President Xi Jinping’s attendance at the recent APEC summit in Port Moresby was meant to be the cap on a soft-power charm offensive validating Chinese influence in the Pacific. In the event, it has been …
As travel broadens the mind, so summit season allows an Australian leader to deepen their understanding of the world. The presidential pretensions of the Oz prime ministership get fullest expression at the summit. Working at …
Australia’s overseas aid program is a highly effective, if underutilised and underappreciated, soft-power asset. That claim might sound strange coming from someone who works for an international development NGO, known more for challenging conceptions of …
The Foreign Affairs team conducting Australia’s soft power review has been travelling the country to invite a national conversation about influence and persuasion. In Hobart, for example, interlocutors ranged widely from public, commercial and educational …
How could it be that many foreigners simultaneously love American films, music and fashion, yet, as Peter van Ham writes, they judge Washington so harshly as to say the US ‘got what it deserved on …