If the State Department proves unable to maintain America’s leadership—either in physical or now increasingly in virtual environments—other institutions, individuals, networks, or governments surely will fill the vacuum, and not always in ways that serve America’s interests.

CPD Director Philip Seib was keynote speaker at the Royal Irish Academy Conference for International Affairs 2011 on November 25 in Dublin.

The European Council has recently amended certain financial insturments for developing countries. First, the EU's financial instruments have been modified so that they can cooperate with developing countries. These cooperations include, economic partnership, market access for European countries, people to people links and public diplomacy.

Japan, once the pride of Asia, might be economically weakening due to its long economic stagnation and the rapid rise of China in recent years. But, perhaps unnoticed, Japan has been emerging as a cultural powerhouse in Asia through its soft power projection.

The league’s latest attempt to introduce American football to a Chinese audience was more modest: A traveling version of the “NFL Experience” interactive marketing event held Sunday in Shanghai gave locals – and plenty of Americans – a chance to punt, pass and kick like the pros. American football isn’t a natural sell in China.

Egypt's Kefaya ("Enough" in Arabic) movement was in many ways the forefather of the Arab uprising. It pioneered the use of social media, mastered the art of symbolic demonstrations, and pried open a space in the Egyptian media. This opening of closed regimes to raw information and opinion, a faith in the power of public ideas, was itself one of the key ideas underpinning the Arab uprisings.

Gains in civilian technologies offer a less-threatening way for the country...to recapture a leading role as a technological power. Having access to technology and being a science destination of choice “enhances China’s soft power for sure,”...The government backing and growth prospects also help lure and retain talent, especially people who have spent time overseas.