soft power
All in all, Salman’s Asian official visit-cum-holiday is likely to reverberate far beyond the billions of dollars in economic and commercial agreements he signs. The visit also solidified cooperation between Asian nations and Saudi Arabia in the fight against IS.
Conan O'Brien, Russia and fake news are featured in this week's roundup
Has Putin's use of hard power created a soft power appeal?
"Is American soft power destined to henceforth be a malign, destabilizing force in the world?" asks Neal Rosendorf.
Driven by a most relevant theme of ‘Boundaries, Identity and The Public Realm’ in these increasingly fraught times, The New York Times Art for Tomorrow Conference is set to present another fascinating round of discussions, insights, analysis, and contemplations, advanced by great minds, from March 10 to 13 at the W Doha Hotel & Residences. [...] The event will explore the tangible contributions that art and cultural development can make to economic growth and nation-building initiatives.
Now a new initiative called Republic TV, bankrolled by the nationalistic Indian politician and media baron Rajeev Chandrasekhar, stands the best chance to break the inertia and enter the big league in the world news business. [...] Should Republic TV deliver the goods, soft-power benefits will flow to India as an open and argumentative society bringing its distinct non-Western narrative to illuminate the world’s problems and offer solutions.
Indisputably, as Kenya edges closer to its middle power ambition, its new frontier of influence does not lie in a Spartan projection of its military prowess – although military might is sometimes crucial. It rests on carefully weaving the technologies of “Athenian soft power” associated with humanitarian diplomacy. To be sure, humanitarian response capacity is an integral component of the development agenda of many developing countries. It also enables countries to project their soft power regionally and globally.
The non-governmental foundation [Zhang Boju and Pan Su Cultural Development Foundation] was set up by the late Mr Zhang's grandson, Mr Lou Kaizhao, 54, to promote traditional Chinese culture, at a time when President Xi Jinping has called for "cultural self-confidence" and the development of China's cultural soft power. The foundation also has the long- term goal of recovering cultural relics that have been lost overseas, in keeping with Mr Zhang's endeavour throughout his life to protect Chinese cultural heritage from falling into foreign hands.