Beijing invests a lot of diplomatic and public-relations effort in persuading the world that China's "peaceful rise" is nothing to fear. This is especially true in Africa...Libya's recent turmoil represents a missed opportunity for Beijing to have shown its readiness to shoulder the responsibilities of a great power.

About 750 foreign students from 73 countries received scholarships from the Indonesian government to study Indonesian culture, arts and language at universities across the country...the program, launched in 1974, was among Indonesia's cultural diplomacy programs aimed at promoting Indonesian cultures to the rest of the world.

Paris plans to build a new Islamic center to address two issues, a dearth of mosques for the city's sizable Muslim community and a new law banning street prayers. In the interim, Muslims been invited to worship in an unusual venue - an old fire station at the edge of the city.

China relies extensively on its investment and foreign aid apparatus to bolster its soft power on the continent. While Sata's election will not deter the Chinese from further investing in Zambia, it could signal the beginning of a trend in African politics for candidates to run on anti-Chinese platforms.

Today, the USC Center on Public Diplomacy released a Media Monitor Report on "Expo Shanghai 2010 - Flaunting Nations' Beauty through the Practice of Nation Branding".

As China's economy and exchanges with the world see rapid growth, there has been a sharp increase in the demand for Chinese learning...Committed to providing Chinese language and cultural teaching resources and services worldwide, the Confucius Institute goes all out in meeting the demands of foreign learners and contributing to the development of multiculturalism.

This information is presented online on a user-friendly, easily understood and engaging map. It’s an... idea that allows us to be more transparent and accessible to the U.S. taxpayers and the public. We are also using it to track trends in human rights violations and in our public diplomacy efforts.

American foreign policy must reorient itself to the soft power of exporting American values and know-how so the Sotomayors, Brins, Omidyars and Zakarias in Puerto Rico, Russia, Iran and India can find success at home.