As the profile of the Games has exponentially increased over the years,the Games is no longer seen purely as a celebration of the best of sport, but also a celebration of the host country, a communication exercise intended to increase a country’s ‘soft power’ and relative standing within the international arena.

The YouTube video of Madam Ambassador's address at the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Geneva has gone viral on social media, leaving behind a nation cringing in embarrassment at the quality of its diplomatic representation in a key location in the world.

Aggregate data are not available, but figures from local language centres across the continent suggest that the number of people in Europe enlisted in taking the official Chinese Proficiency Test - or HSK - over the last two years has grown by close to a factor five.

Whatever the London 2012 opening ceremony includes, I am sure it will effectively communicate to a mass audience more about modern Britain in just one show than politicians have achieved in decades... we must remember that no matter what our countries financial difficulties (or not), the arts have a role to play challenging the idea of what a country is and stands for… So here’s to cultural diplomacy.

LONDON -- It has been a long road for former middle distance runner, Lord Sebastian Coe, who won gold medals in the Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics and has gone on to become the driving force behind the London Olympic Games. Those Games officially began with the opening ceremony in the Olympic Stadium on Friday night. "We are about to embark on the greatest sport we have ever seen and most of us will ever see in our lifetimes," said Lord Coe, who was the head of the bid which brought the Games to London.

In 2009, while I was working in public diplomacy on NATO's international staff in Brussels, I was asked to produce a promotional campaign to be posted in the Washington, D.C., Metro system for NATO's 60th-anniversary summit in Strasbourg and Kehl. In response, I asked member countries to suggest powerful images that showed Allied forces in action in Afghanistan.

The Chinese people I met while I was studying in the U.S. in the early 2000s gave me the strong impression of being aggressive in pursuing their goals. In many cases, five people shared a one-room studio to save on rent, though things might have changed now that China is the world’s second-largest economy in gross domestic product and trade. Back then, those who talked loudly at restaurants and attempted to buy a 10-dollar chair at half price at garage sales were mostly Chinese.

In London, two Saudi women are set to participate in the Olympics today. But back in Saudi Arabia, millions of women and girls are effectively banned from practicing sports inside the Kingdom. Also, they aren't allowed to drive, although there is no law stipulating that.