engagement

American embassies across the globe have taken to Twitter over the last year or two, an impressive soft power outreach to citizens of foreign countries, but the Cairo feed has stood out. Other feeds, even when they tweet frequently, tend to take the staid tone of official diplomacy, tweeting press releases, quotes from U.S. officials, and relevant headlines.

Some argue that when we talk of exporting Australian arts to Asia, we ought to be talking only of their role in soft diplomacy: that is, assisting Australia's political and economic agenda.....The implication is that the arts in Asia should not be valued on their own terms.

Ihsanoglu stated that Islamophobia is a contemporary manifestation of racism. He assured that combating Islamophobia as well as vilification of all religions and denigration of symbols and personalities sacred to all religions is a matter of priority at the OIC. He urged the HRC to an urgent initiative of ‘preventive cultural diplomacy’.

The growing realization in India, at least outside the government, is that engagement shouldn’t be merely state or personality driven. India’s government should take note of this, and ease visa restrictions on citizens from neighboring countries. It’s time to showcase India’s soft power, rather than relying on the External Affairs Ministry.

...as a part of larger scheme of building up China’s “soft power.”... Xi’s trip to Iowa is evidently designed to do just that, projecting an image not of a Communist dictator, but a caring leader of a modern nation who cherishes his friendship with Americans, in the hopes of garnering some American goodwill.

This is about growing Brazil’s soft power on the international scale and raising Brazil’s role in the world,” said Matthew Taylor, a Brazil specialist at the American University’s School of International Service. “Brazil is taking on a bigger role in the hemisphere in terms of aid and finance, and by helping out Cuba they really draw attention to this new role they are playing.”

Pages