The same mismatch may arise when it comes to soft power. "Force alone cannot make us safe," the president said. "We cannot use force everywhere that a radical ideology takes root." If so, this administration should seek to invest more in soft-power tools. The State Department's new Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations remains underfunded, for example, and the Civilian Response Corps has not yet lived up to its initial promise.

The 2006 Beijing action plan provided the first attempt to create institutional-level collaboration through the establishment of Confucius Institutes, although these are also largely organised at the intergovernmental level as part of China’s global ‘soft power’.

The new world order succeeding the one built on post-WWII realities will be, to a much greater extent, a “soft power” confrontation of countries and blocs. Currently, Russia remains absent on the “soft power” scene and will need to formulate a policy in this sphere, especially in preparation for the major, upcoming, international events and institutional presidencies it will be holding.

As Chinese swell the ranks at western universities, the numbers of foreign students studying in China are also burgeoning -- increasing by 10% in a year to more than 290,000 in 2011, according to the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE).

For a while, Turkey’s quest for influence, and its country’s apparent success as an affluent and highly functioning Muslim-majority society, seemed to be having the effect that Ankara desired. In a 2011 Brookings Institution poll of the Arab countries, Turkey was ranked first among countries believed to have played a “constructive role” in the Arab Spring.

Middlepowerism is a difficult concept...The term can also denote states that demonstrate strong diplomatic aptitude through activities like diplomatic activism, coalition building, niche diplomacy, and “good international citizenship.” But for policymakers and diplomatic practitioners, middlepowerism is something very different.

The Swedish media in the Baltic States, not being aware of it, often support the so-called soft power and do not promote the strengthening of European values in the Baltics, Defense Minister Artis Pabriks (Unity) emphasized during the "Security around Baltic 2013" conference in Stockholm yesterday, informs LETA.