In recent months, Uzbek leaders have intensified a campaign to contain Turkish economic and cultural influences in Uzbekistan. The most prominent component of this crackdown has been the arrest of 54 Turkish entrepreneurs over the past two years and the closure of at least 50 Turkish-operated businesses.

China has been cultivating its image around the world as an attractive, rising power that is non-threatening and non-confrontational. China's endeavor to promote its soft power involves shifting the focus from purely economic cooperation to other more subtle areas such as culture.

Political, economic, social and cultural factors have increasingly become a part of the safety equation. These parameters, named ‘soft power,’ have been added to the ‘military power,’ leading to the concept ‘smart power,'

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, was established over six decades ago to be the public diplomacy organization of the West, countering the influences and false promises of Communism.

...At every opportunity, we talk about the need to address the problem of corruption. It is a dialogue we carry out at the highest level of this government and we recognize there is a problem. But I think we are deploying resources to assist the government of Nigeria to address this problem and it is part of our public diplomacy message.

razil and Turkey are two nations that espouse soft power as a means of winning influence on the global stage. Both countries seek friendly relations with their neighbors, even when neighbors behave badly on the international scene.

What Dr Okonjo-Iweala's candidacy has brought to the fore is that the country still needs to invest in soft-power-enhancing structures in Africa - or 'playing Big Brother' so that it can leverage the goodwill of other African countries in moments like this to enhance its objectives. National interest is much more than immediate economic gratification.

This government has no feeling for 'soft power,' " Kinsman says, "because it still has little feeling for the world landscape except from the standpoint of Canadian business interests.