South Africa’s position in the Global Competitiveness Index has remained virtually stagnant in the bottom third out of 144 countries. The ranking of our micro-economic environment has deteriorated from 43rd to 69th and of our Labour Market Efficiency from 97th to 113th. Our higher education ranking has deteriorated from 75th to 84th – not surprisingly, as the threshold to exit high school is an embarrassing 30 percent.

"Moscow is open for business," declares Andrei Sharonov, Moscow’s deputy mayor for economic policy, "but we still have challenges to overcome in increasing the city’s attraction to both domestic and international investors." This realistic assessment of Moscow’s current position is typical of the man who was appointed by the city’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, in late 2010 to make Moscow a global business–friendly center capable of attracting investment.

This Culture Post takes a closer look at five critical roles of the domestic public in public diplomacy. Because traditional public diplomacy has focused primarily on foreign publics, the role of the domestic public may have been overlooked rather than absent. In that sense, the roles may not be new. What is new is the perspective to see it.

Four years after briefly stopping off in Ghana on his way home from a Group of Eight (G-8) summit, US President Barack Obama lands in Dakar on Wednesday night at the start of his first extended visit in his current designation, to the continent of his Kenyan father’s birth. But he is expected to give Kenya a miss, as its president is under indictment from the International Criminal Court.

Qatar, the smallest Gulf monarchy, has become a global brand. Securing the 2022 World Cup was a PR triumph. It plans to compete to host the 2024 Olympics. It has a glittering portfolio: Harrods, the Shard, Paris St-Germain football club. Doha's Islamic art museum is a brilliant example of money in the service of high culture.

A previous Culture Post explored cultural assumptions about who is the ‘public’ in public diplomacy and suggested an expanded vision of “the public” that includes the domestic, diaspora, and foreign publics. Failure to see a public and the role it plays can leave a nation vulnerable to blind spots in its public diplomacy.

Cape Town Tourism's Facebook campaign, Send Your Facebook Profile to Cape Town, has won a Cannes Lions Gold Award for Cape Town Tourism's advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather. The prize was awarded in the Branded Content Category (Best Use or Integration of Digital or Social Media) making them one of only two 2013 Gold Award winners from South Africa.