Mathilde Chatin is a PhD candidate in the Brazil Institute at King's College London, UK. She has been a fellow at the BRICS Policy Center in Rio de Janeiro, and a visiting scholar in the Department of International Relations at the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

Giulio M. Gallarotti is a Professor of Government and Tutor in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University, USA. He has also been a visiting professor in the Department of Economic Theory at the University of Rome, Italy. He is the author of The Power Curse: Influence and Illusion in World Politics (2010) and Cosmopolitan Power in International Relations: A Synthesis of Realism, Neoliberalism, and Constructivism (2010).

1. The BRICS and soft power: an introduction Mathilde Chatin and Giulio M. Gallarotti 2. Do the BRICS possess soft power? Oliver Stuenkel 3. Brazil: analysis of a rising soft power Mathilde Chatin 4. The limits of Russia's 'soft power' Peter Rutland and Andrei Kazantsev 5. The soft power of popular cinema - the case of India Daya Kishan Thussu 6. China's soft power with Chinese characteristics: the cases of Confucius Institutes and Chinese naval diplomacy Claude Zanardi 7. South Africa's soft power conundrum: how to win friends and influence people in Africa Janis van der Westhuizen 8. Compound soft power: the BRICS and the multilateralization of soft power Giulio M. Gallarotti