I moved to Germany for the first time as a language student in 2004. That November, the queen made her fourth state visit to the country. I hadn't even realized she was coming.

It was my landlady, Cäcilia, a conservative Catholic pensioner and widow in rural Pfalz in southwestern Germany, who excitedly pointed out that Elizabeth was in town on my return from work one Tuesday.

"Are you watching? Are you going to watch?" she cooed. Baffled, I asked what she was talking about, a question that seemed almost to offend. "Your queen's here. Here in Germany!"

China is using soft power through the form of foreign aid to help the world, despite criticism from the West that its approach lacks transparency.

There is no better proof of this than the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road initiatives, the latest strategies under Beijing's foreign aid policy.

Next month, well-heeled punters will flock to the Qatar Goodwood Festival for one of the highlights of the British horse racing calendar.

It wasn’t the kind of policy statement that would restore Britain to a central role in geopolitical crises. But the announcement that caught my attention in recent days was a smart deployment of soft power, of which the UK has plenty to offer. John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, claimed for Britain a pivotal role in the fight against cultural destruction, which he described as an affront to common human values.

The General Staff Academy of Russia’s Armed Forces is set to work out a complex manual on countering so-called “color revolutions”, which will incorporate the expertise of Russian military experts who developed counterterrorist operations in the North Caucasus and of civilian experts from the country’s leading educational establishments. [...] The experts will also work on the “soft power” method (non-contact impact on potential enemy), asymmetric operations and measures to strengthen Russia’s political system and the political culture of the politicians, civil servants, businessmen and oth

UN's decision to commemorate the International Day of Yoga underlines the appreciation for India and its growing soft power, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said.

Swaraj, who addressed the first International Day of Yoga celebrations at the UN, also attended a function marking the day at the Hindu Temple Society of North America yesterday.

The way the day was commemorated around the globe, "the world had made the first International Day of Yoga its own," Swaraj said at the Hindu Temple Society of North America.