Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers Are Remaking Global Order by Oliver Stuenkel

Author:Oliver Stuenkel
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 2016-09-22T03:00:00+00:00

Soft Power and Western-Centrism

Applying the idea of soft power to the case of China shows how the concept is tainted by our Western-centric worldview. Nye has criticized China's efforts to acquire soft power through centralized schemes, such as the spread of Confucius Institutes or the establishment of the China Public Diplomacy Association.221 Despite “spending billions of dollars to increase its soft power…China has had a limited return on its investment,”222 he writes. Yet while the popularity of artists such as Andy Warhol around the world is seen as an example of US soft power, few would say Ai Weiwei's popularity in the West is an example of Chinese soft power.223 This tends to suggest that we too downplay non-Western sources of soft power.

Finally, the case of Brazil (one of the few countries with global ambitions that has decided not to pursue hard power) seems to suggest that hard power is still far more important than is generally thought. Stolte argues:

Role expectations for Great Powers and aspirants to this status have changed. The Great Power privileges of using force and deciding on the world's most crucial issues are no longer conquered through violence and military superiority but are earned by persuasion and the demonstration of the worthiness to receive this status.224

Yet three examples may illustrate how hard power still matters more than anything else. First, while Brazil decided to sign the NPT in 1998 and become a “good global citizen,” India refused to sign, and tested nuclear weapons in the same year. Today, the United States has not only recognized India's nuclear power status, but it also officially supports India's candidacy for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council—while Washington merely “appreciates” Brazil's desire to join the UNSC on a permanent basis (a difference that can largely explained by the United States' belief that India is a crucial element in balancing the rise of China). The second example is Brazil's attempt to reach a nuclear deal with the Iranian government in 2010, which was met with broad rejection in the West, largely because it did not believe Brazil possessed the legitimacy to negotiate a deal. The final example is the P3's rejection of Brazil's and India's concerns about the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1973 regarding the intervention in Libya, a topic which, according to policy makers in London, Paris, and Washington, was far too weighty to be discussed with perceived lightweights such as Brazil. In each of the three cases, the lack of hard power posed decisive limits on Brasília's great-power ambitions.

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