Sheikh Tamim has certainly learnt the ropes quickly and may well grow to be a great emir, but with Hamad bin Jassim's departure, Qatar's clout on the foreign stage will undoubtedly suffer, and this at a time when the country is facing increasing criticism.
Much African music is intertwined with the society from which it arises in ways that are difficult for a Westerner to understand, and this context is virtually impossible to translate onto the foreign stage.
Even on the foreign stage, the American president is not the colossus he once was.
Compared with imported movies and television shows, foreign stage musicals have taken much longer to arrive in post-Soviet Russia.
But many saw her as intrinsically unfit, an obscure governor from the faraway 49th state, with no national standing and no experience on the foreign stage.
The number of primary schools teaching a language increased rapidly when the Labour government introduced the national languages strategy in 2002, an initiative that gave heads eight years to introduce a foreign language at key stage two.
And, while the 2002 national languages strategy – an initiative that gave primary heads eight years to introduce a foreign language at key stage 2 – did cause more schools to invest in languages, much of this progress was undone when funding for languages was reallocated to the general school budget.
Another initiative was to stage a foreign operetta for the first time since Richard D'Oyly Carte's day, in what would be D'Oyly Carte's first co-production.
And it was notable for another reason: this was the first time Ma agreed to be interviewed on stage by a foreign journalist.
What is different about international students compared to their peers is that they experience this developmental stage in a foreign country, often with little social support, language barriers, and while their acculturation process is unfolding.
