A new global “soft power” ranking recently reported that the democratic states of North America and Western Europe were the most successful at achieving their diplomatic objectives “through attraction and persuasion”. Countries such as the US, the UK, Germany and Canada, the report claimed, are able to promote their influence through language, education, culture and the media...

What do these three recent events tell us about Russian foreign policy? Putin is able to think strategically, using all hard and soft power tools to promote Russian foreign policy interests. To the average Western observer, Russia's recent actions in the Caspian, Iran or its CSTO military exercise are viewed as three different and unrelated things. 

Russia has made its first appearance on the world's “soft power” rankings, coming in at 27th place, news website newsru.com reported Tuesday. The Soft Power 30 is an annual ranking compiled by London-based strategy firm Portland Communications. The company evaluates the influence each country exerts over others through means other than military power.

Though both sides indulged in diplomatic nice ties regarding the non-confrontational nature of the collaboration, with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inviting other countries to join in developing the port, Islamabad’s precarious economy can hardly permit such participation. 

The celebrations that took place last week on the sixty fifth anniversary of the establishment of Pakistan-Chinese relationship were again marked by lack of events that signified Chinese soft power.

That is the essence of the change in global politics that enables the rise of public diplomacy. The theory is not complicated, but putting public diplomacy to work requires imagination and persistence.

Iran used both top-down and bottom-up approach to utilize its soft power and exert influence before sanctions were lifted. The emphasis at this time was more on the bottom- up approach. But Iran’s priorities in soft power strategies have tactically shifted due to the sanctions reliefs and its application of hard power.

The use of public diplomacy and social media can both be powerful tools in sharing ideas and messages that counter extremism and properly convey the cultures and ideas of countries, a senior US government official said at Zayed University on Wednesday.