Another area in which Iranian soft power is uncontested is in the construction of museums to promote its world view. In the aftermath of the Iran hostage crisis, Iranian authorities transformed the former US embassy into a museum to illustrate both supposed Iranian victories over America as well as grievances against the United States.

Ahead of the International Women's Day on March 8th, ONE Campaign said it had launched its #GirlsCount campaign, an initiative that has rallied citizens and leaders from around the world and in Nigeria to bring a spotlight on this crisis and demand action from global leaders to end this crisis.

The 24-year-old Massey masters student, along with her sister, Tamra Ewing, now heads up a literacy charity called Motorbike Book Club - a mobile book library for village children in Vietnam. As the name suggests, the books are transported on the back of a motorbike to places where books - let alone libraries - are hard to come by. "I'm passionate about education. I see the value in it - the power of literacy to really transform and open up children's worlds."

Chinese universities “stand to gain” from the “anti-global” atmosphere in the US under Donald Trump, especially if they introduce reforms to make academic culture “more lively and open”. That is the view of Gerard Postiglione, chair in higher education at the University of Hong Kong, who said that some academics and students may look to universities in China instead of those in the US in the near future.

Innovative approaches have transformed foreign policy in recent years. Digital diplomacy is a modern and technological dimension of foreign policy, used as a new soft power tool to advance national interests, project political and economic power. In his address to the nation, President Nursultan Nazarbayev attached particular importance to digitalisation as one of the means “to get ahead of the future and decisively meet the challenges” of today’s changing world. 

A major 2013 report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences warned that at “the very moment when China and some European nations are seeking to replicate our model of broad education,” including the humanities, the U.S. was instead “narrowing” its focus and abandoning its “sense of what education has been and should continue to be.” The paper caught the attention of policy makers, including members of Congress. 

“I love exams. People are usually afraid of them, but I love exams,” says HR Nagendra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal yoga consultant. And as a result of his efforts, along with other yoga exponents like Jaggi Vasudev, Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a module has been designed so that yoga teachers across India can take exams to receive government certification.