American bilateral aid is essential to maintaining American influence through a soft-power, or "smart" power, approach. American cultural and economic influence grew throughout the Cold War, in large part because of bilateral American aid through the Marshall Plan.

With Taiwan’s visibility around the world sometimes limited due to its special relationship with mainland China, making good use of its soft power, particularly in the cultural and creative sector, is crucial to increasing the country’s exposure and influence.

After having won many hearts and minds in the Arab world, the Turkish prime minister continued to the Balkans and South Africa last week, presenting Turkey as a confident new player on the world stage. Read the international media coverage of these visits and you can see how big the impact is of this Turkish soft power offensive.

At the end of the day, Turkey risks being told to mind its own business and to first put its house in order. The more it wants to be a soft power, the more it is going to be told by the international community to apply the same standards with its Kurd minority.

South Africa made the choice...in not granting a visa to the Dalai Lama, a decision that risked angering China...This was a question of how the world would look at us and our morality, and not all about putting at risk much-needed direct investment in such economically turbulent times.

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations...has in recent years, shared the best of India with the world. And yet, for India's best and truest minds...a new and redemptive approach is needed. One that distinguishes our civilisation from our nation, and our nation from our State.

China’s rise to become the second largest economy in the world has inevitably seen it invest projects at home and abroad that have the potential to challenge other states. One recent such development is the country’s beefing up of its communications satellites capabilities.

The former governor of Massachusetts will lay out eight foreign policy-related actions he would implement... including creating economic opportunity in Latin America through a "robust public-diplomacy and trade promotion campaign."