Is Western Soft Power a form of Cultural Imperialism?

From the first time that men and women organised themselves into societies and found difference in one anothers identities the struggle for power had always amounted to a contest between groups, often violent and only ever kept at bay by mutual agreement or more usually by threat of violence and either genuine or perceived superiority. In time the image or perception that one great power or even culture was superior to another nation or people became the most popular way of establishing power and taking control over a people, or as some Imperialists liked to say: to exercise a certain ascendency. 1 Following the end of the Second World War, in the period referred to as the Cold War, the means to achieving this type of Imperial power from the Western side often amounted to converting the population of a place with cultural influence, this approach has continued through and now takes a prominent position in the establishment of power in todays world. This is Soft Power, and this essay will determine whether or not it is that Western Soft Power is a form of Cultural Imperialism.

The essence of Cultural Imperialism is the influence which one culture has on shaping the future of another. In the past, Cultural Imperialism was always something left behind by dead Empires: British railroads in Africa and India or the Communaut Financire Africaine (CFA) Franc in African countries. The culture which is left behind explains how countries like Britain have retained a sphere of influence, for example the Anglosphere. The Commonwealth of Nations today represents the sphere of British cultural substance throughout the world. We must consider in this occasion whether many of the conflicts in places like Africa and the Middle-East are the fault of colonial Empires as they drew the borders of countries, without considering the actual patterns of ethnicity or homogenous culture groups.2 The United States may well be the first to use Soft Power more

F. Kazemzadeh, Russia and Britain in Persia 1864-1914 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1968) pg 8 2 P. Golding, Beyond Cultural Imperialism: Globalization, Communication and the New International Order (London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 1997)

exclusively to assert a form of Cultural Imperialism. Joseph Joffe writes passionately about the effect Soft Power had in establishing this unique Cultural Imperialism:

America's "soft power", to invoke Joseph S. Nye's term, looms even larger than its economic and military assets. U.S. Culture, low-brow or high, radiates outward with an intensity last seen in the days of the Roman Empire, but with a novel twist. Romes and Soviet Russias cultural sway stopped exactly at their military borders. Americas soft power, though, rules over an Empire on which the sun never sets.3

Cultural Imperialism is first and foremost a generic concept which is derived from many areas of an imposing culture drawing from sources like Television and Films, but the producers and distributers of the foreign Cultural influences do not necessarily intend to impose their Culture, or to convert or influence the people that are viewing it.4 Furthermore the idea that one particular culture is absorbed and exists under a state of Cultural Imperialism and is accessible through the use of Soft Power strategies, requires the acceptance that the dominant culture is successful in convincing the subordinate culture to match their own interests, for example liberty and democracy. Which brings us to question the initial subject of the question is it just Western Soft Power at play in the world, or can we consider that Eastern powers may also employ Soft Power, particularly as a form of Cultural Imperialism. The most suitable Eastern Power to focus on with this point is China. China has perhaps only recently understood the potential usefulness of Soft Power, in exerting Cultural Imperialism, but it is proving that it is committed to this new approach to establishing ascendency.5 Their commitment to building the infrastructure of Africa, and education in South-East Asia is being rewarded with a fairly accepted form of Cultural Imperialism in those regions.6
3 4

J. Joffe, Whos afraid of Mr. Big? The National Interest, summer 2001, pg43 J. Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction (London: Printer Publishers, 1991) pg 3 5 J. Wang, Soft Power In China: Public Diplomacy through Communication (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) pg 1 6 Chinas Soft Power Surge
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/18/chinas_soft_power_surge?wp_login_redirect=0

Soft Power is an alternative to Hard Power. Soft Power is the means of gaining ones objectives without the use of force, and this is usually a passively achieved outcome. Rather than convincing the opponent or by threating or forcing them to follow pursue your desires, you make them desire the same outcomes and follow the same objectives.7 The USs Soft Power extend perhaps more so in the form of financial imperialism, her power stemming from the volume of US-based heavy-weight MNCs and its position of authority in international NGOs like the World Bank, where it enjoys the largest share of votes in-house.8 Despite the passive nature of the draw of influence, Soft Power is actively sought as an alternative, often in the long-term as a more effective way of asserting power rather than resorting to force which is expensive, costly to human lives and provocative. The main advantage of the use of Soft Power rather than Hard Power is that it is a way to influence another actor without provoking them and thereby giving that actor or its sub-ordinates less cause to want to fight back. For a State to pursue a Soft Power approach to establishing influence over others there are several factors which decide the value of its power: its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its political values and practices (when it lives up to them at home and abroad, and its foreign policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority.) 9 A State which does not consider the affect it has on the hearts and minds of others can find conflict where it need not have. But Soft power is not exclusively enacted by States, cultural influence is projected most profoundly through the media, which paints Western values, American Culture and Western lifestyles as something to be desired and further maintains and upholds the concept of the American Dream. However as Joseph Nye, who first coined the phrase Soft Power says, features

