Since 2007, Cambodia has seen a rapid increase in cultural investments from China. China’s projection of soft power is generally limited to language training and the marketing of cultural products such as books and movies, and the long-term effect on the foreign policy of recipient countries has yet to be determined.

Art and dance are reflections and representations of the complexities of humanity, which is designed to captivate us visually and audibly, invoking a deep emotional connection that transcends through time and boundaries, proving their importance as the essential tools of cultural diplomacy.

SBY also has a vision of world peace, with his proposal for a triple-track solution for the future of Iraq as an example. However, the President’s most popular vision was perhaps on Indonesia’s soft power diplomacy, which he presented before a UN forum and USINDO in 2007. He envisaged that many conflicts in the world could not reach peaceful solution as actors pursued solely hard power.

It's familiar, unmistakable. The melody echoing through the auditorium at Rangsit University is from Days of Wine and Roses, that Hollywood drama from the early 1960s whose theme music, composed by Henry Mancini, won an Academy Award. The odd thing is that the tune is being played by a group of Asian students who couldn't possibly have been born when that film was released.

Southern California has the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam, concentrated primarily in Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles Counties; so it’s a natural partner with this burgeoning Southeast Asian country in a number of areas. Why not start with traffic?

Haji Yusof bin Idris lives opposite the riverfront in Phnom Penh, on the peninsula that divides the Mekong River from the Tonle Sap. He’s the unassuming imam of the modest Alazhar Mosque, which boasts about 2,600 followers. He’s also a pivotal player in the West’s counter-terrorism effort in Southeast Asia.

The first museum dedicated to the Muslim victims of the Khmer Rouge regime is scheduled to open in a Cambodian mosque next year. The museum in the Mabarak Mosque will introduce visitors to the stories of Muslim survivors of the Khmer Rouge, as well as to the language and culture of Cambodian Muslims, known as the Chams.