through the security dilemma among nations, shoulder the responsibilities of a great power, and build China’s soft power in the international arena.

The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, a small and remote island state, located in the Gulf of Guinea, has long offered little geopolitical and geo-economic interest. This situation is however gradually changing. In fact, since 2016, interest in the country has begun to grow, after the country resumed diplomatic relations with People’s Republic of China (hereafter China) and recognized the “one-China policy”. While the island state and Cabo Verde have followed different development paths in the post-colonial era, both share common features and both have the potential to perform important geopolitical regional roles in the context of the Belt and Road initiative (BRI). This paper discusses São Tomé and Príncipe’s regional engagement in the Gulf of Guinea (GG), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), and in multi-level cooperation in light of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries (FM) as well as bilateral cooperation. We argue that São Tomé and Príncipe is of geopolitical value to China and that the island state will serve Chinese interests in extending the BRI in the Gulf of Guinea. The microstate of São Tomé and Príncipe has the potential to transform itself to function as the “Qatar of the Gulf of Guinea”, and contribute to regional stability by providing regional services for shipping, banking, finance, high-quality education, tourism and as an engaged partner. This paper presents a methodological theoretical-inductive and constructivist perspective, combining qualitative, quantitative and non-participant observation.

Comprising aspiring economies, significant reserves of social, human and natural capital, and witnessing the bulk of maritime trade, global as well as intra-region interests are inextricably tied to the Indo-Pacific. Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in exposing the fault lines in the Indo-Pacific which was already fraught with competing as well as cooperative geopolitical equations. In the context of regional and global actors being called upon to reign in the ensuing disruptions and establish alternate response mechanisms, this paper examines the geopolitical landscape of the Indo-Pacific and the evolution of India’s role as a key participant and contributor to regional dynamics. In doing do, the paper analyzes intra-region partnerships which have witnessed a steady expansion with New Delhi’s involvement. It also underscores the key responses and adaptations of countries in the region and how India’s engagement is poised to underwrite the same.

This chapter explores the dual relevancies of technology to diplomatic engagement; that is, technologies as both the subject and catalysts of bilateral and multilateral interactions. The former is explored in the first section, and the latter in the second. Both are conducted with empirical cases. In the third section, the chapter seeks to highlight the encroachment of the “Westphalian” monopoly of states on the international diplomatic stage in light of the growing number of actors involved in responding to new challenges brought on by the development of emerging technologies, particularly nuclear proliferation, climate change and e-waste management. Additionally, it ponders the diplomatic implications of AI and other emerging technologies.

The rise of Anti-Semitism has become a focal point in the political debate within the European Union (EU). The European Council and Commission have made it their commitment to combat Anti-Semitism in a joint effort and clearly state that it is no longer solely the responsibility of the Jews to address Anti-Semitism. The EU urges member states to undergo policy reforms, in cooperation with the national Jewish communities and the Jewish Diaspora, to find suitable solutions to rising security threats within their states. Their overall aim is to enable a future for Jews in Europe and facilitate the ability for Jews to pursue their daily lives. Therefore, the field of diplomacy becomes essential. To reach policy advances in the EU, negotiations must take place at various political levels and in different settings to influence the respective societies and impact decision makers. This article attempts to identify and analyze the usage of dialogue, persuasion, and negotiations in the context of the EU’s efforts.

The chapter uses twofold conceptual constructs to bring to light successive evolving legacies of diplomacy: a timeline framework, coupled with a circular system-structure model of diplomacy to present its macrocosmic direction over historical eras, how such processes impacted civilization and, finally, to suggest how Bangladesh unfolded its own brand of diplomacy. Historically, diplomacy opens up asymmetrical features in Euro-Asian-African continents, owing its origins to the Greco-Roman bullying; that moved through medieval Europe’s statebased diplomacy, passing on in sequence to modern-contemporary eras. Conceptually, all that progressively ushered in multilateral diplomacy, in a power drive frame for strategic dominance; it passed through system and structure processes, with variants of power, including bipolar, tripolar and multipolar diplomacy, besides détente and deterrent diplomacy. Asian/subcontinental diplomacy classically represented cultural mixes; asymmetric colonial diplomacy provoked sustained anti-colonial struggle, with blends of hard/soft power diplomacy. Yet, asymmetrical drives soon replaced post-colonial diplomatic fraternity. Diplomacy in Bengal/Bangladesh contexts seems a “notional complex,” because of the power image, legacies of tolerance, an infusion of external softer diplomatic variants, alongside diffusion of personalized and state-based diplomacy. East Pakistani modern era faced asymmetrical abuses. For its independence Bangladesh led by Mujib battled that asymmetric abuse via symmetrical varieties of struggle, combining hard/softer ideals of diplomacy, with motivations of setting man and nature in harmony and peace.

The chapter appraises Bangladesh’s diplomacy of liberation, focusing on the contextual tales of the country’s liberation war and Mujib’s advent in the diplomatic horizon as the lead role player. The subject of Pakistan’s destiny inevitably features as a contentious issue in this context, along with the circumstantial concerns that led to Bangladesh’s independence. Mujib’s appearance in the political scene was pertinent, as he had played a pioneering role in the creation of the new nation in the arena of regional and international diplomacy. A conceptual model of diplomacy combining politics, policy and power — with diplomacy as the centerpiece — has been used for analytical precision and reasoning. The findings suggest Mujib’s duteous commitment to politics was bound up with people’s well-being, along with fulfillment of their socioeconomic and political aspirations. Towards materializing such objectives, he often faced grim risks, which conditioned his changing policy dream and his judicious use of both power and strategy to reach the ends of his diplomacy, the nation-state he had envisioned for his people.