Reflecting the common ideals and pursuit of human societies, it is a positive endeavor to seek new models of international cooperation  and will inject positive energy into development. Thus, in line with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, in the context of current world order, OBOR initiative may also be observed as a great undertaking that may benefit people around the world.

Launching in 2017, The South African Brand Summit & Awards will provide a unique platform to begin but probably not finish a series of important conversations about branding [...] The summit will culminate in a gala awards dinner at which brands that make South Africa shine will be celebrated. The summit will also look at how brands that operate in South Africa contribute to the country’s brand narrative.

In an effort to increase China’s culture-focused soft power and to secure an international environment conducive to its development and to generate goodwill abroad alongside its economic rise, Confucius Institutes were established as part of China’s "going out" strategy. [...] What has attracted far less attention but plays the same role is the China Cultural Center under the Chinese Ministry of Culture.

India has appreciable soft power from spiritual philosophies to Bollywood movies to food to yoga to cultural imprints in South East Asia. Not to forget India as the clichéd “world’s largest democracy” [...] Or does it? The 2015 “The Soft Power 30” a global ranking of soft power by ComResGlobal doesn’t seem to think so – India isn’t in the top 30 countries with soft power.

The outcome of the U.S. election has created considerable uncertainty at the country’s future policy directions towards the Asia Pacific. While it is difficult to predict how U.S. economic diplomacy in the region will change [...]. As a general rule, the United States has had more care for the development of the international system of global trade and investment than many other countries. 

Traditional Chinese medicine is readily identified with China by people overseas, an official said yesterday, opening a possible new avenue for the nation to project soft power around the globe. Wang Guoqiang [...] attributed traditional medicine’s high recognition to the authority’s attention to its development and the increasing recognition of its value by the international community.

The Rebalance author Mercy Kuo regularly engages subject-matter experts, policy practitioners, and strategic thinkers across the globe for their diverse insights into the U.S. rebalance to Asia. This conversation with Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch – Founder and President of the U.S.-China Education Trust and the first Asian American to hold the rank of U.S. ambassador – is the 70th in “The Rebalance Insight Series.”

The skyline of Paris has just acquired yet another arresting feature. Only a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower, a spanking new Russian Orthodox cathedral, complete with five onion domes and a cultural centre, was inaugurated on December 4th by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, amid sonorous rhetoric about the long and chequered history of the Russian diaspora in France.