While American forces in Somalia are fighting the militant group al-Shabab with air attacks, security experts think a political solution should be the way forward. That includes the upcoming presidential election.

The fun and joy that Xinhua is searching for reflects a quandary facing China’s leadership: As Xi navigates a difficult phase of his administration, his messaging machine — for decades one of the Communist Party’s most crucial levers of power — has been struggling to make itself heard.

London has been anointed the city with the highest “soft power,” beating out contenders like New York and Paris. Its ability to create high-skill jobs and attract an international diverse group of business talent has led Deloitte to name the British city as the “soft power capital of the world."

Radicals don’t wake up one day and join Isis or Al Shabaab. Extremism fills a gap; preying on people who feel lost, confused and excluded from society. For some without hope, extremism can offer something different: a future of freedom, adventure and purpose. It also provides food, clothing and protection. [...] We must recognise the importance of soft power to address hard-hitting issues. 

Sometime in March last year Kenya’s diplomatic corps, attending the 17th Biennial Ambassadors and High Commissioners’ conference in Mombasa, bemoaned negative press reports and said this was frustrating their diplomatic initiatives in missions. The envoys noted that the local media’s fascination with “negative” narratives of insecurity, crime and corruption painted a bad image of the country abroad.