Brown quite rightly points out that in a dangerous world “There is, therefore, no question of whether to proceed with space weapons—only a question of how to do so with the requisite political skill in order to retain soft power while expanding hard power.” The problem is not with the goal but rather with the nature of soft power. If it is essentially political, then perhaps clever diplomacy can help reconcile places like Europe to the reality of American space weapons. On the other hand, if this is a cultural concept then the tools of politics and diplomacy are almost entirely useless.

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“Think of American values and political system as orange juice. Think of the Al Qaeda system of violent extremism as lemonade. Our job for the short term is not to put all of our efforts into getting people to drink orange juice, but to get them not to drink lemonade.” This sort of counter-narrative approach is similar to the marketing strategies taken up by warring brands who are constantly on the lookout for claims of “better services and product efficacies” by their competitors.

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In this respect, it is very urgent to properly advertise the Korean image of rapid successful development in the economic and political areas from the perspective of values and philosophy in the international arena through proper policy measures and the people's combined efforts. Since the inauguration of the Lee administration last year, lots of new innovative measures ― especially in the area of North Korea policy, the Korea-U.S. alliance and active globalization efforts, particularly in the area of economy, to more open up to the outside world ― have been made in an affirmative way.

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From Borneo to Burma, it is China, not America, that Southeast Asian nations now look to whenever they need to build a bridge, a dam, a hospital or have another problem they cannot easily resolve...the United States also provides many millions of dollars of aid... But there's a difference. American aid comes with numerous strings attached.

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The GPO will issue a report Monday (March 2, 2009) from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee titled "U.S. Public Diplomacy--Time to Get Back in the Game" (2.3mb PDF modified to be searchable, see below for a more useful version).

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For Zhao Qizheng, 2008 will be remembered as the year when China made a mark in "public diplomacy". That is because, last year, the government disseminated timely and accurate information to the public on such major events as the Beijing Olympics, the destructive snowstorms and the devastating May 12 earthquake, Zhao told China Daily on Friday. This helped in boosting the government's standing among its citizens, Zhao, who used to head the State Council Information Office, said.

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Hollywood figures from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences arrive in Iran to hold filmmaking and movie marketing seminars...While the Hollywood team's visit to Tehran is not political, it does show the openness of Iran toward the expansion of cultural relations with the US.

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The Palestinian Ambassador to the UK has told your Worcester News he is backing the controversial city council proposal to twin Worcester with Gaza City. As news of the council’s unlikely scheme to form twinning arrangements with the war-torn Palestinian city was picked up by media outlets around the globe yesterday, Dr Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian territories’ diplomatic representative in Britain, said he believes the idea is a good one. “As the Palestinian Ambassador here in the UK I totally endorse these kind of twinnings,” he said.

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