“Gangnam style,” Brazil’s burgeoning status and Turkey’s increasing global outreach have all combined to push New Zealand out of a new ranking of the world’s top 20 “soft powers.” In 2011, New Zealand ranked 17th largely on the basis of two things – rugby and Hobbits. This year, the ranking has dropped to 21st, with only the Hobbits featuring.

In an effort to give a fresh push to its African diplomacy, India is set to welcome Mauritius President Rajkeswur Purryag later this week where the discussions with leaders will include enhanced trade and investment and counter-terror cooperation.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was supposed to be back at work in Washington this week, after coming down with a stomach virus early last month, then falling and suffering a concussion. Instead, she was hospitalized Sunday with what doctors say is a blood clot related to her concussion.

The men’s titleholder, Viswanathan Anand of India, successfully defended the championship in May in a grueling match against Boris Gelfand, an Israeli grandmaster. Still, there are signs that Anand’s time at the top is coming to an end. Magnus Carlsen, 22, is now the world’s top-ranked player, and he will have a record high rating when the next rankings are released on Tuesday.

Regimes like Putin's can't survive on repression alone. To be stable and successful, they also need, for lack of a better term, soft power -- the ability to win not just the public's obedience, but also its consent; to rule not just through fear, but also through inspiration. During Putin's first stint as president, from 2000-2008, the Kremlin excelled at this. It doesn't anymore.

Part of American Music Abroad, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced that Kensington, Maryland-based folk group Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, with Barbara Lamb, will tour Asia and the Pacific Islands. The trio will tour China Dec. 30 - Jan. 6, Malaysia Jan. 7-17, Vanuatu Jan.18-23 and Papua New Guinea January 23-27. Tour activities will include public concerts, lectures, demonstrations, workshops, media outreach, and collaborations with local musicians.

Taiwan is “the only force on Earth that may have an impact on the future political development of China,” said Steven S.F. Chen, formerly the island’s envoy to the United States and now an adviser to its president. “Not, I’m afraid to say, the United States, not Japan, not any another country. Only Taiwan.”

We are all well aware that both India and China are rivals for supremacy in Asia and both are fishing for new strategies to tap to forge the alliances needed to strengthen that supremacy. If India and China nations that once put Buddhism aside for other priorities are now realizing that their answer for supremacy lies with Buddhism why has Sri Lanka’s policy makers not utilized this power which is under their very nose?