NATO countries start on Monday large-scale security cooperation exercises on the territory of the former Soviet republics in the Baltic region, the Estonian military said. READ MORE

Late last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her tour of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. In Scandinavia, she was to address several forums on climate change and green energy. While in Sweden, she also planned to discuss Internet freedom, Afghanistan and the Middle East. But it is in the mountains of the Caucasus and Turkey where Hillary will face the red meat of geopolitics: bloody ethnic conflicts over turf; religiously motivated massacres; and threshold nuclear states with global reach. READ MORE

Lithuania and Norway foster similar foreign policy objectives and aim to intensify bilateral political and economic relations. This was agreed on 8 March in Vilnius, by Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. READ MORE

For centuries we have used maps to delineate borders that have been defined by politics. But it may be time to chuck many of our notions about how humanity organizes itself. Across the world a resurgence of tribal ties is creating more complex global alliances. Where once diplomacy defined borders, now history, race, ethnicity, religion, and culture are dividing humanity into dynamic new groupings. READ MORE