{"id":48891,"date":"2019-07-05T19:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T13:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?p=48891"},"modified":"2019-07-05T17:27:02","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T11:57:02","slug":"7-pm-on-the-edge-of-the-big-league-5th-july-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-on-the-edge-of-the-big-league-5th-july-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"7 PM | On the edge of the big league &#8211; How India can use its soft power in changing geopolitics | 5th July, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/open?id=1UpP5L8uzK1UmhS22Lpro6_RSPkXiX1Nl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Read\u00a0In-depth analysis of all the Editorials here (opens in a new tab)\">Read\u00a0In-depth analysis of all the Editorials here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Context:\n<\/strong>Soft\npower and how India is using its soft power in the changing geopolitics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Soft\nPower: <\/strong>The\nterm was coined by Joseph Nye as, \u2018the ability of a\ncountry to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion\u201d. Soft power is viewed as the non-material capabilities\nsuch as reputation, culture, and value appeal that can aid the attainment of a\nstate\u2019s objectives. It is more than the ability to influence other actors in\ninternational relations, but rather, it is the ability to attract, and attraction\nleads to acquiescence. Some of the examples are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Egypt&nbsp;under the\nrule of&nbsp;Gamal Abdel Nasser&nbsp;trained and dispatched thousands of\nteachers across the&nbsp;Arab world&nbsp;in an effort to spread ideas\nof&nbsp;anti-colonialism&nbsp;and&nbsp;anti-Zionism.<\/li><li>International Solar Alliance (ISA):\nRising energy demand from all over the world has led to increase in pollution\nlevels across nations. India along with France, established ISA and persuaded\nall tropical and sub-tropical nations to come forward and harness solar energy\nfor sustainable future and growth of nations.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Hard Power: <\/strong>Hard power on the other hand can be defined\nas \u201cthe ability to use the carrots and sticks of economic and military might to\nmake others follow your will.\u201d One\nof the most obvious exercises of hard power is the use of military\nintervention. It entails, quite simply, the use of military might to obtain\none\u2019s objectives. 20<sup>th<\/sup> century has many such examples: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>the 1939 invasion\nof&nbsp;Poland&nbsp;by&nbsp;Germany&nbsp;that triggered the second World War<\/li><li>the 1979 invasion\nof&nbsp;Afghanistan&nbsp;by the&nbsp;Soviet Union, an attempt to prop\nup&nbsp;Afghanistan\u2019s&nbsp;Marxist government<\/li><li>2003 invasion of Iraq&nbsp;by\nthe&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;over concerns about&nbsp;Iraq\u2019s&nbsp;weapons capabilities.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Geopolitics\nof 21<sup>st<\/sup> Century:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Two major forces dominate the geopolitics since the beginning of 21<sup>st<\/sup> century- China and technology. China became the second largest economy in the world with its GDP going from $1 trillion to $10 trillion in 15 years. At the same time, the growth of technology in 15 years, made technological power and cyber capabilities as superpower compulsions.<\/li><li>Now power needs to be evaluated on four levels- military, economic, cyber and soft power.<ul><li>Militarily, USA and Russia are still fore-running.<\/li><li>In cyber domain, 5 countries hold the position- US, China, Russia, Israel and Iran.<\/li><li>Economically, China competing head to head with US.<\/li><li>In soft power, USA leads but China and Russia don\u2019t really feature. In fact, India has a big role to play.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>India\u2019s Soft Power Potential and related issues: <\/strong>As\nthe world\u2019s largest democracy, India is variously described as a model of soft\npower but at the same time makes remarkably poor use of it. There are several\nreasons that may explain why India fares worse on objective metrics of soft\npower than it perhaps should, like,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>India has more UNESCO World Heritage\nsites than all but five other countries and more public policy think tanks than\nany country outside the United States, China and the United Kingdom, but still\nfares poorly on tourism and education on a per capita basis.<\/li><li>Buddhism has hundreds of millions of\nadherents around the world but very few in its birthplace in India. While\nBuddhism has become indigenized in such places as Japan, Thailand, Sri Lanka\nand Mongolia, India has only recently made efforts at appealing to these\ncountries as the fount of Buddhism, by facilitating pilgrimages and sponsoring\nreligious renovations, in China and Myanmar. <\/li><li>India is home to more top 30 unicorns\n(billion dollar start-ups) than any country other than the United States and\nChina, but its digital penetration remains low, primarily because of\nelectricity in-accessibility. Added to this the widespread reputation of\ncorruption, endemic poverty and hostilities in business, pulls back the\ninvestors from investing in Indian companies.<\/li><li>Indian popular films may not be rewarded\nat the Academy Awards or at Cannes but have massive followings in China,\nCentral Asia and the Middle East. The Indian entertainment and media industry\nwas worth $29 billion in 2013.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Setbacks to\nIndia as a soft power:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>India made huge efforts in Sri Lanka to\nbring peace and stability on the request of its lawful government, but\neventually it cost the life of a former prime minister of India.<\/li><li>India had made several peace talks with\nPakistan but all remains in vain. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Way\nForward<\/strong>:\nThe metrics of soft power, particularly those that capture state-led efforts,\nhigh-end cultural exports or per capita capabilities may understate India\u2019s\nrecord of utilising its soft power for national objectives. India has found\nsoft power to be a necessary but insufficient ingredient in its engagement with\nthe world. As a democracy with a rich culture and a modicum of principle in its\ninternational engagement, it has often benefited in real, tangible ways from\nits soft power. Clearly though, it has its work cut out in better projecting\nits culture and values to international audiences. As India builds upon a range\nof ongoing political and diplomatic efforts from improving its ease of doing\nbusiness rankings, unveiling its Incredible India tourism campaign, getting\nInternational Yoga Day recognized by the United Nations or investing in\nBuddhist diplomacy, we can expect its soft power to gradually grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/on-the-edge-of-the-big-league-5815649\/\">https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/opinion\/columns\/on-the-edge-of-the-big-league-5815649\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Read\u00a0In-depth analysis of all the Editorials here Context: Soft power and how India is using its soft power in the changing geopolitics. Soft Power: The term was coined by Joseph Nye as, \u2018the ability of a country to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion\u201d. Soft power is viewed as the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/7-pm-on-the-edge-of-the-big-league-5th-july-2019\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">7 PM | On the edge of the big league &#8211; How India can use its soft power in changing geopolitics | 5th July, 2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":3567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-pm","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/brief-image.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704908649},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}