I would say that something important for me and for my generation in Northern Ireland was the 1947 Education Act, which allowed students who won scholarships to go on to secondary schools and thence to university.
I went to the University of Arizona on a full athletic scholarship for gymnastics, where I competed and got 9th in the nation at the NCAAs.
The Beijing Olympics were an exercise in Chinese soft power. Americans have the ‘Voice of America’ and the Fulbright scholarships. But, the fact is, in fact, that probably Hollywood and MTV and McDonalds have done more for American soft power around the world than any specifically government activity.
