In a world of increasing opportunities to participate in public debate online via social media, the blogosphere and comments on news sites, the first World Radio Day on 13 February, organised by Unesco, reminds us to celebrate the radio as an unsung hero that is steadily empowering people to access information and – crucially – to respond to what they hear.

The effective use of soft power in all its forms is another important resource in our work. We intend to cooperate with civil society institutions, the expert community, business circles and mass media. We will actively use the potential of organizations established last year and other opportunities that we have with civil society in addition to traditional diplomatic instruments.

By May, A.U. diplomats had succeeded in convincing Qaddafi to sit out any new regime in liberated Libya — a fact little known in the West — but they failed to implement the roadmap fully. Their very decent proposal was lost to South Africa’s communication failures and poor public diplomacy.

APDS Blogger: Hend Alhinnawi

It is nobody's case that India must mimic the West's position. Even so, as a society with much goodwill in the Middle East, where it is respected for its democracy and soft power and seen as an exemplar of a non-western modernity, India needs to be a presence in the region's new discourse.

America still has much soft power from the sales of weapons to Iraq, the need of Iraqi counterterrorism forces to work with U.S. Special Forces. Then there's the issue of America helping Iraq with investment, getting foreign companies in, and the issue of ending Iraq's Chapter Seven status at the UN...

APDS Blogger: Hend Alhinnawi