soft power
A generation ago, Canada was perceived to be an exemplary global citizen by the rest of the world: it took the lead on a host of international issues, including the Convention of Child Rights, freedom of information, acid rain, world peacekeeping, sanctions against South Africa's apartheid regime, and humanitarian and development assistance—much of this under conservative leadership.
Read the newest edition of CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacy, by Dr. Daya Thussu of the University of Westminister.
The Obama administration should expand U.S. television and radio broadcasts aimed at former Soviet states to ensure that ethnic Russians there receive information other than Moscow-controlled broadcasts, State Department veteran Paul Goble said at The Heritage Foundation.
In his recent book, Franco Sells Spain to America: Hollywood, Tourism, and Public Relations as Postwar Spanish Soft Power, Neal M. Rosendorf examines the Franco dictatorship’s use of Hollywood movie productions in Spain, American tourism, and sophisticated public relations program.
Tourism and nation branding have the potential to boost a country's soft power and convey values and culture. However, it's not always a win-win situation for governments (or tourists).
This is succession planning. It's about laying down memories in Australia against the time the Queen dies. The first tour is the one that matters – the tour with the young couple and the baby, the gloss not worn off their marriage and possible princely misdemeanours of the child far in the future.
When, fifteen years ago, Vladimir Putin was appointed Prime Minister under the ailing Boris Yeltsin, few would have thought that he was to become one of Russia’s longest-serving political leaders in living memory.