Brazil and the Arab world are renewing their ties of friendship, inspired by strong historical and cultural affinities.

Compared with the small Jewish state, Turkey has an expanding population and a deep awareness of its historical, religious, and cultural affinities with its neighbors. These important assets make Turkey an indispensable nation in the region.

Meetup, a service founded so that users could find people in their local area who share their interests and affinities and actually have a real world meeting offline in a cafe or a pub or what have you.

Both countries are his neighbors, and in theory at least, their leaders are his ideological soul mates. But the differences between the modern and archaic left, and the three countries contradictory national interests, seem to be trumping more superficial political affinities.

He is the man whom many American presidents would like to emulate, not because of any racial affinities, but because of his allure as a wartime leader. The US is the strongest military power in the world, just as Britain was in Churchill s youth.

Constitutional patriotism, a concept developed by two German philosophers, Dolf Sternberger and Karl Jaspers, was intended to replace the nationalism that had been discredited in Germany by the country s Nazi past. Similarly, as the EU evolved into a federal state, its loyal citizens would reject nationalism based on ethnic affinities and instead identify with the democratic principles of the federation s constitution.

First, France is an indispensable link between southern and northern Europe at a time of growing economic and financial division between creditors and debtors (a fissure that has begun to assume a cultural dimension). An active France can play a bridging role, leveraging its strong relationship with Germany (a friendship that is a pillar of the EU) and its proximity and cultural affinities to the Mediterranean.