By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
South Korea will be better off if its people and culture are viewed favorably by the Middle Eastern people, a group of government officials said.
Therefore, they argued, policymakers need to consider investing more in fostering human-to-human contact, cultural exchange programs and increasing development assistance, which are part of soft power, so as to help the economy benefit from the improved relations with the oil-rich nations.
Officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade began catching up on the elements of soft power, which Prof. Joseph S. Nye Jr. of John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University defined as the ``ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments.''
Nye developed the concept of soft power in 1989 when he was writing ``Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power.''
``At that time, the conventional wisdom was that the U.S. was in decline. After looking at American military and economic power, I felt that something was still missing, the ability to get what one wants by attraction rather than coercion or payment. That was the origin of the concept,'' he told The Korea Times in a recent interview.
``While I developed it in a study of the U.S., the concept is general and fits all countries, groups, and individuals. My latest book, ``The Powers to Lead,'' spells this out in the context of individual leadership,'' Nye said.
A soft power debate leads to a question: How it can help us get what we want?
The New York Philharmonic performance in Pyongyang, North Korea in February is one of the real world examples helping one get a peep of soft power.
According to CNN, some musicians considered a boycott shortly after they were told that the Philharmonic was invited to perform in the Stalinist country.
Christopher Hill, a chief US negotiator to the six-party talks, decided to meet and convinced the musicians to seek the performance there, stressing the importance of the cultural diplomacy in moving the multilateral talks forward.
Hill told the CNN: ``I wasn't giving a pep talk to the New York Philharmonic. I was giving them information and I was telling them essentially what we're trying to do with these negotiations.''
In June, Pyongyang destroyed the nuclear cooling tower in the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and shortly after that US President George W. Bush announced the plan to delist the North from a state list sponsoring terrorism in return for Pyongyang's denuclearization.
Prof. Nye confirmed the concert was a ``modest effort at soft power.'' ``But I doubt that it had much direct effect on Pyongyang's nuclear program,'' he said.
Senior Presidential Secretary Pahk Jae-wan also outlined the importance of soft power in foreign policy.
In a speech to business leaders in July, Pahk hinted that the government was paying the price in the campaign to defend the sovereignty of Dokdo islets as the government had paid little attention to nation branding.
``National brand of the Republic of Korea falls far behind the nation's economic status in the world,'' the senior presidential secretary said. ``I must confess that this makes it difficult for the government to launch an effective global campaign to win Japan's claim of Dokdo islets.''
In 1996, British consultant Simon Anholt coined the term of nation brand or nation branding referring to how countries are perceived by others.
Anholt's team released the so-called Anholt-GfK Roper Nation Brands Index which measures the power of each country's brand image by combining six perspectives ― exports; governance; culture and heritage; people; tourism; investment and immigration.
According to the index out in 2007, Korea ranked 28th, following Poland and Egypt. The country is behind China, whose ranking stood at 22nd and Japan which ranked eighth. Given that the economy is ranked some 13th largest one in the globe, its nation brand ostensibly falls far behind its economic status as the senior presidential secretary put.
The foreign ministry announced in March that it would sponsor cultural exchange programs with the Middle Eastern and Central Asian countries and enlist more cultural sites and heritages to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's world heritage.
Along with the exchange programs, the government also plans to increase the budget for development assistance and send more overseas volunteers to the underdeveloped world from the current 830 to more than 1,000 next year.
In an effort to secure stable energy supplies, the foreign ministry launched the Korea-Arab Society in July with Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The society, aiming at promoting the nation brand as well as a better understanding of the nation among people in the Arab world through political, cultural and economic exchange programs, grouped South Korea with governments, corporations and organizations from 22 Arab countries.
As to the role of government in fostering soft power, Prof. Nye said: ``Governments can pursue policies that attract (or repel) others, and they can take a number of steps to explain their positions and to promote culture and exchanges.''
Nye, however, advised the government to be careful not to be a dominant player in the cultural program, saying ``If governments become too heavy handed, their efforts are seen as propaganda and repel rather than attract others.''
Some local think tank people say that China has increased its foreign aid to the underdeveloped world in Africa and Latin America where natural gas and energy are abundant, in an attempt to secure energy supplies.
China has provided the developing world in the regions access to cheap credit and inexpensive consumer goods.
According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) in 2008, China has offered its ``no strings attached'' foreign aid to the underdeveloped world and its ability to deploy state-owned assets to garner soft power advantages.
China is different from the United States or other Western governments in that the Chinese government did not require the less developed world to improve human rights conditions, governance or environmental regulations in return for foreign aid.
Despite the ``unrestricted foreign aid,'' CRS found ``China's success has been mixed and its influence remains modest.''
The same paper said Japan has begun to use its aid to China to accomplish broader political and diplomatic goals.
``Japan funnels some of its aid funds to pro-Japanese non-governmental organizations in China. Some in Japan have been questioning the need for continued official development assistance to a country that now is an aid provider and who is seen by many Japanese as a regional economic and strategic competitor,'' said the paper.
Nye observed China has placed a good deal of emphasis on soft power in recent years, calling it a ``smart strategy for a rising power'' because it makes the rise of its hard power appear less threatening to other countries.
``China has increased its education of foreign students, started many Confucius Institutes overseas, and increased its broadcasting and public diplomacy,'' he said.
Nye observed economic aid is a longstanding economic power resource.
``Where it is used to induce or coerce (by threat of cutoff), this is a form of hard power. When it creates a positive atmosphere that attracts the recipients, it also produces soft power. The American Marshall Plan for Europe is an example of an aid program that produced both hard and soft power,'' he said
Nye, however, said whether China's aid in Africa will produce similar results is still uncertain.
``China's internal policies on human rights and political freedoms set limits on Chinese soft power.''
As for Japan's soft power, Nye observed: ``Japan derives soft power from its traditional and popular culture, its success in economics and democracy, and its policies. But Japan often limits its soft power by failing to come fully to terms with its history.''
Nye said soft power, however, is not a panacea.
``Soft power alone is rarely sufficient to accomplish a country's goals. For example, soft power will not denuclearize North Korea or Iran. '' he claimed.
``In most instances, countries need to combine soft and hard power into strategies where they reinforce rather than undercut each other. That is smart power. Over the past eight years, the US has relied too heavily on hard power without combining it well with soft power.''