More than a century ago, Japanese authorities gifted Washington 3,000 cherry treesto brighten up the city's swampy Tidal Basin. It's still one of the most effective (and affecting) acts of public diplomacy to this day.

American universities are enrolling unprecedented numbers of foreign students, prompted by the rise of an affluent class in China and generous scholarships offered by oil-rich Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia.

In China, there has been a trend recently to use Sun Tzu and The Art of War as a source of soft power for China’s peaceful development strategy. This trend is present in the 2014 9th International Symposium on Sun Tzu’s Art of War hosted by the Chinese Academy of Military Science titled “Sun Tzu’s Art of War and Peace, Coopberation and Development.” 

In updating its security strategy, the EU should avoid setting itself unrealistic ambitions. Restoring Europe’s soft power means, first and foremost, putting Europe’s own political and economic house in order.

It is also perhaps a demonstration of Obama’s very challenging efforts to establish an “equilibrium” between Shia and Sunni forces throughout the Middle East region, especially in the Gulf. Obama explicitly made such equilibrium a strategic aim in the region in his famous interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick 14 months ago.

For the first time ever, Chinese cinemas have taken more at the box office than American cinemas, - a development that has significant percussions for the international film industry, says DW columnist Frank Sieren.

Beijing has spent several years trying to persuade Western nations to join its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which will soon open its doors and begin handing out billions of dollars in development loans to fund roads, ports, water and sanitation systems, and telecom projects across Asia. 

But China’s growing economic role in Vietnam has faced a backlash which intensified after Beijing last year parked an oil rig in waters Hanoi also claims. Since then, China has sought to win over neighbors with pledges of development funds, and bills a new Asian development bank as a consensus-based approach to aid.