Soft Power and Hard Work

1) Do you feel the New Persuaders report provides a good measure of a nation-state's "soft power?" What works, and what do you think the measure misses?


I think McClory was on point in proclaiming that while there is a growing acknowledgement of the importance of soft power, the result of that is a lot of people jumping on a popular bandwagon without realizing what to do with it or knowing what it is about soft power that makes it so effective. I particularly agree with this point:

"For governments to effectively leverage their soft power assets, they need first understand what exactly those assets are, whether they can be mobilized by the state, and if so, where they might be deployed. In short, policy makers are in danger of rushing to answer the question 'how can we use our soft power?' before understanding 'what soft power do we actually have?'

I don't believe there is much dissension as to the importance and influence of soft power in current practices of public diplomacy; however, it cannot be relied on solely to solve problems of this nature. McClory mentions International Relations as a "constant struggle between realism, liberalism and a host of other critical theories." The least of these being the failed reconciliation of propaganda with modern foreign diplomacy. But I feel that soft power will never feel the effects of the "death of propaganda" as we know it. The two things are fundamentally different, as soft power is not about obfuscating the truth or influencing hearts and minds so much as winning then. To put it more eloquently, McClory says:

"In a soft power context, culture is defined as the set of practices that create meaning for a society..."When a country's culture promotes universal values that other nations can readily identify with, it makes them naturally attractive to others."

What I also like that McClory mentions is the cultural gap between nations that can serve as barrier between successful cultural exchange, which just bolsters the argument that utilizing soft power alone is not enough.

I think a potential solution could be found within the writings of Sharon Memis and the highly organized, carefully executed work of the British Council. Through the explanation of the campaign there appears to be an intrinsic understanding that along with a creative, compelling campaign must be a structured plan where the underlying work is being done.