Power and Politics
New India — Understanding Soft Power and its Role in World Politics
By T. Ajay Shankar, Anusowmiya A
Expression of Power has usually been through Military might. However, in the present global order, military use is increasingly seen as unnecessary. Thus nations have started to look for new avenues of power projection. In this retreat, Soft power has been widely accepted as an alternative to hard power. This article will explain the role of soft power in shaping global relations, soft power potentials in India and will present a comparative study to identify our flaws in the field.
Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcome one wants.
- Joseph Nye
An Introduction To Soft Power
Joseph Nye coined the term Soft Power to describe a nation’s ability to attract and persuade using a power that arises from the attractiveness of one’s culture, political ideals, and policies. It is the ability to get what one wants through attraction rather than coercion or payments. When one gets others to admire their ideas and thereby accede to their proposals, one does not have to resort to carrot and stick to move others in their own direction. Simply put, soft power is the art of attraction and seduction.
Soft power acts as a staple of daily democratic politics. One good illustration is the soft power of Vatican City. Despite being the tiniest nation of the world, it has a prodigious control over the domestic politics of Austria, Italy, and Spain using the pristine Roman Catholic Church as its tool. Likewise, in international politics, the resources that produce soft power arise in large part from the values an organization or country expresses in its culture, in the examples it sets by its internal practices and policies, and in the way it handles its relations with others.
Developing Soft Power as a means for diplomatic leverage
Foreign policy refers to the method adopted by countries on how they are going to engage with other countries. It helps countries to engage, negotiate, etc. for political, economic, and military purposes. One of the ways for countries to engage is Soft power. As discussed, it is the power of attraction and when used strategically, it leads to co-optive behavioural power which means getting others to want what you want. The soft power of a country depends upon three resources; culture, political values, and foreign policy. Soft power is one of the most significant means of appealing and persuasion through values, and when used properly, it influences international actors by shaping their perception.
In the era of globalisation and digital connectivity, soft power is increasingly influencing foreign policy strategies. And India possesses huge potential on cultural and political aspects; however, the most difficult challenge is to find the most effective way to mix soft power components in our policies to influence behaviour. And for us to reach a global power we have to be very pragmatic in our approach and our policy must be a mix of both soft and hard power.
The policy of soft power operates within the collective consensus thus; non-state actors must be involved when we are planning for long term propaganda to affect community discourse. This is because soft power is majorly demonstrated by non-state actors in other nations. Government policies for home as well as abroad affect soft power, thus we have to be careful while discussing domestic policies to prevent any diplomatic issues.
Soft power should be used to foster alliances with like-minded countries thus it is very much important for us to create trans-national networks. These networks integrated with our policymakers will be vital for our effectiveness. With various cross border issues such as global warming, climate change, and cross border terrorism it has become a necessity for countries based on mutual interest to band up together. And our soft power approach will play a vital role in fostering good relations with countries to undertake such activities.
India and Soft Power
According to Joseph Nye, the soft power of a country rests primarily on three resources: its culture in places where it is attractive to others; its political value when it lives up to them at home and abroad; and its foreign politics when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority.
Needless to say, India has bountiful resources of its kind. Ranging from Indian cuisine to the democratic form of government, our Indian ethos has never failed to be admired. Leaving aside the prominent pillars of Bollywood, Yoga, and our Dharmic religions, there are many other cards left unexplored. For instance, the western world, acclaiming the ancient Indian Literature, has gone on to compare the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata with Illiad, and Odyssey; Kalidasa, the great Sanskrit playwright and poet, with Shakespeare and Kautilya with Machiavelli. Another card would be our textile craftsmanship. Additionally, our ancient architectural mastery, Ayurvedic medicinal practices, and wide-ranging folk culture can add up to be India’s soft power potentials.
As Nye put it, Seduction is always more effective than coercion, and many values like democracy, human rights, and individual opportunities are deeply seductive. Being the world’s largest democracy, India’s democratic, federal, and secular political model is increasingly being considered as an institutional model of reasonable accommodation of minority rights, and flexible adjustment to different ethnic and linguistic claims. Recently, Prime Minister Modi during his travels to Bhutan, Nepal, Japan, the United States, Myanmar, Australia, and Fiji, has consistently emphasized the importance of Indian democracy. Along with economic ‘demand’ and youthful ‘demography’, Modi has affirmed, ‘democracy’ makes India a valuable partner for the world. So it is evident that using the Indian democratic framework as a soft power tool to attract foreign direct investments rather than merely advocating democracy is a subtle but strong move.
