Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy added his voice to the growing calls to switch the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup to the winter when he made his first public speaking appearance since May today by addressing the conference here.

“We have carried out extensive public diplomacy activities as well as cultural and people-to-people exchanges to encourage deeper understanding and friendship between the Chinese people and people of other countries.”

A new publication has thrown further light on the impressive success of the UAE Pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai. "Our results also indicate that with sensory stimulation and dramatic resonance, the UAE Pavilion was the most successful in presenting its national image at the Shanghai EXPO." This is a direct quotation from the closing remarks of a book published by the University of Southern California Centre on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

Even as Korean tech giant Samsung turns Sony into a has-been, Japan’s erstwhile colony is also beating it in the pop culture sphere: A decade after journalist Douglas McGray famously calculated “Japan’s Gross National Cool” and awoke the country to the potential of capitalizing on the global infatuation with its anime, games, J-pop, and manga, the concept of “Cool Japan” is under assault.

Bangladesh should go for an integrated branding policy, instead of taking piecemeal steps, as the country is at the crossroads towards higher growth trajectory.The call came at the conclusion of a two-day international conference on Positioning Bangladesh: Branding for Business at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka yesterday.

Few had probably even heard of the country Kazakhstan until the 2006 film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. At the time, the satiric film starring Sacha Baron Cohen was roundly denounced by Kazakhstan for its unflattering portrayal of the country, still coming out of the shadows of the former Soviet Union.

High costs have caused friction for several hosts of Formula One, which has expanded aggressively from its traditional European domain with seven races now in the Asia-Pacific region. Promoters argue that the longer-term benefits in terms of increased tourism and improved nation-branding outweigh the direct financial losses.