Spanish is not just a handy language for World Cup referees. In a 2013 report entitled “Languages for the Future”, the British Council cited Spanish as the most important language to learn. It’s not hard to see why: approximately 470 million people speak Spanish as a native language, 60 million as a second language and 20 million students are studying it as a foreign language.

Current President Xi Jinping has sought to make a mark for himself as an image re-maker; seeking to scrub clean his party’s reputation through a major ongoing anti-corruption drive. He’s also championed the power of art and film to increase China’s international influence, to make it a cultural as well as a political and military power. The official line is to 'send culture out into the world'.

The Expo 2015 world's fair showed potential as a backdrop for serious diplomacy as it opened Friday for a six-month run, even as it also served as a lightning rod for anti-globalization protests.(...) Not all of the diplomatic signals around Expo have been positive. India, in a drawn-out dispute with Italy over its determination to put two Italian sailors on trial for the shooting deaths at sea of two fishermen, skipped the global event due to the tensions, Expo organizers said.

Creative Expo Taiwan is set to kick off April 29 in Taipei City, featuring 600 exhibitors from around the world at the country’s largest cultural and creative industry show. Organized by Taiwan Design Center under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, the six-day event was renamed this year from Taiwan International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo. 

Orlando Magic interim coach James Borrego will become a bit of an experimental gym rat when he visits Havana for a three-day trip that begins on Thursday. He doesn't speak much Spanish. He doesn't know much about Cuba. Never been, in fact. Not sure if he's ever experienced the taste sensation known as a mojito. But he knows basketball. And he knows about the power of sports to be able to bridge cultures and political ideologies.

Interestingly, the resurgence of Asia as a continent is resting significantly on the rise of its ‘soft power’. Asian tigers, including nations such as India and China that are gradually tilting the global economic balance, are emerging as powerful ‘influencers’ in the new international economic order.

Music- and art-based outreach programs have been successful in combating extremism in cities like Minneapolis, but they're facing a roadblock. Stringent visa standards from the State Department are blocking many foreign artists from entering the country, and harming communities that need these programs the most.

Does anybody remember soft power? Apparently Canada has it in abundance. It just doesn’t work. Soft power is, like so many trendy ideas in this country, an American invention.