At a time when the rest of the world marvels at – or perhaps dreads – China’s rise, Beijing perceives a serious weakness in its own armor: the lack of soft power. For all its economic woes, the West still possesses ample soft power as evidenced by its cultural domination. Behind China’s worries also lurk fears about regime stability.

China has launched a multi-million pound effort to improve its image around the world with the launch of a new global news TV station that it hopes will one day compete with global names such as the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera. The new station 'CCTV America', has hired more than 60 international staff in a bid to produce credible programmes that will aim to give a voice to Beijing's view of the world.

Timothy H. Parsons in his book, The Rule of Empires, describes the Romans as “deft practitioners of soft power.” Rome preferred to rule the conquered and the potentially hostile through “semiautonomous client kings which the Senate euphemistically termed ‘friends of the Roman people.’

Turkish television series have long been popular in the Middle East...they are one reason why Turkey topped a recent poll of most admired nations in the region. In the survey...78 per cent of those polled in 16 countries the Middle East had a very or somewhat favourable opinion of Turkey.

China put a key element of its global soft-power push into play this week with the official launch of state broadcaster CCTV’s American service. The service will eventually offer four hours of programming a day, produced by roughly 100 journalists in 15 bureaus spread throughout the Americas...

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.”