While India has consciously sought to promote a ‘soft’ image, Pakistan, on the other hand, have spared no effort, deliberately perpetuating a negative ‘hard’ image of ourselves. As citizens strain under the daily task of survival and an incompetent government struggles to stay in power, the ‘soft image’ continues to elude us.

China's hardline political stance, as shown by its veto of a UN resolution on Syria, is increasingly clashing with its efforts to improve its image abroad. Actually, Beijing runs into repeated problems when national policy collides with improving China's image. It puts its national policy first including defence of 'core interests' and pays a price on the soft power side.

Brand USA, a non-profit, public-private partnership, is to launch a global advertising campaign next month, as part of the country’s concerted effort in marketing tourism to the world. As its core mission, the organization, created in 2010, is to “encourage and inspire travelers to explore America’s boundless possibilities.”

"Europe was taking the United States for granted in providing defense and filling military capability gaps. It has become so enamored with soft power that it has stopped investing in hard power. In terms of hard security, it makes Europe a free rider. Europe should start investing in its military and building an effective military that can provide leverage on its soft power.”

The Syrian crisis is well nigh the biggest blow to the current Iranian regime's prestige since it was established in 1979. It is now safe to argue that Iran is squandering the soft power it has been exercising among the various Muslim groups around the globe.

"The spread of Korean popular culture is exceptional as it was not founded upon the traditional factors of military and economic dominance that characterized that of Western imperial powers, or the diaspora networks of India and China," said Liew, who has been tracking South Korean popular culture for almost a decade.

What this brief overview argues is that Turkey has consistently tried to avert recourse to intervention and war in the Middle East and to promote diplomatic approaches that rely exclusively on soft power.

More recently, with the resurgence of China as a global power, Vietnam has been subject to a Chinese “charm offensive,” as the country seeks to spread its soft power. Since the early 1990s, Vietnam has been engulfed in a Chinese “cultural tsunami” brought about by the overwhelming success of Chinese historical television series, music, movies and kung-fu novels.