A representative of China's Human Rights Society told a public gathering of African officials that the West is unfairly maligning China's human records -- just as it unfairly maligned Michael Jackson, she said. The speech is a small (and, probably, uncoordinated) part of China's much larger effort to deploy soft power in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Chinese workers and firms are increasingly prevalent.

Cultural diplomacy has become the fourth fundamental pillar of Philippine foreign policy, Philippine Ambassador to the UAE Grace Relucio Princesa said. Princesa mentioned this new addition to the three existing fundamental pillars at a press conference in Dubai on Friday, kicking off the first Philippine Film Festival in the UAE — “Our Films, Our Culture.”

With constitutions in many countries being rewritten or reframed, there's a chance to enshrine those aspirations into law. The British Council has been working for many years with Middle Eastern partners to improve women's access to education and economic benefit...

The British Council's work in the region over the coming months will include offering citizenship and arts grants to build up civil society; teaching English, including educational radio broadcasts across the country; using UK higher education expertise to create universities that value cultural activity and free speech

Mainland universities will be given state funding to help extend the overseas reach of Chinese academic research, the latest initiative in the nation's soft-power push abroad. The funding will come via the "Go Abroad" initiative, which aims to give greater overseas exposure to Chinese research, particularly in the social studies.

Clever diplomacy, not more Marines, is the answer. The over-extended American Raj has got to face strategic reality or it risks going the way of the Soviet Empire.US foreign policy has become almost totally militarized; the State Department has been shunted aside. The Pentagon sees Al-Qaida everywhere. The US needs the brilliant diplomacy of a Bismarck, not more unaffordable bases or military hardware.

The real argument Beijing should make is one espoused by Yan Xuetong in his recent New York Times opinion piece: the “battle for people’s hearts and minds” between the United States and China will be “won by the country that displays more humane authority.” Unfortunately...Yan falls short, doing little more than suggesting Beijing should choose more virtuous and wise leaders, as well as open its doors to leaders from abroad.

The American Corner...was assembled by the American Embassy here and is an example, writ small, of the sort of cultural programs — “soft power,” in the diplomatic nomenclature — that the State Department will emphasize after the last troops leave. Even in this arena of cultural and educational links, United States diplomats say they hope to gain leverage over Iran.