Taken as a whole, one can surmise that despite acknowledging the 'Asian Century' we are not properly prepared for it. Our recent leaders faced and continue to face obstacles to their soft power producing real world positive results.

As a cultural expression of the national history and real life, folk culture gradually went into people's everyday life. With the whole nation's feelings, it highlights a country's soft power. Furthermore, it is also the most concentrated expression of national spirit.

The projection of America’s abundant soft power is still wholly inadequate. Tally the scorecard in Afghanistan – you’ll see the consequence of our inadequacy in misspent treasure and tragic human sacrifice. When we fail with our soft power, we rely more heavily on hard power to achieve our goals, placing an undue, and unfair, burden on our armed forces.

Turkish soap operas, which are widely watched all over the Middle East, are well-known for being one of the most influential tools of Turkish soft power. This soft power, however, does not stem merely from TV soaps, but has also manifested itself in other areas – especially the economy.

At a time when all countries are paying attention to the development of their soft power, the film industry is regarded as an important cultural force. A successful film can have a worldwide impact, and even shape the image of a country. With this in mind, the Chinese government has put forward the goal of "going out" for Chinese film industry.

Australia’s advantages as the place for high quality education for Asians include being native speakers of the only pan-Asian language (English), and being acceptable to almost every country as a partner (or place to visit or study). Policy should build on these advantages to maintain a key place in the coming Asian mosaic.

What it does mean is that European nations will have to break their decades-old dependence on the United States for taking care of their defense, providing the strategic thinking for them and keeping Europe’s own backyard — the Balkans — stable.

Some argue that when we talk of exporting Australian arts to Asia, we ought to be talking only of their role in soft diplomacy: that is, assisting Australia's political and economic agenda.....The implication is that the arts in Asia should not be valued on their own terms.