If Iran today has substantial soft power in the Middle East—as we believe it does—it has that power in no small part because it has picked winners rather than losers as its allies in key regional theaters.

The event in Tehran will be held during 25-29 January 2012 during which “Gun-en Artists group” shows around 50 pieces of its members' artistic works including paintings, pictures, dolls and textiles. The embassy is also going to hold exhibitions of photographs and children’s paintings of Japan’s disaster-stricken areas of March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a group that says it is working to prevent Iran from "fulfilling its ambition to obtain nuclear weapons"...It has now called on Jennifer Lopez to end her partnership with the car manufacturer Fiat, if the company refuses to terminate its business with Iran.

What this rescue shows us, however, is that national and international ends are not necessarily in conflict. This operation has helped the United States Navy develop genuine, if hard to measure, “soft power” value in terms of U.S. relations with Iran and the Gulf

Cultural diplomacy encompasses everything from training in modern dance to training in modern politics. At first glance, it seems a relatively non-threatening way to project identity and influence, but its impact can be profound. China’s President Hu Jintao recently warned that “international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China,” and added that “the international culture of the West is strong while we are weak.”

Now Iran is demonstrating "sympathy" with the Arab Spring and mistakenly calls it as an Arab version of the Iranian "Islamic revival." While Iran calls on all Arabs to support the Islamic brotherly relations, it supported a coup in Bahrain and a web of espionage in Kuwait.

Concern about Iran and their Hezbollah proxies' strategic push into the Americas has finally caught the White House's attention...This includes... conducting a full-bore public diplomacy campaign for regional audiences on Iran's intentions and activities in the region and the dangers for their societies therein.

Iran was never tackled in the same way as Iraq was, but with a 17-year long US trade embargo on Iran and no real diplomatic relations for 30 years – the two countries are clearly not friends. Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Clinton labeled Iran as “awful” in a speech about internet freedoms. But do we think Iran is “Evil”?