America is a meticulously constructed brand; it is the indispensable nation with exceptional power. There is no country as adept at branding as the United States.

Countries around the region as well as the US, France and Australia are joining the search over the Java sea.  The Airbus A320-200, carrying 162 people, disappeared on Sunday shortly after leaving Surabaya in eastern Java on its way to Singapore.

Given its economic and political might, it would be foolish to predict the decline of the US. It has systematically been able to extend its dominant role.

Before going out of session this December, Congress both approved a number of key international development and humanitarian assistance measures and built vital momentum that will be crucial in passing food security legislation in the 114th Congress.

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has defended his decision to play golf in Hawaii with United States President Barack Obama at a time when his country was facing the worst flood in decades, calling it "golf diplomacy".

Obama clearly views Hollywood as an expression of American soft power, and its ability to shape the preference and perceptions of other nations.  As for the North Korean regime ... Hollywood movies, in their most surreal forms, constitute a direct assault on political fantasies, which underpin autocracies and their megalomaniac leaders.

Established powers' resistance to their rising counterparts' demands for a larger role in setting the global agenda fuel tensions and disrupt the existing world order. That is precisely what has been occurring lately between China and the United States, and is the impetus for China's "Asia for the Asians" policy.

A look at the events in 2014 likely to have the most lasting impact on the region and beyond.