Losing The Soft Touch

About Soft Power:

• Soft power is getting others to do what you want by persuasion.
• Soft-power theorists suggest that the ability to persuade rests on the power of attraction.
• The notion was propounded by Joseph Nye, who suggested that it consists of foreign policy, cultural and political influence.
  • Foreign policy influence comes from the legitimacy and morality of one’s dealings with other countries.
  • Cultural influence is based on others’ respect for one’s culture.
  • Political influence is how much others are inspired by one’s political values.

Measuring the soft power: Soft power is difficult to measure. The Lowy Institute in Australia has produced various measures which correspond roughly to foreign policy influence, cultural influence and political influence.

• In diplomatic influence: Overall, India ranks sixth, and China ranks first among 25 Asian powers, which include the US (given the US’s huge diplomatic, military, and economic presence in Asia).
  • On diplomatic networks, India nearly matches China in the number of regional embassies it has but is considerably behind in the number of embassies worldwide (176 to 126).
  • In multilateral power, India matches China in terms of regional memberships, but its contributions to the UN capital budget are completely dwarfed by Chinese contributions (11.7% to 0.8% of the total).
  • In surveys of foreign policy leadership, ambition, and effectiveness, China ranks first or fourth on four measures while India ranks fourth and sixth in Asia.
• In cultural influence: Cultural influence is divided into three elements, of which “cultural projection” and “information flows” are the most important.
  • Cultural projections
    • India scores better on Google searches abroad of its newspapers and its television/radio broadcasts.
    • It also exports more of its “cultural services” (defined as “services aimed at satisfying cultural interests or needs”).
    • India has only nine brands in the list of the top 500 global brands, whereas China lists 73.
    • On the number of UNESCO World Heritage sites, India has 37 while China has 53.
    • If very tall skyscrapers are a measure of prestige, then China has 156 in its main financial centre, India has only 44.
    • Chinese citizens can travel visa-free to 74 countries, while Indians can only do so to 60.
  • Information flows:
    • In 2016–17, India hosted a mere 24,000 Asian students in tertiary education institutions, whereas China hosted 2,25,000.
    • On total tourist arrivals from all over the world, India received 17 million, while China received 63 million.
• In political influence:
  • The governance effectiveness index shows India ranked 12^th and China ranked 10^th.
  • If influence rests on “political stability and absence of violence/terrorism”, India ranked 21^st, with 79% of countries worldwide doing better, and China ranked 15^th with 63% doing better.

Conclusion:

• While the comparison between the soft power of India and China is mixed, China is actually way ahead and has sustained its position by remaining in any regional or international conversation.
• Classical India may stand head-to-head with classical China in the regard it garners, but contemporary India has been left a distance behind. Until we recognise that, we can’t do much about it.