Soft Power: its origin and its history

Transcription

1 SOFT POWER

2 SOFT POWER - SOFT POWER : ITS ORIGIN AND ITS HISTORY PAGE 2 Soft Power: its origin and its history By Angelina Bernardin When we talk about Soft Power we think of the United States, but do we really know what is Soft Power? According to the Oxford Dictionary, it is A persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence. Photography of Joseph Nye Source: Guernica The term Soft Power was created by Joseph Nye, who was born on the 19th January He is a political scientist who wrote a few books about power in the United States. The other expression that he created is Smart Power, which is the strategy to combine hard and soft power. In the 1990s, Joseph Nye thought that a country was not powerful if the country has only a strong militia or a string economic power but, as he explains in his book Bound To Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, there are other elements less tangible such as the strength of the citizens opinion, the culture of the country and its values. According to him, Soft Power seduces people while Soft Power seduces people while Hard Power is based on the rule stick and carrot which is the fact of the forcing someone, with the stick and then the reward with the carrot if the person has what he wanted to. In general, the distinction between popular culture and Soft Power is not clear, people are mistaken about these two terms. When people want to speak about Soft Power, they frequently think about popular culture. With the first term, there is a wanting of diffusing something in order to have something else in return. The second term deals with things that are an important part of symbolic of a culture but there is no want of expanding it to have something back. Even if the expression Soft Power is quite recent, it is not the case of the concept because the origin of Soft Power dates back to a few centuries before, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. When the United States became independent, the Americans paid attention not to intervene in the cases of the rest of the world. It is what we call the Monroe Doctrine, that stipulated that European nations did not have to intervene in US affairs as US did not have to intervene in the European affairs. It was the American isolationist period. intervene in the European affairs. It was the American isolationist period. But during the First World War which concerned the entire European Union, things have changed and the American had to take part in the war. After the end of the war and the victory of the Allies, the US come back to an isolationist policy because of the discontent of the US citizens. It is only after the Second World War and with the beginning of the Cold War with the USSR that the term of Soft Power is first used. The Cold War was a proxy war and it was essentially a cultural war focused on the two different ways of living of the two countries. It was also a war implying the political system confronting communism and capitalism. Both of the countries confronted their own culture in order to control the world by their ideals as they were the two biggest world powers at that time. Most of the time, it is about cinema, television, news, sport, food, clothes, as it will be explained in details after. The Characteristics of Soft Power

3 SOFT POWER - CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN SOFT POWER PAGE 3 Characteristics of the American soft power By Stephanie Bechade As it was explained in the previous article, when we talk about soft power, we usually mean the American soft power, as it is the first country who deliberately used it and it is probably the most influential one. Here are some of its main characteristics: Let s first take the example of Hollywood. It might be the principal vector of the American culture, after all, who can say they never saw an American movie? Every year, we are subjected to a flock of new American blockbusters which inevitably draw most of the viewers attention. Indeed, while Hollywood now produces less than 10% of the movies made each year, those movies represent more than 80% of the sales in European movie theaters, and about 75% of the worldwide sales. The 20 highest-grossing films of all times are all American productions or co-productions. Movies like Avatar, Titanic, Frozen or the Avengers all had a worldwide box-office gross of over $1 billion, and were distributed in more than a hundred countries. The fact that Hollywood s reach is considerable is undeniable. norms and values embodied in Hollywood films have come to be absorbed as universal. Another important vector of the American soft power is its music. American music succeeded in becoming popular in the same way than American cinema did. This influence started with jazz in the late 19th century, as it turned out to be a prominent music genre abroad, especially in Europe where it launched a myriad of trends. Nowadays, the same can be said about American pop, hip hop and rap. Popular American singers frequently top the Europeans music charts, and are often far more popular than local singers. American music is popular even in countries with strong anti-american sentiments: while American policies are highly criticized in Russia or China, hip hop is particularly appreciated in those countries, especially within the younger crowd and to the great displeasure of their governments. Finally, an often overlooked vector of the American soft power is the attractiveness of its foods and beverages. American Fast Foods are especially popular worldwide: Subway is the World s largest restaurant chain, with more than shops, while McDonald s is the second largest one with about locations, and both of them are located in more than a hundred countries. However, they pale when compared Coca-Cola, which is by far the most popular American thing abroad: it is sold in every countries except Cuba and North Korea. However, its marketing is even more impressive than its sales: Coca-cola might be the most advertised produce of history. It is advertised on many media: on billboards, newspaper, radio, television, through produce placement, and most recently online (with pop-up ads, banners and many dedicated websites). Coca-Cola has been linked to the image the world has of the US since WWII, when it was brought abroad by the soldiers alongside chewing-gums and, even today each ad for Coca- Cola increase the attractiveness of the American way of life, and thus its soft power. This reach is essential to the American soft power. Thanks to it, the American way of life and the American s values are promoted everywhere in the world. Indeed, most of the movies produced by Hollywood express those values, such as individualism, competition, materialism, favoring personal freedom and rights, or wanting to live in a suburban, white fenced house with your spouse, two kids and a dog. And, as David Puttman, a British film producer wrote in his book Movies and Money the Photography of the standard McDonald s Fries Box Source:

