According to Martha Bayles, a professor of humanities at Boston College, public diplomacy has disappeared. Her new book is “Through a Screen Darkly: Popular Culture, Public Diplomacy, and America’s Image Abroad.”

Advertising agency Dentsu recently released the results of its annual Japan Brand Survey, in which it asks people from around the world for their opinion on the country. This year’s study involved 3,600 men and women living in 17 different countries, whose responses were used to compile a list of 10 things they feel Japan does better than anywhere else in the world.

The rest of the world feels more positively about the UK than it has for almost a decade, according to the findings of an international survey. The Country Ratings Poll asked more than 24,500 people from 24 nations whether they felt positive or negative about 16 countries and the EU. The UK finished third, with 56 per cent of those surveyed saying they thought it was having a good influence internationally.

The national mood in Brazil is grim, following a year in which more than a million people have taken to the streets of major cities across the country to protest corruption, rising inflation and a lack of government investment in public services such as education, health care and public transportation, among other things. A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that 72% of Brazilians are dissatisfied with the way things are going in their country, up from 55% just weeks before the demonstrations began in June 2013.

Twenty-five years ago, weeks of student led, pro-democracy demonstrations in China ended when tanks rolled in to Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.  The events at Tiananmen grabbed the American public’s attention and seemed to shift Americans’ views of China within a short period of time.

This is the busy season for local film festivals in Israel. The Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival opened last weekend, the Cinema South International Film Festival opens on Sunday in Sderot, and the ninth annual Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival, TLVFest, will open Saturday night.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is running for re-election Tuesday, June 3, can be thankful his neighbors do not get to vote. Strong majorities of the publics in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian territories, Tunisia and Turkey and half the public in Lebanon voice a very unfavorable view of the embattled Syrian leader, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.

In the long run, brands’ ultimate value lies in their ability to appeal to consumers outside their home market. Giants like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Microsoft derive anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of total revenue from outside the U.S. And that’s the true marker of the power of a brand—and of a country’s economy.