Global events such as the Beijing Olympics and the Shanghai Expo have provided an opportunity for China to show to the world a new face, and big investments in the developing world have seen China's image improve among the Africans and South Americans.

The strength of China's soft power within the emerging world is primarily driven by the growth of its multinational powerhouses, booming tourism and the rapid expansion and ranking of its universities, said the report, with the country ranking first among all emerging economies in these three key aspects.

London's “world-class” universities can replace the military in projecting Britain’s influence overseas and bring long-term economic benefits to the UK, a top London academic said today...Universities could play a vital role in improving Britain’s future by selling their expertise to countries such as China, India, and expanding nations in central Asia and the Gulf.

China ranks top among emerging economies in exercising intangible power, according to the soft power index report released by consulting firm Ernst & Young...A country's intangible power varies in terms of global image, global integration and global integrity, each of which include several factors such as media exports, tourism and carbon emissions, according to Ernst & Young.

Can Turkey play a role in the Arab Spring?... Yes, because Turkey has developed newfound soft power in the Middle East. Over the past decade, Ankara has painstakingly built influence in the region by fostering business networks and establishing state-of-the-art high schools to educate the future Arab elite.

But today an op-ed appeared which made it quite clear that anybody who messes with China’s dignity should expect a flaming bag of cat hurled in the general direction of their front door sometime in the very near future....This is China at its soft power worst, scoring goals in its own net and making it exponentially harder to convince the rest of the world that the country is being run by grown-ups.

When a recent survey indicated that 80 percent of Indonesians believe their nation can become a superpower, it was more a reflection of growing nationalist sentiment in a country that is striving to maintain its independence from the current global contest between the United States and China.

The term "Cool Japan" was a localized take on the UK's "Cool Britannia" idea of the 1990s. The idea of "Cool Japan" was centered on the country's position as a rising soft power superpower. Soft power is the culture influence countries have, while hard power is the influence from political, military, or economic power.