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.

The Confucius Institutes are in themselves a good thing, as an international cultural presence for China and an exercise in soft power. Canadian universities and colleges, however, should refrain from partnerships with them, as they are bound to include a propagandistic element inconsistent with liberal education.

China’s ruling Communist party has long lamented that its “soft” power falls far short of that of the US. Efforts to improve matters, however, have been hampered by an overeager propaganda agenda. Mr Wang said this would change. “Our country puts too much emphasis on ‘going out’”...The harder you strive to do that, the less you will succeed."

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.