China is keen on promoting its soft power," Shen Dingli, professor at the Center for American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University said in a telephone interview. Joint productions serve "the political purpose to promote our culture and systems with Hollywood's competence.

The university in Ghana started a decade ago by a visionary Microsoft engineer finally has its own campus. It represents the vision and commitment of Patrick Awuah, who left the security of a job writing software to pursue a crazy dream building a university in his homeland...to offer Ivy League-caliber education in Africa, to create ethical, broad-minded leaders who would go on to elevate the continent.

Halfway around the world, Madison native Adam Fierman was able to find glimpses of home in Jordanian culture.
A current student of psychology and Arabic at Vassar College in New York, Fierman just returned from a two-month trip to Jordan, where he spent time immersing himself in Arabic – the language and the culture.

A trained opera singer, he is one of 20 young foreign vocalists in Beijing this summer to learn how to sing opera in a new language: Mandarin. It's a daunting task that culminated Thursday night with a performance at the National Center for Performing Arts...

Why are Muslims so stubborn in nurturing ancient beliefs and rituals when they fly in the face of modern capitalist society? Secular critics dismiss Islam as a harmful, even dangerous anachronism. Why disrupt one’s busy day five times to pray...

This is the opportunity to raise the bar. In fact, like the treasure of King Tut, some of the exhibits must be assembled for a travelling exhibition. That would be India's best step forward in cultural diplomacy. It would make a statement about enhancing the country's presence and reinforcing faith in our living tradition.

Azerbaijan is set to host next year's Eurovision Song Contest... But will the expressed willingness of Azerbaijan to let its arch-enemy Armenia take part in the 2012 competition produce a breakthrough, where international negotiators and military threats have failed? Will "pop music diplomacy" postpone a war, thanks to an Armenian singer named Lucia Moon?

With India’s ascendance in global affairs, its Foreign Policy establishment has to necessarily increase its international footprint. This can be done by fostering better trade and economic relations and at the political level through public and cultural diplomacy.