kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
On Feb 2, 2023, at 3:40 PM, Harrow, Kenneth <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/BL1PR12MB5191E1ADA2685855889F747CDAD69%40BL1PR12MB5191.namprd12.prod.outlook.com.
The power of soft diplomacy!
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/CAAHJfPpXxB%2BQ3f2JRJbZmZU6fQTSJ9NnygObwpWYNr5ghCtzDA%40mail.gmail.com.
Soft power, a term popularized by the American scholar, Joseph Nye, in his 1990 book, ‘Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power’, has found its way into mainstream political and international relations discourse over the years. Nye had in his book argued that the “American popular culture, embodied in products and communications, has widespread appeal…This popular cultural appeal allowed the United States more opportunities to get its messages across and to affect the preferences of others.”
The soft power of a country has the ability to attract and co-opt other countries’ interests in the said nation rather than having to coerce. It helps to shape their preferences through appeal and attraction with the projection of the country’s popular culture. Recent history has shown that soft power can be used as a key tool for nations to expound their narratives, tilted or otherwise, to the unwitting audience in an attempt to build a certain degree of interest in the country. You cannot measure it but you cannot exert it in significant proportion.
By: Akinola E. Akinlolu & Olusola OgunnubiPublished: 6 February 2020
[This is an excerpt from an article in The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.]
In this era of globalisation, it is not just enough for states to rely on their traditional sources of power – military, size of the economy, population, and natural resources – in order to get the outcome they seek. States also need to improve on their capacity to make themselves ‘visible’ on the world map. For any state, being visible goes beyond creating awareness and seeking popularity, but includes increasing the capacity for attraction – engendering other states’ goodwill and admiration. Realising the necessity of attraction or creating a favourable image, many countries have set up ‘public diplomacy department along with their traditional Foreign Affairs Ministries. While a good number of other states have become clients of corporate brand management and lobbying firms so as to help facilitate the goal of branding their states as an economic powerhouse and a prosperous nation for doing business, and in order for them to favourably compete for international capital in areas of Foreign Direct Investments, import, and export flows. Soft power is the term widely used to describe this trend.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/usaafricadialogue/PH0PR06MB900451AFE4C5DE87453E9CCDF8D79%40PH0PR06MB9004.namprd06.prod.outlook.com.