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.

. Alternatively, the Obama administration could heed the recommendation of a recent Atlantic Council report by "[d]esignating a small number of US and private Iranian financial institutions as channels for payment for humanitarian, educational, and public diplomacy-related transactions carefully licensed by the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control."

Chen Mingming, a member of China's foreign ministry's Public Diplomacy Advisory Panel, said China and the US do not have substantial disputes when dealing with issues on the Korean Peninsula.

Ruan Zongze, a deputy director of the China Institute of International Studies, said the cyber security issue has been exacerbated by the US military, business and intelligence fields, and the two sides need to establish a mechanism for negotiations while maintaining their own cyber security defenses.

The Chinese Communist Party does not hide its hostility to and fear of the political values -- freedom, human rights, political competition, and constitutional rule -- that underpin American democracy. In the eyes of the Chinese ruling elites, the United States presents a political threat, even though they understand that a full-fledged military conflict between two nuclear-armed great powers is extremely unlikely. Chinese leaders feel so endangered by U.S. soft power that they are now even orchestrating a propaganda campaign against constitutionalism.

My thesis today is that public diplomacy is critical in extending civilian-military power. It combines soft and hard power to make the kind of “smart power” that is necessary to succeed. Public diplomacy is inextricably linked to key U.S. foreign policy goals of preventing deadly conflict, managing conflict when it occurs, and building civil societies out of the ashes of conflict

The exchange was comprised of several activities testing their interoperable command, control and communications capabilities, including naval gunfire support procedures, helicopter deck landing procedures, vessel boarding, search and seizure techniques. “Engagements such as these are critical to our strong international partnerships,” said Lt. Cmdr. Morgan Roper, response department head at Coast Guard Sector Guam. “These activities allow us to learn the procedures and capabilities of our defense partners, and develop the plans which guide real-world responses.”

The mirror image of this issue is that traditionally, there has been too little emphasis from Beijing upon public diplomacy programmes to reach out to foreign publics directly. Rather than winning hearts and minds in this way, Beijing has tended to place emphasis, especially in Africa and the Middle East, on improving working relationships with strategically important governments through assistance programmes that may not always serve the interest of local people.

The ambassadors' 'Bike Across Borders' trip to the sister cities of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and Livingstone, Zambia included stops along the way to see U.S. government projects, national parks, and local chiefs. One of the ambassadors' key messages was the importance of an improved business climate to attract private investment.