Positive economic data alone cannot upgrade the national image. A series of latest episodes in Korea showed that soft images may be more critical in shining the national image than hard data.

A number of youth groups from Taiwan are traveling to Central America during their summer vacation to increase cultural understanding between the two sides. A foreign ministry official, Abel Lin, spoke about the purpose of the trips on Thursday.

What happened to China's much vaunted "soft power" and "good neighborly" diplomacy about which we have heard so much in recent years? China's supposed "soft power," always overstated, has passed from the scene in short order.

The introduction of television was a defining moment in Egypt and the Arab world. "We launched television in Libya, in Kuwait, in Aleppo and in Syria. We emerged as the cultural beacon of the Arab world," Abdel-Qader Hatem, Egypt's and the Arab world's first minister of information told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Underlying the hearts and minds strategy is a simple - and mistaken - assumption that aid projects will generate goodwill towards the US and reduce local support for terrorists and militant Islamist ideology. However, in our conversations we found no evidence that the US has been winning hearts and minds.

Pakistan's permanent representative to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon and Pakistani Peace Builders (PPB) will host the 1st Annual New York Sufi Music Festival on Tuesday at Union Square, New York City, with an objective to present "soft image" of Pakistan through cultural diplomacy.

Today, India has an historic opportunity to claim its rightful place. But will India be able to assert itself on the global stage? Will the pride of this resurgent India emerge to counter factors that affect our image? Building Brand India is an imperative we cannot afford to ignore.

In search of soft power, Brazil is turning itself into one of the world's biggest aid donors. But is it going too far, too fast?