Blocked by Beijing from maintaining diplomatic ties with most of the world and barred from many global organisations, Taiwan is turning to museum diplomacy to boost its international standing and highlight its history as a regional entrepôt rather than a province of China.

A Chinese panda couple will arrive in Korea for the first time in 22 years. Chinese President Xi Jinping had promised a gift of pandas to Korea during a summit with President Park Geun-hye in July 2014. [...] China has long practiced "panda diplomacy" whenever it establishes diplomatic relations with foreign countries.

The Obama administration is taking its fight against ISIS to Hollywood, consulting with some of the world’s best storytellers for tips on how to win the battle for hearts and minds. [...] The outreach is part of a revamped administration strategy to counter ISIS’s magnetic pull for some young people in the Middle East and beyond, working with local partners, establishing a new Washington-based communications center and, now, drawing on the deep well of movie maker experience. 

Brazil, because of its largely peaceful history and its geostrategic isolation, has relied far more on soft power (the power of attraction) than on hard power (the power to compel) to advance its global interests. Because of this, Brazil will not be able (nor shows any desire) to compel the incumbent powers to accept the changes it wants in the present international order. 

Mr Coghlan is helping find ways to build cultural connections and "soft power diplomacy" between the two countries, by taking designers and Australian fashion industry representatives into China - and vice versa. "There's still a knowledge gap in the Australian industry on how China operates and ways to do business with China in the fashion sector, so we're continuing to work on that and build China relevant capabilities," Mr Coghlan said.