Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power

My friend Manisha shared this video with me and I was struck at its eloquence. I share it with you as an alternative to the American Centric ideas we are always bombarded with. It is worth watching all the way through. Author and activist Shashi Tharoor is a member of the Indian Parliament and the Indian minister of state for external affairs.
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.