Let’s move away from these products and focus on how soft power actually incorporates ethical standards of behavior and important societal norms that resonate with others in the world. These fundamental norms should not surprise us: liberal ideas of individualism, economic incentives, democracy and human rights. Implementing these liberal values over many decades has led the U.S. to our dominant global economic and political position.

U.S. Marines raised the Stars and Stripes over the newly reopened American Embassy in Cuba on Friday as Secretary of State John Kerry made an unprecedented nationally broadcast call for democratic change on the island ruled by a single party for more than five decades.

We should demystify democracy. Democracy is not a western plot, it is a universal value. Virtually all countries have aspects of democratic culture in place to some degree, and absolutely every country has room to strengthen the quality of their democracy.

Romanian students from Babadag, Bistrita and Botosani visited Norway to showcase their successful advocacy campaigns and to see how democracy mechanism work in Norway. Nine students from Dimitrie Cantemir (Babadag), Colegiul National Liviu Rebreanu, Colegiul Tehnic Infoel (Bistrita) and Colegiul National Mihai Eminescu (Botosani), together with their teachers, made a study visit to Oslo in the period of 16-21 May, under a program designed to present their advocacy works, familiarize them with the rule of law, democracy and the mechanisms that ensure the functioning of good governance.

Following China’s economic rise, the world is keeping watch over its system of government, and how it has successfully adapted to the international capitalist environment from socialism. China’s political development is thought to have far-reaching consequences for Korea in diplomacy, trade and people exchanges, as bilateral relations are deepening. 

On his America tour, he makes the case for the democratic alternative to China’s influence in East Asia. By any measure, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the United States has been a resounding success. Having just wrapped up three full days in Washington, D.C., Abe is now in California, visiting both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Before Washington, he stopped in Boston and New York, making this the longest visit by a Japanese leader in decades.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has emerged as a key broker of perceptions between the U.S. and China. He was a member of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council delegation that met Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2013 in Beijing and is currently director of the Asia Society Public Policy Institute.On behalf of the Belfer Center at Harvard, he has just completed a seminal report "U.S.-China 21: The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping." Below are the key conclusions of that report. 

Harvard University's Distinguished Service Professor Nye is a political scientist who coined the concept "soft power" -- a kind of power that has the ability to attract rather than coerce, and that has been widely used by Turkish decision-makers to highlight the country's appeal as a modern Muslim democracy. Nye is despondent over Turkey's current direction and believes that cracking down on dissent has a negative impact on Turkey's most significant weapon: soft power.