soft power

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pushed Buddhism diplomacy during his recent trip to Hanoi. India had announced special annual scholarships for Vietnamese students in advanced Buddhist studies at Masters/Doctoral level and scholarships of a year for study of Sanskrit at Indian institutes for Buddhist Sangha members.  

Kazakh eagle hunter in Altai Tavan Bogd National Park, Mongolia.
September 7, 2016

The Kazakh government taps into historical memory and soft power with a new Game of Thrones-style TV epic dramatizing the founding of the Kazakh khanate (state).

Cafe Theatre Festival, by Sebastiaan ter Burg

The Short+Sweet Theatre Festival shows what citizen diplomacy can achieve.

China had earned a great deal of soft power by hosting the high-level summit. Soft power, or the non-military influence that a country and its culture can have around the globe, has been a matter of focus in certain sections of the Chinese foreign policy establishment. 

Edinburgh Skyline in Watercolor Background, by Paul Rommer

In the wake of the Edinburgh International Culture Summit, how can we think about cultural diplomacy?

Taiwan’s “soft power,” an intangible attraction based on the ideals and principles an actor – a government, country, organization, or individual- values, stands for, projects, and how the actor behaves at home and abroad. [...] Why is Taiwan still unable to connect with international audiences? Taiwan’s external communications are failing to help the island transit from the invisible to the visible.

September 5, 2016

The Ministry of Defence should be congratulated not only for taking this most important initiative to hold this Seminar and for the sixth consecutive year, but also for the deciding on a topic “Soft power and its influence on global issues” which is most relevant to the world at this particular time, for Soft Power is essentially the power of Diplomacy which lays absolute emphasis on persuasion, and is the need of the hour. 

Japan's cultural appeal is at its best when the government takes a hands-off approach.

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