international image

While global leaders who gathered at the World Economic Forum's meeting debate solutions to social, political and economic uncertainty, quietly a new force is gaining credibility around the world: the desire for "soft power."

January 27, 2016

Qatar’s brand is now the ninth-most powerful in the world, according to an annual ranking released by UK-based consulting firm ‘Brand Finance’ in 2015. As a progressive country, Qatar, through its visionary leadership, has used many strategies, in particular its soft power, to enhance its position in the international community. 

The British Tourist Authority (BTA) has set out its priorities and how it will structure to deliver on these, following the good funding settlement for tourism in the Comprehensive Spending Review including the new £40 million Discover England Fund and increased funding for the UK Government’s GREAT campaign. 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has returned to Ottawa after a much-hyped first stint at the World Economic Forum's annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, where he enjoyed a star-like reception. [...] We wanted to hear what you thought: What does all this buzz mean at home in Canada?

President Barack Obama is not just reigning the United States. He also rules on Facebook. According to a new study by Burson-Marsteller, a global public relations and communications firm, Obama has the most Likes on Facebook of all world leaders.

Many articles about Taiwan’s upcoming Jan. 16 presidential election — an election that could have a major effect on the self-governing island’s relationship with China and the United States — rely on the phrase “renegade province” to describe Beijing’s views of Taiwan.

January 11, 2016

While drinking tea by the Bosphorus a few days ago, I looked up and there sailing past me was the Moskva, a formidable-looking Russian missile cruiser returning home from its mission in support of Russia's Syrian pal, Bashar Assad. [...]Turkey possesses the political stability, economic vitality and military strength to play an ever greater role in its tumultuous region and beyond.

About halfway through this five-act extravaganza there’s a tableau of a theatre audience: bejeweled matrons in brocade gowns [...] creaky mandarins in quilted robes. Just the sort of throng that might have greeted the house-counting eyes of a 1920’s Peking Opera actor onstage. [...] The Chinese government spent a lot of pre-devaluation RMB to buy this crowd.

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