Japan's government has budgeted over $15 million to fund Japan studies at nine overseas universities, including Georgetown and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as part of a "soft power" push to counter the growing influence of China and South Korea.

The "information war" against Russia makes any efforts to improve the country's image in the West futile, a Kremlin spokesman said Thursday after the U.S. public relations firm Ketchum said its contract with the Russian government had ended.

Long before the U.S. and Cuba mended diplomatic relations, skateboarding brought together the two countries. After studying abroad in Cuba in 2010, Miles Jackson and a group of friends started Cuba Skate, a group that supports and promotes skate culture within Cuba. 

Whether the intention behind such actions by members of Congress was to undermine the Obama Administration, to sabotage the nuclear negotiations, or to gain domestic support, they have done nothing but sabotage the image of the United States.

A distinctive, bilingual Hispanic American culture is blurring old distinctions between Mexican-Americans and other Latinos. That culture’s swaggering soft power can be felt across the Spanish-speaking world.

The United States is conducting a “soft power” campaign – an effort to deter potential IS recruits and supporters of the militant group. Projects are being aimed at the young, who have joined IS in alarming numbers from around the world.

A Pew Poll conducted last year found that that only 28% of Americans believe that their “country stands above all others.” This is down 10 percentage points from just three years earlier.

This is a means to unify military and humanitarian assistance to the rebels, in order to maximize the soft power of the United States on the Syrian opposition.