It's the economy that will increasingly set the limits on commitments Western powers are willing to make abroad, whether in the form of military intervention or even of aid. And, on the flip side, it will be economic pain that will increasingly serve as the main driver of rebellion and political instability across the global spectrum.

When Gabriela Shalev arrived at the United Nations in 2008 as Israel's first female ambassador, she was determined to launch a diplomatic offensive to improve her country's international standing. Now Shalev, who stepped down in October ...warns that Israel's image is about to take another hit with a Palestinian initiative to win statehood recognition from the U.N. next month.

The Indian Embassy has taken to Sina Weibo, the popular Twitter-like microblogging service from China, in an attempt to portray India’s modern image and promote Indian culture and tourism to Chinese youngsters. Since Sina Weibo boasts a hundred million users...it provides a perfect platform for the Indian embassy to remove the earlier misconceptions and present a modern image of India.

That was the genesis of the MEA’s move beyond its high walls into the social media platforms and to become more accessible through the tools of the 21st century—Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and their ilk.

Song said Taiwan has done an excellent job in demonstrating its "soft power" on Dongsha, also known as the Pratas Islands, pointing to the massive funding the government has invested in the South China Sea, as well as the various camps organized by the government to help ordinary citizens learn more about the issue and to drum up public support for the

...Nigeria should use cultural diplomacy as a means of leading the way in projecting all that is good in us and Africa. By our share size, we should be able to use our arts, music, literature and drama to project our culture and emphasise the uniqueness of African culture.

In putting the Palestinian demand for statehood to a vote, Abbas will end up subverting the international organization's longstanding solution to the Arab Israeli-conflict—U.N. Security Council Resolution 242—with unpredictable results.

The Dalai Lama likes to say he's an Indian because he's eaten dal and rice for decades. This tends to get the Chinese riled — but then anything he says gets them riled. But he did, in his sublime way, encapsulate the strength of food diplomacy.