By being actively involved in prominent visits to significant religious sites, series of high profile inter-religious conferences and events, specific appeals to religious thinkers, and many other strategies, Modi has put our religious diversity in the spotlight. Additionally, measures to mobilize support from the Indian diaspora have been on a hike recently. A high-level committee with Indian diaspora had been set up for advocating Indian policies and partnerships in the residing nation and in turn the Indian government has eased the laws governing PIOs and NRIs to their favor. Conclusively it can be said that lately our soft power assets have been accentuated and are being used in accordance with Nye’s theories. Certainly, a comparative study with another nation in this domain will highlight the flaws in our system and the spaces requiring improvement.
India’s approach vis-à-vis China’s
We Indians have lots in common with our Chinese neighbours. Both of us have a long rich history, culture, and have influenced each other throughout time and are increasingly becoming major players on the international stage. This is very important because we are presently living in the waning period of Western-centric balance of power. Both India and China are trying to tap into this new void that is going to be left once the western balance collapses and the east flourishes.
While the West keeps its grip on power via economy and military might a.k.a. Hard Power, India and China are using soft power as a means to achieve it. This is revolutionary in the art of geo-politics. With war or the mere projection of power via military means becoming deeply unpopular in the present world order, soft power as an alternative has been skyrocketing in popularity.
China
Ever since the Tiananmen Square Massacre, China has been spending billions to change its outside perception from the secretive hermit kingdom to an industrial powerhouse and a benign power. And China performs this in several ways.
Chinese leaders frequently and strategically travel to various countries to explain their policies and the mutual benefits entailed. This has resulted in many favorable outcomes, for instance, the New Silk Road initiative. China, in stark contrast from its western counterpart, projects a non-interventionist image. It rarely engages in military intervention; all these activities send a clear message to other countries that all Chinese want is trade, business thus sets a stage for mutual growth. China also uses its state-run media such as Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television to successfully disseminate information to various countries presenting China in a very positive light.
Another huge asset China possesses is its culture and tradition. China has started Confucius Institutes in various countries which has become gateways for people to experience Chinese culture, values, traditions, etc. Its presentation as an ancient glorious non-western country has found appeal in many non-western nations. China presenting itself as a non-violent, harmony seeking country has been the opposite of the prevalent perception of the west as exploitative and conflict seeking.
All this has been very effective especially in the non-western countries. The success story of China from once a ruined nation to an Industrial powerhouse brings awe to many underdeveloped nations who are also trying to replicate its success. The Chinese system of governance whether for the good or the bad has been touted as an alternative to the western system of governance.
However, despite all its advances, the Chinese system is plagued with multiple issues, especially transparency. This has been very evident in this ongoing COVID phase; multiple countries blame China’s initial cover-up to have overblown the problem. No amount of propaganda nor soft power can cover up this fallout. This has resulted in countries re-examining their relations with China and has been a diplomatic nightmare for the Chinese government.
Soft power helps us strengthen relations with countries that have like-minded principles. Though China has been very successful in projecting its soft power, other countries have been very cautious about its secretive nature thereby rendering China unable to foster good, meaningful relations and it has been forced to settle as a mere trading partner.
India
At the same time, India is projecting its strength via soft power on various fronts as discussed. However, it is a mixed success. This is because we lack effective state-driven cultural diffusion, unlike our Chinese counterpart. Our soft power acclaim from our cinema industry to yoga has largely happened without much government intrusion.
Despite our increasing progress on several indicators, India is still viewed at the international level as a poverty-stricken, highly polluted and communally tensed nation. This is partly due to the government’s failure in countering it with a favourable narrative. However, we are not seeking state-driven propaganda, on the contrary, we are emphasizing the need to establish appropriate mediums to promote the image of India.
Similarly, the Indian government has been very unsuccessful in promoting our linguistic culture, neither Hindi nor any of the regional languages are promoted at the international stage and sadly any attempt gets constantly relegated to political moot points. Our large historical-cultural ties with other Asian countries have been unused for a long time and only recently have we started to facilitate pilgrimage and sponsor religious renovations. Successful soft power strategies always involve state actors in bringing in and promoting a favourable image.
However, despite all the shortcomings our appeals have found acclaim across the international spectrum. It is manifest that India is one of the few successful democracies and has ever-growing soft power assets. Ultimately, India is undeniably becoming a part of the multipolarity circle via its soft power potentials.
Thereby, assertive power holds the potential for a country to frame a situation so that the interest of other countries can be shaped to be consistent with theirs. Thus for India to project its assertive power we need to be effective and tactful in using our soft power assets together with eliminating our contemporary fallouts.
T. Ajay Shankar and Anusowmiya A, Tamil Nadu National Law University
