A conference on public diplomacy has heard that Australia needs to do more to promote an international image that moves beyond narrow stereotypes. Opposition senator Russell Trood says the Department of Foreign Affairs lacks a coherent strategy to influence how Australia's seen by the rest of the world.

Economic resources can produce soft-power behavior as well as hard military power. A successful economic model not only finances the military resources needed for the exercise of hard power, but it can also attract others to emulate its example.

Aware of its need to project its soft power, the Chinese government has put out advertisements and expanded a whole department of the Chinese Ministry of Education to recruit teachers and send them out to foreign countries around the world, promoting the teaching of Mandarin.

As international borders become more porous, nations must use soft power to build networks and institutions to respond to shared threats. In this sense, power becomes a positive-sum game. It is no longer sufficient to think exclusively of wielding power over others. We must instead think of using power to accomplish goals with others.

Put another way, nobody loves England that much unless it comes charming with the soft power of the Commonwealth, the British Council, the Church of England, the BBC, the English soccer premier league and the royal wedding.

While media attention typically focuses on the hard power role of the US military in the Pacific, the US Navy also invests significant time and energy in the soft power potential of humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the region

I’ve been thinking about the range of theories of influence at work in the Public Diplomacy field so I was interested to see that Organizational Research Services, a Washington state evaluation consultancy, have put out a briefing note Pathways to Change...

While media attention typically focuses on the hard power role of the US military in the Pacific, the US Navy also invests significant time and energy in the soft power potential of humanitarian and reconstruction efforts in the region.