India's strength does not lie with its nuclear weapons or its missiles or the size of its armed forces. India real strength lies with the IT, its culture, its civilization and its vibrant democracy. Today, India's soft power is everywhere, in every nook and corner of the world and you see India through its dance, through its music, though its food...

Here's an idea raised by a friend: Apparently the Thai government/embassy used to (still does?) subsidize Thai restaurants in DC as a way to promote Thai culture--hence the proliferation of pun-laden Thai joints (Thaiphoon, Thaitanic, and so on).

Public Diplomacy -- according to the US State Department, "engaging, informing, and influencing key international audiences" -- was coined in the mid-1960s by Dean Edmund Gullion of the Fletcher School of Diplomacy as a term meant to be more acceptable than propaganda.

Producers and movie industry advocates visiting the Beijing International Film Festival’s first full day on Sunday from around the world joined their Chinese counterparts in a summit to slice and dice the potential perks and pitfalls of making movies together.

The Harvard China Forum is one of the largest China-focused conferences in North America and annually attracts hundreds of audiences from across the world. Topics at this year’s forum ranged from culture and society, business and innovation, to economics and finance.

Syria is moving into the ultimate showdown over the fate of the Assad dynasty. President Assad ordered his troops to open fire after today's prayers and they killed another 75 Syrians seeking reform.

The Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles, an official diplomatic office of the government of Israel, has begun a new public diplomacy initiative to utilize e-readers and other tablet devices to streamline the distribution of books and official documents.

“Five million Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan have become a beacon of light for the 35 million Kurds who live in Turkey, Syria, and Iran. That beacon of light is keeping us awake at night and is filling our hearts with hope.”
-Kani Xulam, Director of the American-Kurdish Information Network