Due to failures of civilian institutions, many soldiers have become de facto nation-builders, anthropologists, and public diplomats. They were not, in many cases, trained for these missions. But they were the only option—albeit an expensive and inefficient one.

Now, as senior Republican on a key appropriations panel for foreign operations, Graham is trying to stave off funding cuts for a softer kind of power exercised by diplomats, civilian training corps and U.S. contractors who help other governments battle AIDS, modernize schools, instruct police, clean water wells and enhance their armed forces.

Clinton’s 2009 trip is widely acknowledged as a high point in US public diplomacy efforts within Pakistan ... Her accessible manner, blunt talk and willingness to engage directly with different strata of Pakistani society earned her much respect and helped complicate the fiery, nationalist debate around the Kerry-Lugar-Berman legislation.

Addressing a joint press conference with Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Clinton said while US was committed to the people of Pakistan and their future, it wanted its relationship with the country to "deliver results" for both sides.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani called on the US Secretary of State Ms Hillary Clinton to give peace a chance... which reflected the sentiments of Pakistani people....Both the sides urged on the importance of the positive messaging in public diplomacy...

The editorial seems reflective of a trend...Chinese policymakers, academic strategists, and journalists are stil a lot more obsessed with the United States than the other way around. Yes, there's been some perfunctory rhetoric about "getting tough with China" on the campaign trail, but there's still far more ink spilled over the Middle East in the U.S. national political conversation.

Given rapid economic development of Asian countries and the gradual formation of a new type of cooperation pattern, the United States is afraid to miss the express train of Asia's development and lose its dominance of regional affairs. The U.S. move to "return to Asia" aims to gain more interests from Asia's regional development and cement its dominant position.

“The challenges of a changing world and the needs of the American people demand that our foreign policy community -- as Steve Jobs put it -- think different,” Clinton said. “We have to position ourselves to lead in a world where security is shaped in boardrooms and on trading floors, as well as on battlefields,” she said.