“A World in Crisis—How Can Smart Power Make a Difference?” will focus on the diplomacy tools countries can use to improve international stability, [...] “It’s the cluster of things which make up soft power,” he said, “whether that’s public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, cultural relations, nation branding—whateever you want to call it—and how it can be used effectively.”

This latest report, alas, sticks to the idea of the UK as a global power with a unique contribution to make, if only in “soft power”. Well, our soft power benefited no end from the successful London Olympics, but the fallout from Abu Ghraib and the compensation paid to former inmates of Guantánamo have to be set against that.

Last week it came to light that Beijing’s state-run China Radio International secretly owns 60% of a U.S. company, G&E Studio, which leases stations and airtime in Washington, Philadelphia, Boston and San Francisco, among other cities. Beijing uses similar subterfuges in Europe and Australia. 

In the mid-2000s, when the latter perspective was ascendant, the US and UK launched a "Cultural War on Terror", mobilising art, music and film - what the state department called Public Diplomacy 2.0 - aimed at disrupting the "jihadist narrative" and spreading liberal interpretations of Islam

 It took over 15 years of both hard and soft power from the international community to eventually sort out the situation on the ground in Bosnia. [...] Unfortunately, solving the problems in Syria will take at least that long given the underlying Sunni-Shiite conflict overlaid by the atrocities of the past five years.

NATO is putting on its most fearsome display of military might in over a decade [...] The war games, which took two years of planning, were rejiggered to add areas where many NATO officials say the alliance has been dangerously deficient, including defending against cyberattack and the use of social media to deceive public opinion.

See our interactive map of the 2015 World Expo in Milan!