Cultural Diplomacy

Joseph S. Nye: Is China’s soft power strategy working?

Public diplomacy scholar Joseph Nye discusses China's soft power assets and impact abroad. 

Last month, multi-national telecommunications company Huawei renewed its sponsorship of Wellington Phoenix. It is the largest sponsorship deal in the history of New Zealand football. Though the deal is vital for the club, it is also significant for Huawei. So significant that Huawei global CEO Guo Ping made the official announcement when Prime Minister John Key was at the company's Beijing headquarters as part of his latest China visit.

On Tuesday, UEFA finally rubber-stamped Kosovo's full membership in the European football family, marking the end of a journey that began in earnest almost 25 years ago, when a handful of rebels split from the game in federal Yugoslavia and started their own football league in the mud and marshes of this embattled Balkan republic.

Last Wednesday afternoon, four thousand miles away, Wolfgang Tillmans slouched at his desk. The photographer had Skyped me from the apartment above his Berlin studio, to discuss the poster campaign he’d released that day against “Brexit,” the British referendum on quitting the European Union, slated for June 23rd. […] if the E.U. is to survive, Tillmans said, it must become fashionable.

The Rolling Stones at Marcus Amphitheater, by Jim Pietryga

The significance of the Rolling Stones' Havana concert.

Nigeria's vast and rich cultural heritage should be strategically repositioned to partner tourism as its driver to lift the Nigerian economy. Tourism cannot effectively flourish without the cultural components. The desire to position culture and tourism as the lever of Nigeria's economic growth and development rests with the Ministry of Information and Culture as it must plan to mainstream both sectors into a monolithic entity to galvanize national economic development. 

Lawrence—part of Bruno Mars’ songwriting trio The Smeezingtons—has helped pen hits like CeeLo Green’s “F--- You,” Flo Rida’s “Right Round,” and Snoop Dogg’s “Young, Wild, and Free.” Rather than encouraging people to tear up the dance floor or smoke weed, the singer-songwriter hopes his new tune, “Begin Again,” will inspire peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

While a huge influx of immigration has brought much cultural diversity to the country, Qatar has also made concerted efforts to preserve its own heritage through cultural projects and the all encompassing Vision 2030

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