soft power

September 1, 2011

Those who follow attitudes toward the West on the Arab street need to make room these days for nuance. As the daily televised drama of revolt in Libya and Syria makes plain, the desperate internal struggles, unleashed during the Arab Spring, still command center stage.

The world's eyes will be on Libya's interim Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil and interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jabril, as the "Friends of Libya" conference gives the NTC its first major platform to address the international community...

September 1, 2011

Al Jazeera helped overthrow Hosni Mubarak,...and has now turned against its onetime ally Syria. The victory over Libya—won in part with Qatari money and weapons and fighters, in addition to the soft power of Al Jazeera—may have been the crowning touch.

August 31, 2011

Americans are not often heroes in the Arab world, but as nonstop celebrations unfold here in the Libyan capital I keep running into ordinary people who learn where I’m from and then fervently repeat variants of the same phrase: “Thank you, America!”

Running a center for public diplomacy is good news per se, since it means further attention towards the global public opinion and the image Iran is creating of itself for the international community. Public diplomacy is the ‘soft’ tool...

At a time when even the Chinese have realised the soft power of the media and been trying to understand it, speak its language and make it a national asset and not a national vulnerability, it is disquieting that your Government is reported to be thinking of setting up a small group to deal with issues concerning the accountability and regulation of media...

Following the work of American scholar Joseph Nye, it is common for analysts to limit the debate on national strength to hard and soft power, with a combination supposedly forming "smart power." However, the patterns of Beijing's transformation invite an enlargement on these reflections to consider a third dimension of power, "subtle power," which is, to a certain extent, the application of some of China's highest philosophical principles in the field of strategy.

Addressing a group of young leaders from Croatia and the Western Balkans, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Ambassador Kolinda Grabar highlighted the Alliance’s key themes in preparation for the Chicago Summit in May of next year.

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