Not only are developing countries now providing two-thirds of global growth...but it is becoming clearer that effective development needs the participation not just of governments but of beneficiaries, local communities and citizens more broadly. And with 21st-century technology, we now have the means to make it happen.

The European Council has recently amended certain financial insturments for developing countries. First, the EU's financial instruments have been modified so that they can cooperate with developing countries. These cooperations include, economic partnership, market access for European countries, people to people links and public diplomacy.

In an age where reputation often seems to be all, where image is carefully managed and soft power of all hues plays an increasingly important role, this was a timely survey....The correspondents’ verdict on the reputation-management capabilities of the VK+O administration was scathingly clear cut: failure.

For the last twenty years the EU’s main foreign policy occupation has been teaching other how to live and making them want what the EU wants. This foreign policy model was reaching its limits already before the crisis as it was hitting the limits of cultural fascination with Europe...

At 36-pages in length, the survey covers everything from the nation’s economy, society and transport to culture, architecture, agriculture, retail and urbanism..."The nation is a pioneer of sustainable energy and a world leader in architecture and urban planning..."

Before public diplomacy, there was propaganda, a term coined by Pope Gregory XV in 1622...A key observation to make regarding the Pope’s call for the propagation of the faith is that the advent of the printing press, the rise in literacy...and the religious controversies...had already created a European sphere of public comment and opinion by the turn of the seventeenth century.

Before public diplomacy, there was propaganda, a term coined by Pope Gregory XV in 1622 when he founded a new college to train missionaries to be sent to Protestant Northern Europe, Asia, and the New World. In this context, it is often noted that the Pope’s intention in making his new congregation responsible for ‘propaganda fide’-literally, propagating the faith-was not to endorse a shared information policy based on deceitful practices. Rather, the connotation of this first use of the term ‘propaganda,’ and its meaning until the twentieth century, was a value-neutral one.

The main theme was that Cairo speech carried a reconciliatory tone, different from the arrogance of the Bush administration, and meant America will rely more on ‘soft power’ rather than ‘military power’.