The Sydney International Food Festival (SIFF) is a huge month-long celebration in October showcasing hundreds of top chefs and their work. Back in 2009 branding and media agency TBWA boiled down the whole idea of the festival and created ‘flags’ of the participating nations out of the food that is distinctive to each.

American business has enormous influence all over the world. It is a pace setter. Yet even so in almost every case, apart from aeroplane manufacturing, local companies are usually the mainstay of their economies...American Soft Power certainly exists and I think much of it is welcome whilst much of it is dross. Let us keep it in proportion.

Israel spends NIS 40 million each year on hasbara, the oft-used Hebrew word to describe its public relations efforts, through the Ministry of Public Diplomacy...Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein told the Committee on Aliya, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs his ministry employed 150 emissaries overseas, funded 500 delegations and 22,000 speakers.

U.S. diplomats have boosted their public diplomacy through social media. The U.S. government has an active presence on Chinese social media sites; many U.S. officials in China have individual Weibo pages, and the embassy in Beijing and consulate departments update their own sites with remarks by American officials, press releases and videos.

Tourists generally don’t devote much thought to water usage. And why should they? After all, crystal swimming pools, delightfully verdant tropical grounds, and long, luxurious showers are essential elements of any successful vacation, as any harried wage-slave will be happy to tell you. But according to British charity Tourism Concern, blissed-out tourists in third world countries should be contemplating how their leisure is affecting others lives.

Coordinator for the US Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP) Dawn McCall is scheduled to visit Taiwan on Tuesday to experience first-hand US public diplomacy outreach, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) announced yesterday.

Perception matters in international diplomacy, and even more so for the U.S.-China relationship. There are vast differences in political systems and institutions, social norms, historical and cultural legacies, and the ever-present information asymmetry. Mutual perceptions can get easily skewed, with real repercussions for policy. Though the U.S.-China relationship has proven surprisingly resilient, it is also colored by an unspoken unease, especially among elites in both countries.

When Israeli pop superstar Rita Jahanforuz told her friends she wanted to record an album in Farsi, they thought she must have gone mad. The 50-year-old Iranian-born, Jewish singer, who is usually known just by her first name, recalled: "'They all said, 'You want to record an album in the language of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Who will listen to it?' I didn't know why I had to do it, I just did. It's like someone lit a match. What's happening now is beyond what I ever imagined."