Not long after becoming secretary of state in 2009, Clinton took up the cookstove cause, one of what she describes as “smart power” issues — though skeptical veterans of American foreign policy tend to deride them as soft more than smart.

Instead of chasing quick wins in the contest for hearts and minds, China should simply conduct itself in a way that speaks to the values that its new superhero is said to promote

Chinese leaders are obsessed with their nation's rise, and see it reclaiming its historic position as a dominant world power. Many Chinese strategists also believe the U.S. is in decline. But their opinion splits on what this means.

My core belief about Taiwan's soft power strategy is that it emphasises the wrong story: the narratives of Taiwan's successful democratisation and its current position as the first Chinese democracy are routinely ignored in favour of attempts to label Taiwan as the preserver of traditional Chinese culture.

China has flexed its muscle economically to become the best of the rest and is destined to surpass America...Economic vitality is critical because there seems to be a direct correlation between material primacy and ideological dominance, and despite America's preeminent military status, its global influence has waned.

Prof Davutoglu in effect argues that Turkey is able to exercise soft power in its region because of the very qualities the founders of the Turkish Republic in 1923 tried to cast aside. The nation’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, famously tried to draw a line under a stale and unprofitable historical legacy in order to play catch-up with the west.

As America’s relationship with Pakistan has unraveled over the past 18 months, an important debate has been going on within the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad over the proper scope of CIA covert actions and their effect on diplomatic interests.

His Royal highness Prince Faisal bin Al Hussein said that it is more than twenty two years since the fall of Berlin wall that marked the end of the cold war, and raised the hopes for a better, safe and secure future for our people.