Expanse of Soft Power
Commentary | March 10, 2011
Writing for the News, EWI Board Member Ikram Sehgal advocates Soft Power strategies and explains their increasing prevalence in global politics.
In a follow-up to last week’s commentary on Hard Power strategies, Ikram Sehgal explores Soft Power, which he defines as “the ability to make others do what you want, what they otherwise would not have done,” based on what an actor represents. The currencies of Soft Power are “values, culture, policies and institutions,” as opposed to the currency of money and military strength used in Hard Power strategies.
Sehgal argues that the use of Soft Power has been on the rise in the years since 9/11 and attributes the increasing prevalence of Soft Power strategies to their success at uniting actors, as well as globalization and the diffusion of media power. Sehgal envisions that, in the future, Pakistan could increase its projection of Soft Power by focusing first regionally and then globally.