The most forward-looking companies increasingly use their own "smart power" partnerships with international development agencies and NGOs as a way of opening markets. While a country uses smart power when it intelligently combines hard military power with soft...

A Japanese contemporary art exhibition themed ‘Yayoi Kusama- Obsessions’ will be held at the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Hanoi from May 25-July 28 to mark Japan-Vietnam Friendship Year 2013.

People's opinions of the UK have improved markedly since 2012. That suggestion is based on a BBC World Service survey of more than 26,000 global citizens, whose positive views pushed the UK into third place, behind Germany and Canada.

The U.S. will certainly face a rise in the power of many others—both states and nonstate actors. Presidents will increasingly need to exert power with others as much as over others; our leaders’ capacity to maintain alliances and create networks will be an important dimension of our hard and soft power.

Hard power has not been in vogue since the Iraq War turned badly in about 2004. In foreign policy journals and at elite conferences, the talk for years has been about “soft power,” “the power of persuasion” and the need to revitalize the U.S. State Department as opposed to the Pentagon: didn’t you know, it’s about diplomacy, not military might! Except when it isn’t; except when members of this same elite argue for humanitarian intervention in places like Libya and Syria. Then soft power be damned.

Developing friendly cooperation with both India and Pakistan, a pair of neighbors with many disputes, meets the interests of China, as well as the interests of the whole region. China has played a positive role in the continuous easing of the relationship between India and Pakistan. China has not played balancing strategy, using one country against the other.

Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service...They were asked to rate 16 countries and the European Union on whether their influence in the world was "mainly positive" or "mainly negative".Germany came out top with 59% rating it positively. Iran was once again the most negatively viewed.

Food aid is a hot topic in the world of foreign policy these days. Though the U.S. Government’s Food for Peace program is housed in America’s international development agency, food aid is public diplomacy.