After being expelled from numerous Latin American countries for dubious activity, the United States organization USAID has developed a reputation of an organization that while providing aid is also developing ways to undermine governments in a number of the continent’s countries.

Project Mausam is Prime Minister Modi’s answer to China’s charm offensive.

Culture, in its widest interpretation, is the cumulative level of excellence achieved by a society in all the areas of creative and intellectual expression. That level of creative refinement constitutes the soft power of a country

From China’s point of view, such a bank makes perfect sense.For the developing countries in Asia, it will be a new source of funding. For China, it will be a channel to strengthen soft power and enhance economic benefits. 

Jamaican Ambassador to Brazil, Her Excellency Alison Stone Roofe, says her embassy staff has already started preparations to capitalize on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The festival has struck a multi-year deal with the Japan Foundation’s recently created Asia Center to help it bring in Asian films and film-makers to Tokyo and also to expand Japanese cultural influence in Asia.

Brazilian Embassy cultural attache Raphael Tosti de Almeida Vieira has an ace up his sleeve. (...)His ace is Brazilian music. “It’s the Brazilian soft power,” Tosti says of his country’s rich musical heritage that includes internationally beloved genres such as samba and bossa nova.

But fearing that the West wants to prosecute their leader, Kim Jong Un, for human rights abuses, North Korean officials are beginning to rely on soft words instead of hard power.