Like many students in Japan, Kim Yang Sun cycles to school each morning. Unlike most, she then changes into a traditional Korean outfit and studies under portraits of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

The defeat of Islamic extremism requires both hard and soft power responses. Drones need be matched with deeds that expose the false precepts of Al Qaeda's narrative.

Turkey's image in the global arena is an extremely negative one. To be honest, the world has never seen Turkey as an advanced democracy. There is an emerging almost mainstream international approach to Turkey that is very negative, if not humiliating.

China will contribute $40 billion to set up a Silk Road infrastructure fund to boost connectivity across Asia, President Xi Jinping announced on Saturday, the latest Chinese project to spread the largesse of its own economic growth.

Russia’s president constantly undermines his own case on the global stage.  Where Putin further miscalculates badly is that his country has next to no soft power. 

Beijing's China National Centre for the Performing Arts Orchestra is positioned as the voice of that nation's younger generation. It's on a tour that both signals a turning point in the Philadelphia Orchestra's cultural exchange with China and has turned into a media frenzy.