I think Syria is a humanitarian disaster of increasingly enormous proportions -- there have been probably 100,000 killed or missing, 1.4 million pushed outside of Syria, notably in huge refugee camps in Turkey and Jordan, and we probably have one million internally displaced. From a NATO perspective, our first concern is protecting the border of the alliance -- the Turkish border along the north of Syria. We deployed Patriot missiles there, and they are currently protecting millions of Turkish citizens.

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.

Speaking to an audience of special operations force leaders from around the globe, and those who provide the tools they need, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the State Department is working to mimic the "smart power" that's become the hallmark of special ops.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh underscores ‘cooperation’ and ‘competition’ as the elements defining the Sino-Indian relationship. But for the present, competition is the buzzword. Seasoned diplomats admit to the lack of common and contemporary cultural elements besides Bollywood that can project soft power across the militarised borders.

Clinton paid special homage to VMI graduate George C. Marshall, who served as the 50th Secretary and State from 1947 to 1949, in addition to tenures as Secretary of Defense and U.S. Army Chief of Staff. She called Marshall “one of the greatest Americans of all time” and credited him with laying the foundation for the “smart power” strategy she has implemented during her time as Secretary of State.

Ms Khar and her government seem to be playing to the tune of the military establishment’s obsession with India and the inroads it has made by projecting ‘soft’ power in Afghanistan. That has allowed New Delhi to re-establish the historical friendship with Kabul, a development that has hardened the Pakistani GHQ’s approach to supporting Taliban proxies to control Afghanistan.

The new way of making war, the projection of “soft power,” is cynical in that it involves millions of people in the persuasion effort. The lords of this new media war are the communication and image experts closely tied to political power, producing a sophisticated kind of communication...