India faces a choice: be a cog in the wheel of the US’ Asia-Pacific strategy or be a wheel by itself with a dynamics of its own. The choice is going to be rather easy for the Indian policymakers to make.

A so-called brand ranking of countries, which was held recently by the UK Brand Finance company, shows that Russia, among other BRICS countries, is still very popular with foreign businesspeople as an object for investments.

In the post-Soviet age, Russia has relied on military muscle and energy dominance to help it achieve its foreign policy goals. Soft power, meanwhile, is something that has always been missing from Moscow’s diplomatic arsenal.

Cultural exchanges between China and Russia have reached an unprecedented height in recent years," said Yang Song, Europe and Asia division chief of the Liaison Office of the Ministry of Culture...."A series of intercultural events have greatly helped promote mutual understanding, and bring Chinese and Russians closer.

In keeping with IMEMO’s longstanding orientation toward economic analysis, “Outlook: 2030” draws heavily on hard economic data, including figures for GDP, labor productivity, R&D investment, currency reserves, population growth and other important metrics... Outlook” even embraces the terms “soft power” and “smart power” coined by Western experts during the past two decades.

Anti-Americanism is a long-standing and fundamental pillar of Russian foreign policy and public diplomacy. As noted by Heritage’s Ariel Cohen, “Anti-Americanism in Russia is rampant. Putin has relentlessly created an image of Russia under attack from Western enemies. It worked for the elections and is likely to continue as a pillar of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy.”

WASHINGTON --- America’s image abroad remains strong, retaining its post-Bush worldwide increase in 2009. But in new survey data released here this morning by Gallup, the U.S. has lost significant support in the past year in Africa and Latin America.