It's been great to get such thoughtful comments on our International Relations Spectrum. One way for me to understand other perspectives would be to take a piece of our work at the British Council and look at how we could frame it.

In the aftermath of the Beijing Olympics, there's been much discussion about an increase in China's soft power, not least by Joseph Nye, the originator of the concept. [Link] Nye and others (this writer included) have evaluated China's film industry and U.S.-Chinese co-productions as a strategic asset for the Middle Kingdom. I was discussing the subject recently with a U.S.

The Denver Post
U.S. Olympic Committee officials this year instituted mandatory "ambassador" seminars that teach about China and encourage athletes to think carefully about how best to represent their country.

This article originally appeared on the USC US-China Institute's web magazine US-China Today.

Dear User: Due to the large number of text messages you’ve sent to the opposite sex, creating the worst and their negative influence on society, we have already suspended your text message service. Tomorrow, please bring your wooden stool to the police station to execute moral re-education!
(Translated Chinese Text Message)

This article first appeared on the MacArthur Foundation's Spotlight blog.

I spent the past week at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo in San Jose, California.

There were a number of interesting panels, but two themes caught my attention that I’d like to discuss here: 1) Concern for ROI or Return on Investment in Virtual Worlds; and 2) The Rise of China.

ROI

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post on September, 20, 2007

Lesson 1: When in China, buy a bike.