Ishaan Tharoor wrote in the Time magazine: “Two years later today, Turkey’s vaunted soft power looks more soft than powerful… Erdoğan, too, cuts a smaller, humbler figure on the world stage… His overwhelming support for the Syrian opposition is not mirrored by the majority of the Turkish public, and his reliance on other foreign powers to push the diplomatic envelope has resulted in something of a loss of face.”

Having recognized the widespread damage dealt by a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable that labeled Russia a "mafia state" run by an "alpha dog," the Kremlin has ordered a boost to soft power initiatives to help give the country's image a more positive spin abroad.

Rita Csapó-Sweet grew up a first-generation Hungarian-American. Her parents came to the United States after World War II. Because of her ethnic background, she felt a little out of place growing up in America. But a college trip to Hungary remedied her feelings of alienation and carved out a path that saw her become a cultural ambassador of sorts.

The United States on Monday denounced what it called a spike in anti-Islamic sentiment in Europe and Asia, pointing to restrictions and violence against Muslims including the faith’s minority sects...Secretary of State John Kerry also voiced alarm at what he called rising anti-Jewish sentiment, and filled a position of special envoy to combat anti-Semitism.

Both gifted with a long history and rich culture, China and Greece should increase exchanges, learn from each other and boost win-win cooperation, Xi said during the meeting with Samaras. Xi said China and Greece should enhance their comprehensive strategic partnership to benefit the people of the two countries and promote peace and development of the world as a whole.

The Foreign Ministry told APA that during the meeting Elman Abdullayev briefed his counterpart about Azerbaijan's foreign policy, humanitarian projects that it carries out and the main directions of its public diplomacy…Azerbaijan and Egypt can also cooperate on common objectives of the public diplomacy.

Starting in early March 2013 the Russian government launched a nationwide campaign of inspections of nongovernmental organizations, unprecedented in its scale and scope. The inspections were highly extensive, disruptive, invasive, and often intimidating...It is clear that the main objective of these inspections is to identify organizations the government deems “foreign agents” and force advocacy groups to either assume this false, misleading, and demonizing label or suspend their work.