Takeshi Matsui’s new article, "Nation Branding through Stigmatized Popular Culture: The Cool Japan Craze Among Central Ministries in Japan", has recently been published in Hitotsubashi Journal of Commerce and Management. This article explains how various Japanese ministries are competing to promote “Cool Japan” and make Japanese “content industry” more attractive in order to enhance Japanʼs soft power.

Andreas Sandre, in his recent book, Digital Diplomacy: Conversations on Innovation in Foreign Policy, sheds light on the evolving practice of digital diplomacy in the 21st century. Sandre presents potential challenges and opportunities that all diplomats now face in using digital media and new technologies.

The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy just published their congressionally-mandated 2014 Comprehensive Annual Report on U.S. Public Diplomacy and International Broadcasting Activities, which details the cost, origin and scope of these activities worldwide. This report itemizes major public diplomacy and international broadcasting activities conducted by the State Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).

Syracuse University Association of Public Diplomacy Scholars recently published the 2014 Exchange Journal of Public Diplomacy, “Public Diplomacy in Emerging Nations.” This issue aims to observe public diplomacy from a non-American perspective and through comparative studies sheds light on how PD is practiced in Mexico, Russia, India, Turkey, and China.

The latest issue of Sport in Society focuses on “Sport and Diplomacy” and explores the interrelationship between international sports and diplomatic studies since they both have a global public dimension to them that can be systematized. The issue features eight articles including:

Robert Albro, Assistant Professor at American University, and Bill Ivey, Principal in Global Cultural Strategies, have just edited a book titled Cultural Awareness in the Military (November: Palgrave Macmillan) which discusses the developments and implications for future humanitarian cooperation that involve military forces.

In China's Public Diplomacy, Ingrid d'Hooghe, Senior Research Associate at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations (Clingendael) and an expert in East Asia region, analyzes how China's approach to public diplomacy is shaped by the country's political system and culture.

Olof Bergand, head of the Stockholm Program of Place-branding (STOPP) and Guje Sevón, Professor Emerita at Stockholm School of Economics, recently published a paper titled “Food-branding places – A sensory perspective” in which they explore how food is used to brand places. The paper, which was published in the November 2014 issue of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, touches on topics related to both gastrodiplomacy and nation branding and explores the notion of "sensescapes."