Secretary Kerry acknowledged in his remarks on religion and diplomacy [...] "Religion today remains deeply consequential, affecting the values, the actions, the choices, the worldview of people in every walk of life on every continent."  The Secretary's words speak to the State Department’s recognition of a growing need to assess religious dynamics in world affairs and engage religious actors across a wide range of foreign policies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pushed Buddhism diplomacy during his recent trip to Hanoi. India had announced special annual scholarships for Vietnamese students in advanced Buddhist studies at Masters/Doctoral level and scholarships of a year for study of Sanskrit at Indian institutes for Buddhist Sangha members.  

Soft power refers to the ability to change what others think and do through attraction and persuasion rather than compulsion and coercion. Scholars are still divided and failed to agree on an exact definition of soft power which remains loose and vague.

Cultural diplomacy takes political diplomacy a step further. It is a more three-dimensional approach, where there is vastly more investment in understanding the background, culture and history of a group of people, while simultaneously focusing on using love to achieve lasting peaceful negotiations.

Why, then, did the tsar’s forces weaken their own diplomatic case by taking away hundreds of Russian monastics? The best guess is that the entire monastic peninsula was on the verge of veering out of control because of the theological dispute which had been gathering pace for several years...

This free event will feature a variety of traditional Chinese performances. [...] Xiang Yun Temple actively seeks ways to facilitate cultural exchange between and the East and the West, and everyone is invited to participate. 

The deceit of history consists in making us believe we live in the present; when in reality, history is all there is, and everything is but mere repetition. [...] Pope Francis, in delivering a message of hope, invoked the founding fathers of the European project, and exhorted European political leaders to follow their footsteps and that “Today more than ever, their vision inspires us to build bridges and tear down walls.”

In an ongoing decades-long conflict between the two countries, the diplomacy of citizens has the potential to correct the negative image that has embedded in the minds and to change the thinking about each other through face to face interactions.