Since that time, the Soviet Union has disappeared, and the U.S.-China relationship has grown from secret shuttle diplomacy to nearly $400 billion a year in trade accompanied by expansive academic, cultural and even military contacts.

Why is it that the country with the largest economy in the world can’t get the welcome mat right? It is now more than nine years since 9/11 and to have the premier international gateway to this nation’s capital resemble an airport in a “shambolic banana republic or poorly managed police state,” in Brûlé’s ascerbic words, is unconscionable.

This year is the year of the Chinese language in Russia. It is quite natural that numerous events dedicated to the Chinese language and culture inspire the interest of Russians to China. How can you stay indifferent to that country after watching a slide show with beautiful nature, architectural monuments, attending a show of the Chinese circus and getting familiar with Chinese art?

Irked by accusations that it is the new coloniser of Africa, China is looking to use soft power and historical evidence of its ancient links to the continent to justify its economic embrace of Africa.

The Commonwealth Games (CWG) are Delhi's biggest sporting event ever. Yet with just days left for the event, the national media discourse on Delhi 2010, world opinion and indeed the mood in the city present a rather gloomy picture.

The United States doesn't always do the best job of promoting itself abroad. Lots of people in lots of different places like to burn American flags and chant anti-U.S. slogans. It's stock footage at this point. But yesterday the New York Times highlighted an encouraging U.S. cultural diplomacy effort in a pretty unexpected area: French banlieues.

IT WAS operation damage control this week, as the Elysée tried to revive the president’s standing abroad after sharp criticism of his expulsion of Romanies...For all the president’s defiance, the French have been knocked by the response to the Romani row. Fully 71% of respondents to one poll said that they thought France’s image abroad had been tainted.

A wholesale cancellation of the Commonwealth Games might just be the best thing for India...Many observers will be tempted to see this failure [of the Games] as a fable of false pride ending in just humiliation. But apathy, not hubris, is India's fatal flaw, and a bracing dose of shame may be exactly what is needed to shake its incredibly capable, but politically inert, middle class into action.