With a wealth of 'soft power' resources, Japan continually strives to enhance the attractiveness of its image overseas through human, cultural and intellectual exchange, and public diplomacy. In particular, Japan's so-called sub-culture of animation (anime), movies, comics (manga), pop music and Japanese cuisine, has significant global reach.

If it wants to strengthen its presence in the international community and adequately inform a wider audience abroad about itself, Japan should strategically strengthen its public relations overseas and promote cultural exchanges with other nations. In its budgetary request for fiscal 2015, the Foreign Ministry has requested about 50 billion yen (about $475 million) for a new key budgetary item called "strategic proliferation of information abroad."

The Dalai Lama is losing friends all over the place as the world undergoes a geopolitical realignment. The Dalai Lama used to be the guy everyone wanted at their party. But since China's emergence as an economic superpower, he's become an awkward guest to invite. Around the world, governments are limiting their contact with him — in some cases because of direct pressure by China, and in other cases, because of the chilling effect that pressure creates.

China's cultural scene has certainly flourished in recent years from art, to music and, of course, museums. Curator Cheng Guoqin says part of the reason the government supports the opening of new museums is that it improves the country's image. "The government has realized that economic success is not enough," she says. "It realizes that soft power and the creative industries must play an important role."

In 2006, executives from the public relations firm Ketchum flew to Moscow to secure an account that has since been worth tens of millions of dollars. President Vladimir Putin of Russia had hired Ketchum to provide advice on public relations before the nation hosted the Group of 8 meeting in St. Petersburg. At the time, Mr. Putin "cared a great deal about what other leaders, especially presidents, thought about him," said Michael A. McFaul, a former United States ambassador to Russia who now teaches at Stanford.

Hong’s new book, “The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture,” loosely follows South Korea’s growth from the mid-60s, when the country’s per capita G.D.P. was less than Ghana’s, to now. Today, South Korea is the 15th-largest economy in the world. From Psy’s “Gangnam Style” video to the chips that Samsung furnishes for Apple’s iPhones, the book explores the confluence of factors that make for Korea’s pop-­cultural perfect storm.

Every year, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) publishes their World Press Freedom Index, which ranks every country in the world using the following six criteria: pluralism, media independence, environment and self-censorship, legislative framework, transparency, and infrastructure. This chart lists the ten best and worst places to be a journalist today. The time-lapse maps below tell a more complicated story.

Pushing back against criticism that its presence in Africa is mercenary, China has extended unprecedented generosity to the Western African countries in the grip of an Ebola epidemic. It is the first time that China has extended humanitarian aid to countries facing public health emergencies; state media characterized this as "fulfilling the duty of a big country" and "selfless".