The formidable soft power of the UAE was on display this week in Libya when Etihad Airways' inaugural flight from Abu Dhabi to Tripoli was accompanied by a large delegation of government officials and businessmen.

By May, A.U. diplomats had succeeded in convincing Qaddafi to sit out any new regime in liberated Libya — a fact little known in the West — but they failed to implement the roadmap fully. Their very decent proposal was lost to South Africa’s communication failures and poor public diplomacy.

The political gamble has paid off as Qatar, perhaps the richest country in the world, emerges as a player able to deploy more than the soft power of TV channel Al Jazeera, which has fanned most of the region’s revolutions.

Libya should become an occasion for the exercise of soft power. We should have an active embassy and offer the transitional national council advice on how to forge a new government. We should establish intelligence links with the new authorities and offer military aid. We should be willing to help them institute a new constitution, build political parties, and rewrite its school curriculum.

Especially, in the matter of the Libyan people's interests, China will actively participate in post-war reconstruction, and provide humanitarian aid to Libya. It will also carry out public diplomacy and enhance China's national image in Libya, all of which are conducive to deepening friendship between the peoples of China and Libya and which are of great significance and far-reaching impact in promoting bilateral ties.

Our public diplomacy was a failure. Public diplomacy is about winning hearts and minds and is therefore an important tool of diplomatic influence. SA's conviction that the AU roadmap is the best blueprint for engaging Libya, and Gaddafi, suffered at the hands of poor public diplomacy.

As his country is ripped apart by a bloody civil war and rebels fight to topple him, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi is trying to hire a public relations firm to improve his image. Gaddafi is looking for a spin doctor to issue daily press briefings on his 'moral' and 'legal' claims to power, as hundreds die trying to end his 42-year regime.