As the world becomes more and more "flat," per se, exchanges and communications become astonishingly bidirectional. And hybrid products are born through this bidirectional "flattening," process as you easily find in all manufactured and cultural products. Korean entertainment producers are smart enough to know how to blend ingredients for universal attraction...Therefore, pop culture is speedily eroding boundaries of nations, as any multinational companies do.

The strategy of the Indian state is clearly no longer limited to building infrastructure alone; it has moved to a domain where the production and projection of images of a prosperous nation has become as imperative a task as the creation of a prosperous nation itself.

While organisers hope London 2012's economic impact will be one of its main legacies, bringing £1bn of extra business over four years, some question the mixed message being projected by the GREAT campaign.

At a time when the rest of the world marvels at – or perhaps dreads – China’s rise, Beijing perceives a serious weakness in its own armor: the lack of soft power. For all its economic woes, the West still possesses ample soft power as evidenced by its cultural domination. Behind China’s worries also lurk fears about regime stability.

Britain’s Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt launched a major campaign on Thursday to attract an extra 4.6 million tourists to the U.K. through advertisements in 14 cities worldwide. The goal of the campaign...is to maximize the tourism and business potential generated by Britain’s hosting of the 2012 Olympics.

The American Film Showcase, an international cultural diplomacy initiative that brings people together worldwide through film...a partnership between the U.S. Department of State and USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, brings award-winning American films...to foreign audiences through events worldwide.

Language and educational exchanges have always been a defining feature of the U.S.-China relationship. Meet Jessica Beinecke, a Voice of America journalist who decided that she could leverage all the web 2.0 tools at her disposal to create a show that taught Chinese youth American slang.

The Chinese mainland and Taiwan jointly launched a multimedia database offering free access to Chinese linguistic literature on line. The database is expected to facilitate learning and research of the Chinese language across the world.