#soft-power

#soft-power

Iran is taking its first faltering steps to boost its dismal soft power abilities, spotting a slim opening to improve regional relations after Donald Trump's June bombing campaign and Israel's attack on Hamas negotiators in Qatar unsettled Gulf states. The tentative foreign policy tweaks are born in part of necessity: much of Iran's network of regional military alliances has been dismantled in recent years.

soft weapons: Keep Your Fucking Hands Off My Body, an exhibition of works by 29 artists curated by Cassandra Neyenesch and Lydia Nobles, takes its name from the concept of "soft power" - influence exercised through means other than force - and Gordon Parks's famous declaration that his camera, that is, art-making, was his "choice of weapon." The body, it argues, is a site of freedom, a method to resist forces of suppression, surveillance, and systemic violence.

The desire is about more than bricks and mortarboards. Students from other countries have long sought out American values of academic freedom and open discourse. They are excited by ideas and experiences that are as emblematic of the American way of life as tailgating on game day: criticizing the government, discussing LGBTQ+ rights or learning about the Tiananmen Square massacre in China, the Armenian genocide in Turkey or the comfort women victimized by the Imperial Japanese Army.

Lisa, Jennie, Rosé, and Jisoo have broken numerous records since their debut in 2016: the first to sell one million, then two million, album copies in South Korea; the first Korean group to top the Billboard 200 album chart; the highest-grossing concert tour by a female artist. Blackpink, and K-pop and K-culture more broadly, are now a source of South Korean "soft power," expanding the country's cultural influence across Asia and beyond.

Windsor Castle staff are setting the 50-meter-long (164-feet-long) mahogany table. Grooms are buffing the hooves of the horses that will pull the royal carriages. And the military honor guard is drilling to ensure every step lands with precision. Throughout the halls and grounds of the almost 1,000-year-old castle west of London, hundreds of people are working to make sure King Charles III puts on the best show possible when he welcomes U.S. President Donald Trump for his historic second state visit this week.

The UAE is aligning itself with U.S.-style norms around intellectual freedom and open research, positioning itself strategically in the global AI landscape.

The government is asking the World Service to model cuts that would definitely mean having to close important parts of the service, said one person familiar with the negotiations.

We've got this position which we have inherited, which we believe to be our divine right—it's not, she said. You have to work to maintain it.

All of this was on my mind as I headed toward the second Islamic Arts Biennale, installed across several stunningly high-ceilinged, fabric-clad enclosures in the Western Hajj terminal complex abutting Jeddah's King Abdulaziz Airport.