In recent years, diplomatic circles have been relying on the term “engagement” to describe various communication and public diplomacy activities with foreign publics. The term is used almost universally in government, the military, academia, corporations and think tanks to describe a range of practices designed to influence or persuade foreign audiences.

Taipei, June 10 (CNA) One of the driving forces behind the increased number of exhibitions and cultural activities organized by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) over the past three years in Taiwan will soon be leaving the country for a new assignment. Sheila Paskman, who took up the post as the AIT's public diplomacy section chief in July 2010, is coming to the end of her three-year term in Taiwan and recently looked back at her efforts to promote cultural links between the United States and Taiwan.

Public diplomacy humanizes the economic, cultural, and political relationships we are working to build. As Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, I work to extend avenues of opportunity to those affected by our policy. And that is the first point I’d like to make: that people – citizens – today are increasingly driving global events, and must therefore be front and center in formulating and executing policy. You need policy and public diplomacy.

Western critics tend to focus on the media and cultural components of this push while ignoring the rest. At a time when anxious prognostications about China’s rise dominate media headlines, deriding China’s soft-power strategy -- in particular, its failure to grasp the global appeal of the free press and the free market -- has become a popular act of reassurance for Western academics and media analysts.

Professor Zhou Qingan, who teaches public diplomacy and global communications at Tsinghua University, said the Chinese public had high expectations of their leader's overseas trips. "The Chinese people hope that Xi will defend China's national interests during diplomatic occasions unswervingly, and [during the press briefing with President Obama], Xi did express himself in a frank manner,"

US Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Tara Sonenshine will travel to Qatar to attend the annual US-Islamic World Forum, the State Department announced in a statement on Friday.

It is arguable that foreign aid and to a larger extent development policy, which includes not only Official Development Assistance but also people-to-people links, migration policy, trade policy and peacekeeping is a core part of our regional identity and a core component of our “soft power” in the Asian Century.