soft power
For Monasterio and others, the visit merges soft diplomacy through cultural and student exchanges with state diplomacy. "It's in the people-to-people world ... where Canadian-Cuban relationships are the most significant," said Karen Dubinsky, who teaches in a joint Queen's University-University of Havana course that brings Cuban students to Canada and sends Canadian students to Cuba.
A new president-elect means a new reality for public diplomacy.
Lawmakers and U.S. officials who have championed foreign aid, democracy and human rights fear that President-elect Donald Trump will financially and rhetorically cripple America's non-military influence around the world — damage that could prove harder to repair than the kind inflicted by George W. Bush's use of torture. [...] His victory was so shocking that some stakeholders now wonder if the Trump era will mark the end of America's "soft power."
The government needs to be more open, creative and clear in its communications with the wider world, instead of the conservative, secretive and dull methods that are currently the norm. [...] It’s needs a 21st century restatement of mission and objectives, and expansion of coverage to reach more audiences. It also needs a complete technical and content re-gig.
The networks that primarily seek to establish, protect and expand US primacy in Asia are driven by corporate and financial special interests including banks, the energy industry, defence contractors, agricultural and pharmaceutical giants, the US entertainment industry and media as well as tech giants.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has embarked on a quest to make China’s voice heard internationally. “President Xi Jinping has vowed to promote China’s cultural soft power by disseminating modern Chinese values and showing the charm of Chinese culture to the world,” China’s Xinhua News Agency wrote in 2014. “The stories of China should be well told, voices of China well spread, and characteristics of China well explained,” the president said.