To some, his capture testifies to the effectiveness of European leverage and underlines the E.U.'s soft power: by holding out the carrot of accession, the E.U. induces meaningful change in would-be members.

Obama's Middle East speech last week laid out a policy of support for the growth of democracy and peace in the area... to support self-determination, equal opportunity, democracy, political and civil rights and religious tolerance.. It is not obvious that the Turkish government could make the same declarations.

This shows that the EU as a guiding framework is particularly successful if it offers the chance of a better future through the possibility of membership. Europe's soft power stems... is a more attractive message than that of mass murderer Mladic after all.

Interest in China is a recurrent theme in Latin America...Close ties specifically with the Asian giant are encouraged not only by Colombia’s status as a rising world power, but also by China’s use of “soft power.”

Consumer brands can be seen as an extension of “soft power” which political scientist Joseph Nye broadly defined as a nation’s ability to attract and persuade rather than coerce. In this respect, India certainly has an advantage over China which does not have strong private sector brands in the consumer space, except perhaps in electronics.

What had been a challenge to US power is now a "historic opportunity", as Barack Obama put it in his Middle East speech last week. But he does not mean an opportunity for the people who have risen up; it is a chance for Washington to fashion the region's present and future, just as it did its past.

...the United States is an economic and military powerhouse in a way that Britain is not...Britain has some strong historical relationships with a number of countries that the United States does not. And Britain...has so-called “soft power” that the United States might have been lacking in recent years.

Indeed, the Arab Spring strengthens rather than weakens Turkey's position in the Arab world and vindicates the new strategic thrust of Turkish foreign policy.