Unsuspectingly, Sunday night's Academy Awards turned into a kind of prism of global politics as Oscars were given out to Iranian and Pakistani films as well as to a film produced by a French director with French actors financed with French subsidies.

If a state possesses sufficient “soft power,” it has acquired the ability to frame and shame events and actors in international relations...The French role in last year’s intervention in Libya was a perfect example.

“In terms of public diplomacy, it is always more interesting if members belonging to the local population express your message. The French won’t believe what the emir of Qatar tells them, but they will believe the director of a start-up in the French suburbs,” said Pelletier.

It remains to be seen if divergent views on support to farmers will have a negative impact, not just on the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round, but also on bilateral relations. On the soft-power side, France needs to attract more Indian scientists and students to its academic institutions.

From US soldiers introducing chewing gum to France in 1917 to a toothbrush from a trench and newfangled machine guns and shells, the first world war has been given a revolutionary treatment in a new French war museum near Disneyland Paris. It was the first move in France's new campaign to develop itself as the world capital of war tourism.

Therefore, Turkey should not underestimate France's capacity of generating soft power. Instead of unrealistic agendas like “making known French atrocities everywhere,” Turkey should devise more sophisticated long-term strategies that increase its soft power in many countries.

How does culture sell a nation? Monocle and the V&A host a lively discussion on museums as soft-power ambassadors, with panellists including nation branding expert Simon Anholt, the senior French heritage curator Lurence de Cars and the Minister of State at the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Singapore, which has hosted film festivals from Israel and Germany in recent years, is opening its doors to France. “1st Rendezvous with French Cinema”...has been designed as a platform to allow French business and industry players to network with each other in the business-friendly island state.