Public Diplomacy is becoming an increasingly important asset in a globalized world. Public Diplomacy deals with the influence of public attitudes on the formation and execution of foreign policies.

On this week’s program, [research fellow at the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy in Taipei], Paul [Rockower], spoke with me about the broader concept of ‘public diplomacy’, and how Taiwan uses it. He also talked about the real meaning of ’soft power’.

South Africa's government says it is withdrawing the special status granted to illegal Zimbabwean immigrants who fled their country's economic meltdown and political violence. Government spokesman Themba Maseko said South Africa will begin deportations after Dec. 31. It ends an April 2009 amnesty that allowed Zimbabweans to stay in the country without passports and visas.

The Government is on a charm offensive following the controversy sparked by the visit of Sudan President Omar al-Bashir. Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula has moved to secure international support for the implementation of the new constitution. International support has been a major driver to Kenya’s reform process since the 2007 post-election violence...

About 30 non-commercial TV stations around the U.S. are airing “MHz Network Worldview,” which includes programs from Al Jazeera English, the Kremlin’s “Russia Today” and other foreign state-controlled instruments of propaganda.

Up until last year, according to a report in the New York Times, the US State Department was still doing things the traditional way: through diplomatic cables, official communiqués and government to government transactions involving diplomats travelling to other countries to negotiate agreements.

Some 46 percent of Israelis believe that President Barack Obama is “pro-Palestinian,” according to a Smith Research poll this summer. Since then, that figure most likely has ticked higher. After all, in July, the president upgraded the Palestinian delegation’s diplomatic status in Washington...

Since the entry of the 21st century, public diplomacy in China has arrested a growing widespread attention with each passing day. The Chinese government has attached increasing importance to its role. So, public diplomacy and government diplomacy supplement each other, and they are pairing off wing to wing in China's diplomacy.