Why Britain’s global role stands at a precarious juncture

Coined 20 years ago by Harvard academic Joseph Nye, soft power has become an increasingly ubiquitous term. Simply put, it is the ability of a state to achieve a desired outcome through the leveraging of legitimacy – or better still, attraction. The Institute for Government and Monocle magazine have created a composite index of soft power, ranking a selection of countries according to their capacity for international attraction and influence. The results can be found in our new report The New Persuaders (PDF, 252KB).

The importance of soft power The report is timely, as two recent trends have made soft power more critical to the UK’s approach to foreign policy.

First, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will see its budget fall over the five-year Spending Review period. In addition to diplomatic cuts, the Ministry of Defence is facing cuts in total spending. With fewer hard power and diplomatic resources to deploy, soft power tools – especially those not financed by the government – will need to be employed with more regularity and intelligence.

Secondly, the changing nature of global affairs is becoming more suited to soft power mechanisms. The Coalition has not yet made soft power a priority in terms of resource allocation. Two of Britain’s key public diplomacy assets, The British Council and BBC World Service, were handed challenging five year spending settlements. These will not only place huge constraints on their resources, but fundamentally alter their funding structures. From 2014, the BBC World Service will no longer receive an annual FCO grant, but be funded by BBC licence fee payers. The British Council, which promotes British culture abroad, will see its FCO grant fall by 18 per cent, which will mean significant cuts for frontline programmes across the world. As Britain cuts back, emerging players are showing greater awareness of soft power’s potential. In under six years, China has launched a global charm offensive spearheaded by a network of 320 Confucius Institutes, designed to promote Chinese language and culture. And this year alone it has invested a further $8.9 billion in ‘external publicity work’.

The IfG-Monocle Soft Power Index

As more states begin to view foreign affairs through a soft power lens, foreign policy strategies will change accordingly. But will new approaches to diplomacy and global public engagement shift the balance of power? This is the question that inspired the IfG-Monocle Soft Power Index. The timing of the question is no accident. As political and economic power migrates eastward, emerging nations are moving to expand their influence and promote their respective national brands. In stark contrast, the tired economies of the west are retrenching, and governments are prioritising decidedly domestic concerns. Our index assesses countries based on five metrics:

• culture
• government
• diplomacy
• education
• business / innovation

It tests the quality of their political institutions, their cultural appeal, their diplomatic network, the global reach of their education systems and their potential for commercial innovation. The New Persuaders (PDF, 252KB). shows the old guard of world powers maintain a sizeable soft power advantage. But as much of the West enters into a period of sustained austerity, soft power assets will be among the most tempting budget lines to cut – as evidenced by the UK’s recent spending review. Emerging powers, however, are investing heavily in soft power capacity.  The results of the index beg the question: how long will historical trends sustain the soft power hegemony of traditional Western powers?