President Barack Obama's decision not to attend the April 2 inauguration of a new mosque near Washington D.C. might have spoild the party a bit. The event was billed, after all, as the highlight of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's recent trip to the United States.

‘Soft power” refers to winning people over on the basis of cultural appeal and ethical values [...]. It’s by no means a novel concept, but it has particular contemporary relevance in a fractious, crowded, pluralistic world. MuseumNext is a peripatetic series of conferences on the future of museums that begins its Dublin iteration today. Among the subjects it will address is the idea of museums as agents of soft power.

At a time when the government has taken a lot of heat in parliament and the media - on tax, welfare and Europe to name but a few issues - one issue has escaped high-level political scrutiny: ministers' plans for the future of the BBC. Ask yourself this: who is sticking up for the corporation’s funding and who is fighting for its independence? 

The UAE has prospered, and it wants to heal the world through acts of generosity. Humanitarian projects and aid will reach 130 million people through the Mohammed bin Rashid Global Initiatives which brings together of 28 organisations focusing on fighting poverty, spreading knowledge and culture, empowering the community, and driving innovation. The foundation will implement over 1,400 human development programmes in more than 116 countries around the world, said our report.

The latest U.S. delegation planning a Cuba trip since the thaw in relations is a government cultural mission that will include Usher, Smokey Robinson, and Lourdes Lopez, artistic director of the Miami City Ballet. [...] The delegation hopes to identify more opportunities for people-to-people artistic and cultural collaborations.

The visit of the British royal couple, Prince William and Princess Katherine, is a demonstration of Britain’s use of soft power in buttressing the relationship with India built on a not always happy colonial past. Today’s thriving trade relationship, the interaction between millions of Indians settled in the UK and their original home are reasons enough, particularly with an eye on a possible future outside the European Union.

More than 30 young musical talents (ages 10 to 17) from the UK are in Abu Dhabi this week for a first-of-its-kind music student exchange programme between Cranleigh Abu Dhabi and its British parent school. Both students and teachers from the UK’s 150-year-old Cranleigh School will work with students in the Saadiyat Island-based Abu Dhabi school during the week-long Cranleigh Festival that will feature workshops and public performances.

In Washington, D.C., home to most national museums in the country, should there be a museum expressly dedicated to Asian Pacific American history and culture? For Franklin Odo, the founding director of the Smithsonian's APA program from 1997-2010, that has since been upgraded to a "center," the time has come for an even further upgrade to a full-fledged museum.