Tag: Soft Power

China’s Big Bet on Soft Power

August 15, 2021

China is believed to spend billions of dollars to boost its international image, but it has yet to see a marked return on its investment in soft power.

China is a powerful international actor as the world’s most populous country and its second-largest economy. The country also invests significantly in modernizing its military. With signs that the United States will retreat from a leadership role under the Trump administration, China has positioned itself as a champion of globalization and economic integration, perhaps signaling a desire to step in as a greater international leader. It is doing this by doubling down on soft power, a measure of a country’s international attractiveness and its ability to influence other countries and publics.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-big-bet-soft-power

The Rise and Fall of Soft Power

September 10, 2018

Joseph Nye’s concept lost relevance, but China could bring it back.

Several things went wrong. For one, the products didn’t really suit the customers. From the “third wave” democracies of the 1970s and 1980s to the Eastern European states that rushed to join the EU and NATO after the Cold War to, most recently, the countries that weathered the Arab Spring, liberal democracy has had a hard time sticking. In many cases, moreover, it brought about rather catastrophic outcomes for the people involved.

One theory for why is that the neoliberal economic revolution, which was part and parcel of the soft power era, weakened states instead of strengthening them. The market was never a uniting force—the idea that it could be an all-encompassing mechanism to provide growth, good governance, and societal well-being was an illusion to begin with.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/20/the-rise-and-fall-of-soft-power/