During a discussion at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the industrial designer engaged in some designing of the political variety. He argued that the United States should further systematize its support of art and culture -- through, specifically, adding a Secretary of Culture to the presidential Cabinet.

Qatar's capital, Doha, is a post-modern city rising like a mirage out of the hot sands of the Arabian Desert. The ever-growing skyscrapers are stunning, and in some cases, head-scratching works of architecture and engineering. Standing in the city, you almost expect to see the Jetsons fly by.

No one ever doubted that saving Noor's life was a good thing. But was there any thought put into what would happen afterward to her and the family? Should she have been brought to America and then returned to a place like Iraq, where medical care was next to nothing and where her family paid a price for accepting help from Americans?

The U.S. culture of openness and innovation will keep this country central in an information age in which networks supplement, if not fully replace, hierarchical power. The United States is well positioned to benefit from such networks and alliances if our leaders follow smart strategies. In structural terms, it matters that the two entities with per-capita income and sophisticated economies similar to that of the United States — Europe and Japan — are both allied with the United States.

The Chinese have been growing their media presence in Africa in recent years as part of a "soft diplomacy" strategy — using culture and information to spread its influence and counter what it views as unfair treatment in global media. A paper on this topic by Yu-Shan Wu at the South African Institute of International Affairs describes soft power, or ruanshili to use the Mandarin term, as an "important instrument to help a state achieve its most desired goal with the least objection".

he so-called six-party talks — the on-again-off-again international mechanism by which the US, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan negotiate with North Korea over its nuclear aspirations — are often cited as an example of multilateral diplomacy.

To increase China's highbrow soft power, the Chinese government could initiate more scholarly exchange programs with other countries, set up more Confucius Institutes abroad, and increase government-sponsored and government-involved people-to-people exchange programs.

The overall measure of Australians' "warmth" towards China is captured in the Lowy Institute's "thermometer," a gauge measuring how positively people feel towards a range of countries. Last year China was ranked eighth with a warmth of 59 degrees out of a possible 100, just under Malaysia and just above India.