The early 2000s did feel like the European moment... In this magazine in 2004, Parag Khanna described the "stylish" European Union as a "metrosexual superpower" strutting past the testosterone-fueled, boorish United States on the catwalk of global diplomacy.

On the first day of 2012, Chinese President Hu Jintao published an essay on culture in a...The language, lifted from Hu's speech at a party plenum on "promoting culture" in October last year, has been interpreted as largely hostile toward the "west" and its machinations to divide China.

Greek TV channels realised that buying the glitzy tales of forbidden love... from long-standing regional rival Turkey, was cheaper than filming their own..."Greeks feel closer to Turks than they did," he told Reuters. "Sometimes soft power is more important than political power."

Today the entire public diplomacy budget is reportedly of the order of magnitude of what a medium-to-large Israeli corporation spends on promoting fast-food or snacks. If one does not invest in winning hearts and minds, it is no wonder that they are not won.

Mass media, in its different forms, has been used by the State to manufacture consent or create dissent in other countries. The former involves media management, the latter is more in the nature of psychological warfare used in peace time, indeed at all times, as an exercise of soft power.

Israel is tired of playing it straight: It is recruiting gays and lesbians as unofficial envoys. In a bid to boost its international image, the country’s ministry of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs has established a cadre of diverse volunteers who speak about Israel around the world.

China's President Hu Jintao recently warned that "international hostile forces are intensifying the strategic plot of Westernizing and dividing China," and added that "the international culture of the West is strong while we are weak."

The infusion of Chinese government funding into international universities has enabled significant expansions in language teaching, cultural programming, and China-related conferences and symposia, but it has also raised fears regarding academic freedom and independence of teaching and research.