The “zero problems” policy... proved to be most successful. With that policy Turkey was able to substantially enhance not only its democracy, economy and security but also its international prestige and soft power. It became a source of inspiration for the entire Arab world ...

Over the past decade Turkey may have significantly boosted its profile in the Middle East, but it still has a large gap to close between its expectations and capabilities in order to become a true “regional power,” says a study by the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization.

Launched a bit over a year ago, more or less coinciding with the eruption of the Arab Spring, the ministry’s Arabic Facebook page on Thursday reached the milestone of 100,000 fans. The fact that so many people have said they “Like” the page, however, does not mean that all of them really do.

In the eyes of the U.S. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the events of Sept. 11, 2001 revealed that public diplomacy efforts with predominantly Muslims countries had been neglected for many years. Soon afterwards they helped establish the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange Study (YES) program.

Now Iran is demonstrating "sympathy" with the Arab Spring and mistakenly calls it as an Arab version of the Iranian "Islamic revival." While Iran calls on all Arabs to support the Islamic brotherly relations, it supported a coup in Bahrain and a web of espionage in Kuwait.

Casa Arabe (Albeit Arabi). It is a public Spanish institution created by Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs as it is widely believed the importance of having good relation between Spain and Arab countries. We are working from Madrid to Gortoba. We focus on the tool of foreign affairs public diplomacy as the main means of access to Arab countries.

A favorable image of Iran, once widely held in the Arab world, has started to erode in the last few years and since the beginning of 2011, it has deteriorated sharply. This is because the wave of unrest in the streets of the Arab world has been accompanied by a major shift in perceptions of Iran.

For much of the past decade, "soft power" has been touted as a means for making foreign policy more effective by emphasizing enticement rather than coercion, conversation rather than conflict.