As the world regroups, this issue of Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior (RMPE) provides a testimony of the pandemic and its implications, not just for diplomacy, but for the security agenda, the technological transition and intellectual property rights, among other topics. Health, we can now safely say, is our most prized possession. It is a human right and a public good. Sadly, we often have to lose something in order to fully appreciate it. SARS-CoV-2 has changed life as we know it, but it has also changed the way we die and how we process grief, all in a bid to check the spread of the virus.

The Instituto Matías Romero has dedicated issue number 118 of its Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior (RMPE) to an overview and analysis of the concrete actions Mexico has taken during the first five years of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in areas such as: the environment, gender equality, the eradication of hunger and the impact of exponential technologies on sustainable development. Mexico’s Pro Tempore Presidency of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and its leading role at multilateral forums to address the COVID-19 pandemic are also analyzed. Finally, this issue of the RMPE identifies and reflects on what remains to be done, measures that need to be followed up on, and Agenda goals that require more concerted action by the country’s various social actors.

This special issue of Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior features a group of contributors who reflect on the Ministry of Foreing Affairs’ actions to stop the illicid flow of firearms to Mexico, mainly from the United States, and on the Mexico's strategy in this area.

This, the first fully bilingual Spanish-English issue of the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior published by the Instituto Matías Romero, explores at length how Mexico plans to deploy an inclusive form of diplomacy, based on a foreign policy that fosters cooperation, trade and the economy, tourism and culture, and that safeguards both the interests of Mexico and those of Mexican citizens overseas, as of today and into the future.

Issue number 117 of our review also features articles by high-ranking government officials, and those that were selected following a competition open to members of the Mexican Foreign Service, who were invited to express their views on this all-important task that directly involves them.

Africa for what? The question seems obvious, but it really isn't. In areas as diverse as political, economic, academic and social, there is enormous ignorance about this region of the world, whose stereotyped images portray a continent lagging behind and absent from the crucial moments of global development. The scarcity of literature on the subject generates that information gaps are fed with  beliefs and myths. Those of us who have studied the African continent in Mexico normally see ourselves in the need to justify why and why this region should be incorporated into foreign policy approaches or university curricula.

Issue 115 of the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior (RMPE), which explores the role of Russia in today's world, was conceived to contribute to a greater knowledge and understanding of today's Russia based on an analysis of the evolution of its political and economic system, its new role and its policies implemented in various areas of the international arena. It also offers some elements for decision-making concerning the Mexico-Russia relationship.

The wealth of reflection on Latin America and the Caribbean is linked to that of the region itself. In recent years, Mexico has resumed and, in some cases, relaunched its relationship with the region, the subregions, and the countries that comprise it; It is for this reason that number 114 of the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior is dedicated to her. Each author and author, from their different areas of analysis, exposes the importance of this, our region of belonging, as a regional and international actor, its possibilities and achievements, its challenges and its solidarity.

Issue 113 of the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior (RMPE) is dedicated to a topic of great interest to foreign ministries and their academies the world over: the use of digital tools to perform diplomatic duties and how these affect the nature of the profession. The articles pose basic, but transcendental questions: How is diplomacy to be practiced in the era of social media? How can digital media be used to positively influence audiences that are physically distant, yet interconnected by Internet? Is it possible to identify and measure the impact of digital public diplomacy? To what extent does all this modify the practice of diplomacy?

Issue 112 of the Mexican Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior is dedicated to Europe and Mexico's relations with this region, with an emphasis on the European Union. In its pages academics and public officials of recognized prestige meet, who analyze and reflect on the importance that this region has for the current agenda of Mexico and its foreign policy; They do it under the wise coordination of Dr. Lorena Ruano.

In order to locate the necessary elements of this soft power that Mexico can exercise in the world, the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior 111 is proposed as an assembly of informed voices that distinguishes some key elements. In it, a group of people with experience and knowledge of the subject proposes to carry out an exercise on the advantages of articulating soft power in Mexican diplomacy in its own way and with a clear strategic perspective. This issue of the RMPE is a commitment to imagine the soft power that can and should be articulated as a nation in the 21st century.

This issue of the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior, dedicated to multilateralism in Mexico's foreign policy, has two purposes: to highlight the importance of multilateralism in today's complex and uncertain international environment, and to stimulate readers' interest in understanding Mexico more. background how its institutional framework works. Despite the fact that multilateralism can sometimes be perceived as a diplomatic effort that is carried out far from home and whose consequences are intelligible only to experts, the truth is that Mexico's multilateral action focuses on issues that profoundly affect daily life. of Mexicans and seeks to pay for the development of the country.

In order to consolidate the consular protection capabilities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in November 1989 it signed a collaboration agreement with the University of Houston Law Center, thanks to which a member of the Mexican Foreign Service is receiving a scholarship for a master's degree. in American law at that institution. To celebrate more than twenty-five years of operation of this fruitful binational academic cooperation scheme, this issue of the Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior is nourished with contributions from some of the beneficiaries of this program. In his works, legal issues of great significance for the Mexico-United States relationship are analyzed. They include texts on the right of consular access, binational treaties and agreements, private international law, the death penalty, human rights and the fight against corruption. The RMPE also contains reflections on the origin, validity and future of the exchange program, by Ambassador Arturo Dager-Gómez; the legal consultant of the Foreign Ministry, Alejandro Alday-González, and the minister Eduardo Peña-Haller. Likewise, the interviews with the ambassadors Alberto Székely and Miguel Ángel González-Félix offer an intimate panorama of the legal-consular activity that Mexico deploys in favor of our citizens and our interests in the United States.