DUBAI --- Take a look at Barack Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo. It was beautifully written and radiated good intentions. The U.S. government relied heavily on new media tools to disseminate it throughout the Arab world and beyond. Arab opinion of Obama improved significantly; and then it dropped like a rock.

Taiwan has a plan to compete with China in the international cultural propaganda stakes: by opening “Taiwan Academies” that will teach the Chinese language with a strong focus on traditional characters and culture.

Some tourist destinations thrown into the media glare by political turmoil or natural disasters are starting to incorporate these events into their marketing campaigns. Take, for instance, Chile's re-branded campaign slogan ‘Chile is good for you’.

China plans a theme park to celebrate Hello Kitty, the cutesy cat with no mouth but a cult-like following…Hello Kitty’s popularity in China can be seen as a counterpoint to Sino-Japanese political tensions by demonstrating the population’s embrace of Japanese style...

South Korea will use its "soft power" as an instrument of cultural diplomacy to promote exchanges in various areas between countries, the parliamentary speaker said Thursday, as he prepared to host a conference of his counterparts from the Group of 20 countries next week.

...the Israeli government takes the role of public diplomacy very seriously... The Israeli government has its own word that has been used since the 1970s in relation to their own public diplomacy work. Hasbara is roughly translated as ‘explanation’ and is used under the context of Israeli policy and actions.

When Dr Manmohan Singh lands in Addis Ababa, the marked difference between India's "soft power" and China's headlong rush into becoming the continent's go-to country for infrastructure is certain to excite debate again

There was reason to worry that AFRICOM, which would lead the Operation Odssey Dawn, was too green, and its mandate too soft, for it to perform up to U.S. standards. Yet in launching the U.S. intervention in Libya, AFRICOM, led by its commander, General Carter Ham, acquitted itself well.