4 SOFT POWER - FRENCH CULTURAL INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD PAGE 4 French cultural influence in the world By Laure-Anne Poirot From a glorious past... French people are very proud of their culture. So much that they tend to be quite chauvinistic about it, but they have good reason to do so. In the past, France has been one of the greatest cultural power in the world. For centuries, French has been used as the diplomatic language in Europe, replacing Latin, commonly used before. Between the 17th and the 20th centuries, French was spoken in every European court and was considered as the language of the elite. On a cultural and scientific level, the country has been praised by many for centuries. It attracted many great artists and thinkers, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, who joined the court of François I in the early 16th century, or a few centuries later Thomas Jefferson, who is know to have said: Every man has two countries, his own and France. The Enlightenment movement and its philosophy started in France and inspired many great thinkers. In the 1920s, the French capital was regarded as the world cultural centre, and welcomed several American authors of the Lost Generation, such as Francis Scott Fitzgerald....to nowadays. But what remains of France s past cultural influence in a world where the English language and the US culture dominate? Although it certainly does not have the cultural power of the United States, France still manage to spread its culture and its language all over the world, notably through its 2 millions of expatriates and 220 millions of francophone. The country is internationally known for its traditional culture, and French more language precisely in the world for its fashion cultural centre, and welcomed several American authors of the Lost Generation, such as Francis Scott Fitzgerald....to nowadays. But what remains of France s past cultural influence in a world where the English language and the US culture dominate? Although it certainly does not have the cultural power of the United States, France still manage to spread its culture and its language all over the world, notably through its 2 millions of expatriates and 220 millions of francophone. The country is internationally known for its traditional culture, and more precisely for its fashion and its gastronomy. Indeed, French people are reputed for their clothing bon goût, and some of the most reputed fashion houses like Chanel, YSL or Dior are French. For a long time, French cuisine dominated the world of gastronomy, until the emergence in the late 2000s of a more daring Nordic cuisine. Nordic cuisine. But despite this growing competition, French cuisine is still internationally very reputed. Great French chefs own restaurants in great international cities like London, New-York or Singapore, and young foreign chefs are coming to France to learn the traditions and techniques of French culinary art. In recent years, a more popular French culture also started to spread abroad. French music is actually doing quite well. It indeed ranks 5th in music sales. The electronic music duo Daft Punk grasp the attention of British critics as early as 1994, and is now the most emblematic representative of the French Touch movement. David Guetta, another symbol of the French Touch, sold more than copies of his album Listen abroad in These artists are producing music sung in English, but others singing in French are also starting to export abroad. It s for example the case of Héloïse Letissier, aka Christine and the Queens, who was invited by Madonna

5 SOFT POWER - FRENCH CULTURAL INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD PAGE5 and the Queens, who was invited by Madonna to get on stage with her and is to sing at Coachella Festival, one of the most famous music festival of the United States. Although it may not be what we intuitively think about when we think about French culture, its cinema encountered some successes aboard. With its surprising success in 2008, Dany Boon s film Bienvenue chez les Ch tis opened up the way for Untouchables, the most successful French film abroad, nominated at seven foreign film awards and with several remakes in project (in the USA, in Brazil, Turkey and India). And France is not a rising player only for the big screen. Sales of French TV fictions abroad increased by 15% between 2005 and Several French TV series are broadcast abroad, where they meet some success. It is for example the case of Braquo, which won an International Emmy Awards in 2012, Spiral, which is available in 90 countries and whose US adaptation is on its way, and more recently The Returned, which is available in more than 20 countries, had been adapted in the United States in 2014 and won two international awards. A French soft power? As we ve seen, French culture still spread abroad, with more or less success. But is it enough to say that France has a soft power? If we consider soft power as a synonym of cultural influence and attraction initiated by the State, then France definitively Christine and the Queens on cover of The Times of the 19th February 2016 has one. The country indeed still exercises a power of attraction. It was the most visited in the world in 2014, and with 120 millions of students, French is the second most widely learned language in the world according to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The French cultural influence is widely supported by the government, which takes very seriously every matter of culture and language. Indeed, with a budget of 1.4 billions per year, France is the European country dedicating the most important budget to the proabroad. The Soft Power 30 of 2015, published by the media company Portland ranked France 4th, just behind the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. This ranking is based on the quality of a country s political institutions, the extent of their cultural appeal, the strength of their diplomatic network, the global reputation of their higher education system, the attractiveness of their economic model, and a country s digital engagement with the world.