China has been trying to integrate with the world through a modest and self-disciplining approach rather than be disregardful and aggressive. Concepts such as equal communication and putting aside minor differences so as to seek common ground, which are lacking in US soft power theories, are exactly the allure of China's soft power.

Increasingly noisy nationalist movements in both countries seem to consider the other country their ancient enemy, with citizens leading sometimes violent anti-Japanese or anti-Chinese protests and national leaders, including the heads of state, promoting confrontation over diplomacy.

For many Russians, the notion of soft power was once something of an oxymoron, like icy fire. Yet, watching the success of the US and the EU in getting others to want what the Americans and Europeans have to offer, they changed their minds and even sought to imitate their competitors' performance. Now, enhancing Russia's soft power is one of the tasks the Kremlin has given to its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In addition, a special agency for international cooperation has been created with the specific mission of reaching that goal.

The eruption of the Arab revolts in late 2010 and early 2011 put power relations among Middle Eastern countries in a state of flux, and both winners and losers have emerged. But, given that the strengths and weaknesses of most of the actors are highly contingent, the regional balance of power remains highly fluid.

In the same week as China announced a peace plan for the Arab-Israeli conflict and Russia and the United States announced agreement to hold an international conference to try and resolve the Syrian conflict peacefully, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would return to the region later this month to try and re-start Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the Israeli government announced plans to build 300 new settler homes in the Beit-El colony near Ramallah.

Perhaps the greatest disappointment is the president’s surprising reluctance to use the tools, not of hard power but of soft — especially the aggressive deployment of social media to win foreign policy ends, such as persuading Iranians to oppose their regime’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons or supporting democratic elements in Egypt and other nations of the Arab spring.

One unheralded Indian success has been last year's establishment of a unified mechanism giving coherence, direction and efficacy to India's foreign aid; that may now amount to well over 0.2 per cent of GDP, if we aggregate all the foreign aid offered through the ministry of external affairs (MEA), and the different agencies that run technical assistance programmes for fellow developing countries. This is a guesstimate, since no one has totalled the real figure.

After delivering a speech in front of a group of Arab journalists, Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Arinc raised his hands in prayer to bless good actions. The government and Turkey’s Anadolu news agency, invited us to the Turkish capital where we spent several days meeting with politicians and people close to the ruling party.