Every year for the past two decades, legions of young Americans have descended upon Japan to teach English. This government-sponsored charm offensive was launched to counter anti-Japan sentiment in the United States and has since grown into one of the country's most successful displays of soft power.

The dramatic expansion of Turkey's influence is more than just the product of a hyper-active foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu... Turkey is doing what the European Union stopped doing when it ran into trouble over its expansion. It is using its soft power effectively.

One legacy of the 9/11 attacks was a distortion of American policy: By the standards of history and cost-effectiveness, we are hugely overinvested in military tools and underinvested in education and diplomacy.

There is a lot of talk on Capitol Hill about "smart power" and "soft power" but when it comes to funding programs like the Peace Corps, lawmakers hesitate, or they do not understand how an extra $10 or $20 million dollars is transformative...

China may have no intentions of using its growing military might, but that is of little comfort for Western countries. From the World Trade Organization to the United Nations, Beijing is happy to use its soft power to get what it wants -- and it is wrong-footing the West at every turn.

Today, the State Department is reaching out to foreign publics in partnership with major private sector partners including Jazz at the Lincoln Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music as well as maintaining its own program of visits, exhibitions and tours.

Positive economic data alone cannot upgrade the national image. A series of latest episodes in Korea showed that soft images may be more critical in shining the national image than hard data.

A number of youth groups from Taiwan are traveling to Central America during their summer vacation to increase cultural understanding between the two sides. A foreign ministry official, Abel Lin, spoke about the purpose of the trips on Thursday.