My core belief about Taiwan's soft power strategy is that it emphasises the wrong story: the narratives of Taiwan's successful democratisation and its current position as the first Chinese democracy are routinely ignored in favour of attempts to label Taiwan as the preserver of traditional Chinese culture.

Public diplomacy must take the format from the military, considering every situation which threatens Israel’s image as if it was a conventional attack. Hasbara war rooms, coordinating all of the players, must be manned 24 hours a day and on alert for potential threats. Extensive preparations need to be made weeks in advance in cases such as the flotilla.

Both writers state that irrespective of what the world media has to say, true soft power is only gained by actions - by what these countries individually do. No amount of branding exercise can help their image if not backed by actions.

Australia’s federal and state governments, and its universities, have the most crucial role to play in ensuring that the nation’s engagement with India is genuine. I am not discounting the importance of the economic/trade motivation that underlies a large portion of our current efforts, but this needs to be accompanied by cultural openness.

The priciest public-relations expenditure was the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which by some estimates cost $40 billion. The country has financed roads in Brazil, bridges in Zambia, power grids in Cambodia and mining rigs in Uzbekistan. It established Confucius Institutes for Chinese language and culture on 75 US college campuses. It started CCTV America to raise its profile.

Needless to say, the tone and direction of branding a nation emanates from its top executive or CEO. This is the individual who by being the President, King or Prime Minister of a country carries on his shoulders the unique and challenging responsibility of inspiring citizens towards positivism

Our most important shortcoming in foreign policy is the lack of an integrated, up-to-date, and above all, an initiative and creative program in image-building and confronting the organized efforts of the West in destroying the system’s reputation.

This has been the study tour of follow up questions, so why not writing a follow up post? After hypothesizing about the role that governmental action might have played in the Korean creative brand, why not comment on what we learnt about their future plans?