On Saturday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told an audience of African leaders at the sixth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in Kenya’s capital Nairobi that his country will spend $30 billion on infrastructure development, healthcare and education projects in Africa over the next three years:

Tokyo stole the show at the Olympic closing ceremony in Rio de Janeiro this week as the event's next host city prepares for a cultural charm offensive ahead of the 2020 Games. In a surprise move, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dressed up as Super Mario at the ceremony

What do these three recent events tell us about Russian foreign policy? Putin is able to think strategically, using all hard and soft power tools to promote Russian foreign policy interests. To the average Western observer, Russia's recent actions in the Caspian, Iran or its CSTO military exercise are viewed as three different and unrelated things. 

Around a third of Saudi scholarship students in the UK are female, many of them outstanding scholars, creative artists and filmmakers. They are a massive soft-power asset that could aid Saudi Arabia address foreign public opinion about how Saudi women are benefiting from greater political, social and economic roles. Saudi diplomacy with the UK is mostly mediated by elites. 

Everybody eats, which is what makes food a perfect choice to resolve conflicts and foster connections among nations. The concept is called "gastrodiplomacy," and South Korea is one of its strongest champions. [...] And even as the government supports its citizens in opening Korean restaurants around the world, it pays special attention to promoting that most ubiquitous of Korean foods: kimchi.

Sri Lanka Army's annual defense seminar this year will focus on the soft power and its influence on resolving global Issues. The Colombo Defense Seminar - 2016 is scheduled to be held on Thursday and Friday, September 1-2 at the BMICH in Colombo under the topic 'Soft Power and its influence on Global Issues'.

As number 16 in the world medal chart in Rio and currently top in Africa, Kenya is in the league of the world’s sports powers. Kenya should fund its nationalist project as part of its sports diplomacy and projection of soft power. There is no reason why gold medallists should not be full ambassadors and remunerated accordingly. The country must consciously and innovatively invest in its sports talents.

In the last two or three years, there have been positive social changes in the culture industry. Viet Nam has taken advantage of the UN cultural agency UNESCO’s convention on the protection and promotion of diversity 2005 to promote the culture industry in the country. [...] I believe when people understand that cultural potential is itself a major sector of the economy, the culture industry will become a soft power of Viet Nam in the world.