Half a dozen years after her last competition, long after Michelle Kwan realized being a figure skater was only one part of the person she wanted to become..."I'm starting now to have skating dreams," said Kwan, 31 and deep into a career in public diplomacy and promoting educational and cultural causes.

This a limit of China's projection of soft power, and maybe this is 'Chinese characteristics'. But in my view, the experiences of others show that you project your soft power not by the government, but mainly by civil society organisations.

During Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit in mid-January, Hu and his US counterpart Obama made it a priority to promote people-to-people exchanges to develop friendship between the world's two powers, identifying over 40 joint projects in education, science and technology, culture, women's issues, youth and sports.

India has an oft-overlooked friend – Indonesia. While the two countries have so far had a generally cordial relationship, much remains to be done if Jakarta and New Delhi want to take full advantage of the opportunities available to both. With this in mind, there really needs to be greater interaction between journalists, business partners and scholars of both countries.

The Global Partnership for Education has launched a three-year effort to put 25 million children in the classroom for the first time and train 600 thousand teachers in developing countries. It calls education one of the most important investments a country can make in its people and its future.

To improve Israel’s image in the United States, one of the best things is to bring opinion makers to the country. And just like in Israel where the likes of Yaron Dekel and Keren Neubach often play a big role in setting the national agenda, in the US, there’s no greater barometer for public opinion than the radio talk show host.

The "hip hop jam session" between African American hip hop musicians and Sfax native El General is at the core of the hip hop diplomacy: critical cross-cultural exchange and dialogue achieved through musical collaborations. The interaction between youth through a shared global language (hip hop and social media technologies) may be a "bab" for this bilateral political and cultural education.

Kwan, who will be inducted into the hall during the national championships at the end of January in San Jose, Calif., has served as a public diplomacy envoy for the U.S. government for the last five years.