Russia is missing out on opportunities to use soft power in Africa, according to experts on the continent. Russian authorities struggle to push "soft power" buttons in an effort to rebrand Russia's image and to regain some social and cultural influences in Africa population, experts say the plan of cultural diplomacy might only be achieved with consistency and to deliver on their promises promptly.

Since their launch in 2004, the Beijing-backed Confucius Institutes have been no strangers to controversy. While their defenders liken them to the Chinese equivalents of the Goethe Institute, the Alliance Francaise and the British Council, their critics have christened them fonts of espionage and propaganda – charges which, though salacious, are still unsubstantiated

A recent Yahoo! Japan search for “sofuto pawa,” the Japanese translation for soft power, yielded nearly two and a half million entries. While this number indicates the term’s popularity in Japan, it tells us little about how successful Tokyo has been in employing soft power throughout the Western Pacific.

“Min hem ya neem,” bellowed the baritone Kurdish Hamlet. To be or not to be—always a good question to be asked of any public diplomacy venture.

The U.S. State Department has recently decided to cut all funds for the George J. Mitchell Scholarship program for fiscal year 2013. Born out of the peace process in Northern Ireland in which former Sen. George Mitchell played a pivotal role, the Mitchell program at its inception was intended to strengthen and modernize the relationship between the island of Ireland and the United States.

...ICCR president Karan Singh said people have begun to think and talk about the day when India would emerge as a superpower, but its fundamental mantras are embedded in the simultaneous growth and expansion of the country... In all the countries of East Asia, South Asia and South East Asia, strong presence and influence of Hinduism, Buddhism and Indian culture had been found, he said.

Ambitious students are spending the hottest part of the summer drafting, redrafting and perfecting their applications to higher educations’ most elite scholarships. The deadlines aren’t until September or early October, but the clock started ticking when application forms went live months ago.

Panda diplomacy has become a pillar of China's soft power strategy, but the death of a week-old baby panda in Japan -- the first born to Tokyo's Ueno zoo in 24 years -- stands to disappoint those who hoped that its birth would motivate "people-to-people sentiment" and help overcome the strained China-Japan relationship.