When China embraced the world with its opening-up policy and extraordinary economic growth, the Awakening Dragon had embarked on a golden journey to transform itself, from being labor-intensive to being knowledge-intensive, from rising dependently on the growth of hard power to a full-blown renaissance of soft power, from the crude, cut-price "Made in China" to an imaginably refined, top-notch "Created in China".

“Good use of soft power objectively helps us reach priorities in international activities,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told a meeting of the Public Chamber’s Council for International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy. Among Russian soft power tools, Gatilov listed the extension of cultural, informational and humanitarian presence abroad.

World leaders, ministers and high-level officials from 54 countries across the Asia-Pacific region will participate in the fifth Bali Democracy Forum (BDF). The Foreign Ministry’s director general for information and public diplomacy, Abdurrahman M. Fachir, said that the BDF would seek to discuss approaches to integrating democratic principles into global governance, especially in managing collective efforts to promote peace, security, economic development and the enjoyment of human rights.

The Nobel League of diplomat-poets includes Gabriela Mistral, Saint-John Perse, George Seferis, Ivo Andric, Miguel Angel Asturias, Pablo Neruda and Octovio Paz. Latin America has the largest share of Nobel Laureates in this category. What is it that makes some diplomats excel in the fine art of poetry? Diplomacy is usually stereotyped as the fine art of wining and dining and diplomats as the lotus-eaters.

America's public diplomats face the formidable challenge of undercutting radicals' support by helping improve the lives of the vast majority of Arabs. Their concerns are similar to those found elsewhere in the world: jobs, housing, education, health care, and the other basics of a decent life. Helping to build the foundation for that kind of life should be the driving force for American public diplomacy.

Lee says Taiwan’s soft power, accumulated in the past few decades, has surpassed its politics and economy as an advantage worth using and a language for dialogue. She says many Hong Kong people find this aspect of Taiwan to be among its most interesting.

Signs of China’s pervading influence in the area are everywhere in the Golden Triangle, from the tourist ferries docked nearby to the massive Chinese-owned and operated casino complex, called Kings Roman, that sits a few hundred yards from where Bounmy stands.

As she visits Algeria and the Balkans on what may be one of her last overseas trips as the nation’s top diplomat, Clinton is also confronting her legacy, and whether it will be framed by the Benghazi tragedy or her vision that American foreign policy in the 21st Century must utilize social media, coalition- building and export promotion as well as military power.