Soft power was a prix fixe menu: If you like our movies and music, then you’ll love our Bill of Rights and elections. Knockoff power is à la carte: Millions of people in modernizing societies wear the veneer of an Americanized way today but beneath it are going deeper into their own culture and becoming more fully themselves — prouder, more confident, less eager to follow a far-off superpower’s lead.

Russia is seeking to recover its lost influence in the Middle East - and elsewhere. This time it's coming not with weapons, but with ballet and blinis, through a new federal agency

Audiences for daytime shows have shrunk in the United States since the 1980s, as the number of channels increased and more women entered the workforce...By relegating soap operas to daytime television and female audiences and resisting changes to a formula that worked during the 1950s and 1960s, the United States could inadvertently relinquish a hefty, if unintentional, tool in its soft-power arsenal.

The Obama administration's first National Security Strategy emphasizes a multilateral approach to solving international problems in contrast to the Bush years. But it is an adaptation of traditional thinking rather than a completely new approach.

China tried to woo India by playing old Bollywood songs and serving vegetarian food for President Pratibha Devisingh Patil during the state banquet hosted in her honour by her Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao here on Thursday.

Since 2004, Confucius Institutes have spread around the world, with almost 300 now existing in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, in addition to an online and a radio-based Confucius Institute. Confucius Institutes are a core component of China's soft power strategy, or campaign to increase its influence and accomplish its goals through the appeal of its language and culture.

A year ago it symbolised Russia's victory over Georgia and its American backers. These days Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to NATO, talks of common values and the trustworthiness of America.