Foreign Policy Blogs

Tag Archives: Soft Power

A Deep DIVE For New Great Power Competition

A Deep DIVE For New Great Power Competition

The U.S. must engage in more long-term, strategic thinking in order to compete effectively in the new great power competition with both China and Russia.

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The Belt and Road Initiative: Shaping the Narrative of a China Story

The Belt and Road Initiative: Shaping the Narrative of a China Story

Mapping the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), one can easily get lost in the amount of information available. Hundreds of projects and nearly a trillion dollars’ worth of investments currently exist in over 60 countries. A serious analysis of each project must take into account a variety of factors, including funding sources, implementing partners, budget […]

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China’s strategic influence is growing in the Americas

China’s strategic influence is growing in the Americas

Last year Panama became the second Central American country to establish diplomatic ties with China. This is the latest example of how Chinese investment in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region has afforded Beijing closer political ties. As the US reduces its influence south of the border, China’s economic ventures will pay dividends at […]

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America today: Will the center hold? If so, what might it look like?  

America today: Will the center hold? If so, what might it look like?  

There is much to make us wonder whether the American Center will hold. Yet, many will say, hold on, Armageddon is not nigh. We’ve been “here” before.

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Soft Power Gain for Taiwan

Soft Power Gain for Taiwan

According to Reporters Without Borders’ global rankings last year, Taiwan has now become the freest country on the Asian continent.

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Soft Power: Russian and American University Students Find Common Ground

Soft Power: Russian and American University Students Find Common Ground

While U.S.-Russia relations remain uncertain, students at the Volgograd Institute of Management engaged their American counterparts in some diplomatic bridge-building.

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The Neglected G20: Understanding China’s “Hangzhou Model”

The Neglected G20: Understanding China’s “Hangzhou Model”

The G20 Hangzhou Summit was a glitzy event for China’s diplomacy. Considered a success by Chinese media, the Summit received little international coverage.

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The Soft Power of Francis’ Geopolitical Papacy

The Soft Power of Francis’ Geopolitical Papacy

He is outspoken on migration and refugee issues, was involved in brokering an upgrade in U.S.-Cuban relations and takes part in debates on hot-button topics from income inequality to climate change. Francis’ view of the papacy is clearly geopolitical.

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Beijing’s Man in Bangkok: Wang Zhimin and the Thai-Chinese Soft Power Machine

Beijing’s Man in Bangkok: Wang Zhimin and the Thai-Chinese Soft Power Machine

Amorn Apithanakoon, known in Chinese as Wang Zhimin, is the CEO of one of Thailand’s biggest entertainment companies, Wang is also an officer in several Thai-Chinese “community organizations” that serve as political front groups for the Chinese government in Thailand. If Beijing succeeds in drawing Thailand into China’s authoritarian orbit, no small thanks will be due to his long years of pro-Beijing activism in the kingdom.

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China’s war for Africa’s hearts and minds

China’s war for Africa’s hearts and minds

China has made a badge of honor out of Zheng Bijian’s term coined in a seminal 2005 Foreign Affairs article, which described the Middle Kingdom’s path toward modernization as a “peaceful rise.”

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Soft Power, America vs. China: America Still Wins

Soft Power, America vs. China: America Still Wins

China is engaged in a soft-power war with America and the West. America may not have noticed this, but China has. While America takes its soft power around the world for granted, China struggles to win even the “hearts and minds” of its own citizens. “Soft power” is defined by Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye […]

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Chen Guangbiao’s Chinese Soft-Power Circus Comes to New York

Chen Guangbiao’s Chinese Soft-Power Circus Comes to New York

Chinese recycling tycoon Chen Guangbiao recently made headlines when he announced his “plans” to buy the New York Times. I put “plans” in quotation marks because the newspaper’s owners had expressed neither knowledge of any such deals in the works nor interest in selling it to anyone, least of all to a nationalistic Chinese businessman […]

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The Listening Project (2008)

The Listening Project (2008)

Four Americans traveled to 14 countries to find out what ordinary people think of the United States. The responses were predictable: most professed admiration for Americans but vehemently disliked the United States government. There were few surprises in this documentary, which was filmed in “pre-Obama” time. The more touching scenes involve an Afghan woman who lost […]

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In Case You Missed It: Gourmet Cooking as Diplomacy

In Case You Missed It: Gourmet Cooking as Diplomacy

If you would like to work for the State Department, you can now consider going to cooking school and then joining the American Chef Corps, launched on Friday. According to the Washington Post, …more than 80 chefs are being inducted into the first American Chef Corps. These food experts could help the State Department prepare […]

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Delhi Disgraces Itself (Again)

Delhi Disgraces Itself (Again)

India repeatedly undermines the vitality of its democratic example The past week brought fresh evidence of just how deeply India abounds in contradiction.  On the one hand, New Delhi won international plaudits for standing up for democratic norms in Asia by voting at the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate alleged war crimes in neighboring Sri Lanka. […]

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