On August 15, at President Pranab Mukherjee's first official 'At Home' in Rashtrapati Bhavan's Mughal Gardens, the menu will remain drearily unchanged: samosas, idlis, sandwiches and tea-coffee. Contrast that with the White House, where food is an important tool of US public diplomacy, with everything from its executive chef to its kitchen garden and banquet menus carefully selected and promoted.

This article was translated and edited from an article by Chinese blogger Yang Hengjun (杨恒均), originally posted on the Tianda Institute website. It discusses the role of fast food entities like McDonald's and KFC in China, as well as Chinese restaurants abroad, and how they spreads the culture and values of their respective countries.

The practice of public diplomacy has evolved over past decades towards countries such as Egypt. From cultural exchanges and international development efforts of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Jimmy Carter peace initiatives with the U.S. and other allies, the relations between the U.S. and Egypt have been defined by numerous public diplomacy initiatives. Likewise, the challenges the U.S. faces in engaging and “winning” audiences in the Middle East have also drastically changed, over the last ten years.

This debate is broadly about American power. But power is a nuanced concept. It manifests itself both through military muscle and cultural influence. The candidates’ stump speeches rarely delineate this distinction. But global publics do. Recent opinion surveys suggest that people outside the United States question American hard power and increasingly embrace U.S. soft power.

APDS Blogger: Lydia Marcos

Tara D Sonenshine is the undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the US Department of State. In an interview with Forbes India, Sonenshine discusses initiatives to promote public diplomacy with India and how the Indian diaspora in the US is an important voice in this process.

While the US was flexing its muscles in Iraq and Afghanistan... taking a much less outspoken but nonetheless more effective approach of "soft power" penetrated the abandoned regions. The role of the frontrunner among new patrons of the developed world was unambiguously taken by China, which has established itself as the number one trade partner and a prominent investor not only in Africa...

I particularly like the idea of “using food as a foundation for public diplomacy programs to learn about different cultures and discuss important related issues such as nutrition, sustainability and food security.”