A comprehensive new ranking of countries labelled “Soft Power 30” by a London-based political consultancy, Portland Communications, carries a rude awakening for India. We are nowhere when it comes to being attractive and influential in the world, falling outside the top 30 nations for universally liked culture, widely admired political values and positively engaged foreign policy.

If Congress rejects the deal, we will project globally an America that is internally divided, unreliable, and dismissive of the views of those with whom we built Iran’s sanctions architecture in the first place. I and other American diplomats around the world draw every day on our nation’s soft power, which greatly enhances our ability to mobilize other countries to our side.

After conducting a six-year study, David Vine, professor of anthropology at American University, has published a new book titled Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World in which he argues that military bases abroad are undermining U.S. national security and American soft power abroad.

"I can truly feel the world's growing interest in Korea whenever I go on a business trip, Yu said. "And I believe that now is the time to put more effort into public diplomacy. The result will be greater than expected."

But the new relationship will give American diplomats greater leeway to reach out to dissidents. Instead of asking permission to travel around the island, diplomats simply have to notify the government of their travel plans. Not ideal, but then Cuba is not a free country. That’s the whole point of the new policy, to achieve by engagement — soft power, if you will — what hard power could not achieve during the Cold War and beyond.

Soft-power sound war escalates as Seoul and Pyongyang turn up the volume on propaganda transmitted over border.[...] South and North Korea have begun a high-volume propaganda war, blasting radio broadcasts across the demilitarised zone after a landmine explosion exacerbated tensions along the border between the two countries.