The policies Clinton is defending (at least publicly; I bet privately she’s not so happy with the administration’s direction) could more accurately be described as the “lead from behind” doctrine rather than “smart power.”

China’s new and first aircraft carrier isn’t fully operational yet...Why would a truly peaceful-rising country need an aircraft carrier? Joseph S. Nye, Jr., the former dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government rightly credits the “peaceful rising” advertising to current China President Hu Jintao, who stylistically preferred what might be called a foreign-relations approach of “soft power.”

“It’s important because when I was first asked to spread goodwill through sport, I understood the meaning of it intellectually, but I didn’t fully understand it until I went to China,” Ripken wrote in response to a question asking why his envoy work was important to him.

With great fanfare, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a Quadrennial Development and Diplomacy Review (QDDR)—modeled on the Defense Department’s Quadrennial Defense Review—which promised a new era in foreign relations. In the President’s 2010 budget, State and USAID were the clear winners (with defense spending a clear loser).

Song said Taiwan has done an excellent job in demonstrating its "soft power" on Dongsha, also known as the Pratas Islands, pointing to the massive funding the government has invested in the South China Sea, as well as the various camps organized by the government to help ordinary citizens learn more about the issue and to drum up public support for the

Sports diplomacy builds on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s vision of “smart power.” It embraces the use of a full range of diplomatic tools, including sports, to bring individuals together in order to foster a greater understanding of societal norms and cultures.

The U.S. and China have much to gain from collaborating on transnational issues. If power is the ability to obtain the outcomes one wants, it is important to remember that sometimes our power is greater when we act with others rather than merely over others. This important dimension of a “smart power” strategy for the twenty-first century is not captured by the concept of containment.

There is no way forward in Afghanistan, unless the international community rethinks the way they have operated in the country so far. To avoid failure and more of the same, they must exploit the strategic opportunity of capitalizing on the many lessons learned they have learned thus far to replace the “Afghan face” with the “Afghan hands” on getting the job done henceforth.