Navdeep Suri, joint secretary (public diplomacy) in the ministry, also unveiled ambitious plans to connect the youth and accelerate people-to-people contacts between India and Africa.

For a while soft power was undercut because the US reputation was tarnished, but the Arab awakening has demonstrated how powerful American-driven social media are in opening up closed societies. But when IBM invests massively in Africa - which it has identified as the next major emerging growth market - it is also investing in an openness that advances US interests.

APDS Blogger: Hend Alhinnawi

APDS Blogger: Hend Alhinnawi

As an arm of Turkish soft power and growing regional influence, civil society organisations and doctors are leading the way to make a measurable impact on the ground in Africa.

APDS Blogger: Maya Babla

The "hip hop jam session" between African American hip hop musicians and Sfax native El General is at the core of the hip hop diplomacy: critical cross-cultural exchange and dialogue achieved through musical collaborations. The interaction between youth through a shared global language (hip hop and social media technologies) may be a "bab" for this bilateral political and cultural education.

“Sierra Leoneans have a lot of stories to tell,” says Ahmed Mansaray, the film school’s founding director. But today “most of the stories are being told [through] the binoculars of the white man”...For many in the West, Sierra Leone remains the land of blood diamonds and drugged-up child soldiers...