Soft power is one of the most discussed ideas in international relations, but it is often misunderstood. To understand it, we first need to understand power itself. Simply put, power is the capacity to do things. It also means having the ability to affect the behaviour of others to achieve desired outcomes. To change the behaviour of others, we must first understand their preferences; otherwise, we may make a mistake, and our power may suddenly evaporate when the context changes. Suppose a ruler wants to kill someone, but that person wants to become a martyr. The ruler's power then evaporates. Therefore, power depends on context.
Understanding power is essential to explaining this issue. Power has many forms. Traditional hard power involves using military might to achieve desired outcomes. However, there is another form of power through which a country can achieve its goals without military force: Soft Power, a concept introduced by the American scholar Joseph Nye, is the ability to shape the preferences of others through attraction rather than coercion. For example, America possesses significant soft power through Hollywood, organizations such as the cultural programs, and Fulbright scholarships. If Pakistani, American, or Chinese policies are seen as legitimate in the eyes of others, their soft power is enhanced.
My central research question is whether a country can be admired for its culture or media, and still fail to turn that admiration into political influence or the achievement of major foreign policy objectives. You can also read my earlier article on how state interests shape foreign policy decisions, which looks at the same issue from another side.
Read also: How State Interests Shape Foreign Policy Decisions.
Attraction Is Not Influence
Power is also like a two-edged sword: what you win in one place is not guaranteed to be won elsewhere. Consider the United States, one of the most powerful countries with significant soft power resources. Yet, it failed to achieve its goals in Vietnam, because having power resources does not mean they can be turned into the outcome you want.
Starting any game requires a strategy to understand who holds the high cards and what game they are playing. Soft power also depends on context, culture, and time. To understand why attraction is not guaranteed to produce influence, I think this is the perfect example. During the 2003 Iraq War, American planners had planned to attack Iraq from Turkey by crossing Turkish territory. However, in March 2003, the Turkish parliament narrowly refused to allow U.S. troops to cross its territory, even though the government supported the plan, because American soft power had significantly declined in Turkey.
In democracies, leaders must rely more on public opinion. Therefore, the United States had to change its plan, and the main attack came from the south through Kuwait. (Nye, 2004) American culture, including its movies, was highly praised in Turkey, People liked American culture, but they did not like American policy. However, this example shows that attraction does not necessarily produce influence.
The Role of Credibility
Credibility plays a crucial role in soft power. Consider American values and the international institutions that the United States helped establish and support, including the United Nations. These institutions promote values such as freedom of speech, democracy, and human rights. American companies also contribute significantly to the country’s soft power worldwide. People in other countries may admire American culture and values, but when the United States acts against those values or fails to follow the international system it helped create, its credibility is damaged. This demonstrates how soft power works, The 2003 Iraq War is a clear example. It began without the explicit approval of the UN Security Council, and the weapons of mass destruction used to justify it were never found. Later, the Abu Ghraib prison photographs in 2004 raised further doubts about whether America followed its own values. Although its effectiveness depends on context. Another example is Kim Jong Il, the former North Korean leader, who was well known for his love of films, including foreign ones. However, this admiration did not stop North Korea from pursuing its nuclear program, which has continued under his son Kim Jong Un.
Why Attraction Sometimes Fails
When we use soft power, we must first understand other people’s preferences; otherwise, we may misjudge them. It is very difficult to know in advance how people will behave without being directly commanded. Sometimes we achieve what we want, but at other times we do not. For example, we may support certain statements made by Islamic scholars not because we agree with everything they say, but because we respect their moral authority. Similarly, we may morally support a leader even when we believe that leader’s policies are flawed. From another perspective, power also depends on the context in which it is exercised. Consider German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In the nineteenth century, he emerged in a politically fragmented Germany, developed a close relationship with the emperor, unified the country through diplomacy and wars, and after 1871 worked to keep peace with neighbouring countries.
Another historical hypothetical example is the effort to rescue the Ottoman Empire, known as the sick man of Europe, near the end of the First World War. Imagine that Bismarck, who died in 1898, had lived in that period and tried to save it. However, it was not the right time to exercise such power. I am giving the example of the Ottoman Empire because the timing was not suitable for exercising that power, and many who tried failed. Even if Bismarck had attempted to rescue the empire, he would also have failed to achieve what he wanted. These examples demonstrate that Bismarck became a leader when Germans felt the need to unite; it was the right time to implement his policies. This example shows that power, therefore, depends on context, timing, and effective strategies. However, even well-designed strategies sometimes fail to achieve their intended outcomes.
Soft power does not invariably produce the outcomes a country expects. Attraction may generate admiration, but meaningful influence depends on the preferences of the audience, the surrounding circumstances, and the timing of its exercise. The examples considered above show that even substantial cultural appeal or carefully formulated strategies can fail when the context is Unfavourable. Soft power should therefore be assessed not merely by the attractiveness of a country’s image, but by whether that attraction can be converted into tangible political influence and the achievement of foreign-policy objectives.
References
Nye, J. S., Jr. (2004). Soft power: The means to success in world politics.
