Will the next couple of years be enough to reset US-China ties? An important space for future cooperation is Central Asia. Here Russia and some Israelis too are greatly interested in collaborating with China on a new Silk Road. 

The Chinese media reported yesterday that the pair will perform Little Apple at the American Music Awards this Sunday, along with stars more familiar to Americans, including Mary J. Blige, Fergie, and One Direction. The show could be a breakthrough for the country’s soft-power campaign, an effort by the state-backed entertainment industry to make Chinese culture more popular worldwide. 

In fact it may be that the distinction between "hard" and "soft" power may be morphing into a new concept put forward by Prof Nye, that of "smart power".

The initiative seeks to provide a deeper understanding of public diplomacy practices and trends in emerging markets of different political persuasions, against the backdrop of increasing multi-polarity and shifting world order. 

Russia’s appeal among the Indian public is limited to the intellectual elite and those with nostalgia for the golden age of socialism. The time has come to reach out a wider set of Indians.

Never before has Australia been more at the heart of global affairs. Here in Brisbane we have finished our year as G20 President, with the G20 leaders presenting their communiqué.

BOKO Haram has massacred scores of children, gloated about the kidnap and enslavement of more than 200 teenage girls and killed thousands more in a brutal five-year uprising to create a strict Islamic state in northeast Nigeria. But the Islamist rebels’ latest video showing an unidentified community happy to be under their control is a departure for a group whose trademark has been brutal hit-and-run attacks against civilians.