Is soft power overrated?

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Something I have been pondering for a while now, and the topic came to mind reading the other thread about Indian disinformation about Pakistan. There was a time when the internet was relatively new I remember shiny eyed Indians on message boards pushing SAARC and how India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc would form a trading bloc similar to EU and I was initially quite impressed at the vision. Pakistan always seemed to me to be easy meat for the progressive and impressive ambition of Indians at the time.

Here we are now with the BJP in power and beef bans. Seems to me India might have missed some opportunities somewhere given their economic and territorial advantage. But most of all the cultural advantage.

As a Brit I am actually very proud of our soft power, it is something which I think keeps UK at the forefront of world power games. We are a small nation but we carry a lot of clout in no small measure to that soft power. Has India missed the point somewhere along the last couple of decades?

Did they abandon soft power for a hard power which is in reality quite a feeble alternative?

 

[Robert]

Better than using hard power.

 

[JaDed]

India missed the point in 1960s. we are always just going to be catching up now.

Anyone that supports socialism should use India as a case study of failure among third world.

 

[JaDed]

Better than using hard power.

Ur softpower works NOW because for centuries same countries used hardpower and exploited others.

America, Turkey ,Europe are examples for the same at best maybe China is the only one that was superior and didn’t really care to use hard power.

 

[sweep_shot]

Balance is key. Both soft power and non-soft power are important.

 

[Greenstorm]

Soft power depends upon where you stand in the hierarchy of nations. China for instance, is low on soft power but they are hardly affected by it, hence soft power is overrated for them. Those 'Third world' nations whose ideologies and ambitions differ from the prevalent 'world order' have to usually tread a fine line between maintaining adequate 'soft power' and not compromising on their respective ideologies. Pakistan and India so far have been trying to maintain that balance. Iran, NK, Thailand are some of the nations that could not maintain this balance.

Soft power has its advantages but it is useless without hard/real power.