The popularity of local culture, otherwise known as “hallyu,” has brought along new challenges in promoting Korea to the outside world. One of them is building online and offline database of hallyu, which the Korea Culture and Information Service (KOCIS), the state-run overseas PR agency, has started to embrace as key responsibilities.

India’s policy towards Afghanistan is the embodiment of the ‘soft power approach’. Soft power, in the crude sense, is the capacity of a state to influence others without twisting arms, threatening or compelling; in other words, it is the capacity to attract the target people and make them do your bidding.

It is also noteworthy that its diplomatic efforts in Somalia presented Turkey with an important opportunity to illustrate its soft power in Africa. It is certainly an indication of Turkey's foreign policy ambition to become a major economic and political player in Africa.

Yet if Serbia can now bring itself into the post-national European mainstream at last, this confirmation of the EU's soft power in transforming and democratizing its post-communist environs could help mitigate the EU's present self-doubt over the euro crisis.

The US State Department on Tuesday announced the selection of two winning websites for its 2012 Doors to Diplomacy Award...This site Water, the New Petrol was built by a team from CEP Santa Rosa Brothers Marist School in Sullana, Peru and IES Manacor School in Mallorca, Spain. Their web project aims to raise awareness of the current state of water issues in the world.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has stressed the importance of partnership with the United Arab Emirates under the “Istanbul Cooperation Initiative ”...Nicola De Santis, Nato Public Diplomacy Division Coordinator, expressed the alliance’s appreciation for the UAE and its political leadership for their fruitful cooperation.

In the war on terrorism, this restriction is worse than an anachronism: It amounts to self-sabotage. Until Congress relegates this piece of legislation to the dustbin of history, the U.S. cannot expect to conduct public diplomacy effectively.

The purchase might invigorate a campaign by the Chinese government to boost the country’s “soft power,” or cultural influence, in the U.S. and other countries...According to Xinhua, the Party’s Central Committee said “China is facing a difficult task in protecting ‘cultural security’ and feeling the urgency of enhancing its soft power and the international influence of its own culture.”