If America can be said to have a public diplomacy — that is, government-directed outreach to international publics — then someone needs to throw it a lifeline. In only the last few weeks, we have seen evidence of a coming crisis for defenders of America’s international image: The State Department budget, as previewed by the President in his speech to Congress this week, is set to take a serious hit. 

A Chinese Diplomat has recalled the vital role African countries played in ensuring that the People’s Republic of China regained its status at the United Nations, while calling on African journalists to help strengthen the ties between Africa and China. [...] “So China and African countries are forever friends; China has returned to the United Nations mainly due to the support from African friends."

Bad guys can possess soft power. I know—I wrote a book about it. But over most of the past century the U.S., as the soft power hyperpuissance, has largely set the standards of what constitutes effective national image projection. The United States has drawn its soft power, the “ability to shape the preferences of others,” as put by Joseph S. Nye, who devised the term. 

“I love exams. People are usually afraid of them, but I love exams,” says HR Nagendra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s personal yoga consultant. And as a result of his efforts, along with other yoga exponents like Jaggi Vasudev, Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a module has been designed so that yoga teachers across India can take exams to receive government certification.

When Caryl Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, tried to raise financial support for the children of Middle Eastern refugees, she said many Americans tended to “look at her blankly.” It turns out that there was a widespread belief among donors that the Gulf nations are “rich oil countries and they don’t take care of their own,” she said. More troubling was a prevailing stereotype that the region is “a hotbed of terrorism.”

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence moved Monday to assuage E.U. fears about the strength of Washington's support for the union and its commitment to European security through the NATO military alliance. In meetings in Brussels, Pence said he was acting on behalf of President Donald Trump "to express the strong commitment of the United States to continued cooperation and partnership with the European Union." 

Marking the 150th anniversary of Canada’s Confederation, there will be a series of cultural and educational events in Korea this year, according to the Canadian Embassy in Seoul. The Canadian Confederation refers to the process by which the former British colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were united into one Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867.