Soft Power & Public Diplomacy

"The Hard Challenge of Soft Power and Public Diplomacy.” How to approach this topic? Does it mean the soft power of India along with people to people and cultural exchange."

we have to understand what is soft power. soft/hard power ...here the adjective is used for the tool used...its not a description of the country...i hope u get that.

the concept of soft power was coined by Nye....in its initial conception it was meant to be an alternative to hard power tools like military might but gradually it has expanded.... its the power a country derives from tools like strength of its culture( art, food, religion etc), the good will it enjoys...the image it projects(liberal, democratic, stands for Human rights etc)...though intially it meant just more diplomacy than war it has expanded to include all this

now public diplomacy...classic example is what obama did the last day where he spoke about article 21 and stuff...if u listen to his speech in parliament when he had come last time i think in 2011, u will find he is speaking to people of india than to the goverment of India....what modi does when he goes to US is sort of public diplomacy...Obama meets school kids and takes ther qns in china...thats public diplomacy...with more interconnected world...communicating directly with people is public diplomacy...thereby u culticvate an opinion in the minds of public in ur favour.....

if they have got what they wanted by using their good image, diplomacy then they have used soft power....i think that’s clear.

These r terms which keep evolving continuously....i would like u all to read and understand on tier 1 tier 2 tier 3 diplomacy too....u ll get more clarity....

sir, can we say putins letter to the american public in an editorial, about the syrian issue as public diplomacy?

Yes

Modi's rockstar reception?

Sort of....though it was more of a msg back home than to citizens of USA....

Helping Nepal. And funding to Bhuthan?

in terms of creating good will in these countries by doing all these...yes.