Daily Times July 16, 2021 As mentioned in my last piece, it’s appreciable that the Foreign Office has initiated a public diplomacy initiative in association with Coke Studio. This can go a long way in connecting global audiences with Pakistan’s unique musical heritage with the potential to host such events in major cities across the world. How important music can be in promoting a softer, kinder image of a country can be gauged from the huge impact that the American pop culture had on the Boomer and Gen X generations. The effect it apparently had on the other side of the ‘iron curtain’ of those years was even greater. Western music groups such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Wham, A-ha and INXS or solo artists such as Elvis Presley, Belinda Carlisle, Corey Hart and Michael Jackson did more for the West than any military general could have ever aspired to contribute. And Hollywood was much more effective than Pentagon in winning that war for the West.