7 8

J. S. Nye Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004) pg5 N. Woods, The United States and the International Financial Institutions: Power and Influence within the World Bank and the IMF (R. Foot et al.) US Hegemony and International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) pg 92 9 J. S. Nye Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004) pg11

of popular western culture dont always have the power to compel others to love the United States, but they do have the effect of making the West seem exiting and cutting edge.10 The events of the Arab-spring it can be argued are products of Soft Power convincing a people to reshape their country in the model of a Western Liberal Democracy. Indeed we can see that the values of Western society, through Soft Power are adopted by outside cultures, when through elements like the media they seem the ordinary and correct thing to do.11 Through the reach of globalisation Western culture enters other cultures and given the relationship between Globalisation and Cultural Imperialism we might also question whether or not Globalisation itself might be a form of Cultural Imperialism.12

Traditional Empires employed Hard Power to establish their ascendency over another state or people. As it was only a Century ago the European Powers drew and redrew the World map, claiming territories for themselves wherever they saw profit or resource, and all of this was taken with liberal use of Hard power, whether that meant fighting to supress resistance to their Imperial aims or merely by an elaborate show of strength to create their position of superiority over the indigenous. These acts were justified by claims of manifest destiny and the white mans burden to bring civilization to the savage populations of the rest of the World. In modern times, the rhetoric may have changed but the situation is still mostly the same only that in amongst the rhetoric, the word civilized is replaced by democratic.13 When considering Soft Power and Cultural Imperialism, we are inevitably brought into considering the nature of Empire. As I have said, traditional Empires are forged with fire and sword: the man with the biggest stick may rule the largest portion of the globe and yet despite the volume and integrity of the Hard Power used to cement an Empire, or perhaps because of the nature of Hard Power; without the careful use of Soft Power, the cost of maintaining that Empire and the
10 11

J. S. Nye Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004) pg12 J. S. Nye Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004) pg 12 12 J. Tomlinson, Cultural Imperialism: A Critical Introduction (London: Printer Publishers, 1991) pg 174
13

Foster and McChesney, Kipling, the white Mans Burden, and U.S. Imperialism Monthly Review, November 2003, Volume 55 number 6

willingness of its subordinates to remain subjugated can and always has proven to be the downfall of Empire. When we evaluate the limits and strengths of Soft Power we must consider whether if the British or the Spanish or French or the Romans had focused more on the image they maintained, and on keeping their subordinates within their franchise and not made to be a foreign, but a familiar nationality or culture, then would their Empires have lasted longer? I agree with Joseph Nye when he notes that non-nuclear Vietcong defeated the United States, and non-nuclear Argentina did not refrain from attacking the Falklands against a Nuclear-armed United Kingdom.14 Which brings us to perhaps ascertain that Hard Powers own limitations may be mitigated by Soft Powers strengths, just as Hard Power is able to ensure a States total power, where Soft Power finds itself limited. For example, the United States, despite being commonly regarded as the Worlds only military Superpower has not prevented the swathe of anti-Americanism in the Middle-East, nor could it stop the terrorist attacks of 2001 known as 9/1115, despite the fact that they were perpetrated by a nonstate actor with far inferior military and economic capabilities.

As we have seen, Soft Power and Cultural Imperialism are closely related and easy to mistake. In addressing the question at hand, therefore, we must identify from our argument whether Western Soft Power is unique from Cultural Imperialism, or whether it is simply the States (rather than culture as a passive entity) ability to use its influence to create a state of Cultural Imperialism, so as to better achieve its international goals. We might say that Soft Power more influential when it is the State who is projecting it, Nye questions the value of non-state sources in projecting Soft Power: Coke and Big Macs do not necessarily attract people in the Islamic world to love the United States [] nor does the popularity of Pokmon games assure that Japan will get the policy outcomes it wishes. So then we might say that though the attractiveness of ones culture might not allow an easy and straight forward pursuit of
14 15

J. S. Nye Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004) pg13 J. S. Nye Jr., Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (New York: Public Affairs, 2004) pg4

Soft Power objectives, it allows people of different cultures to meet in a familiar setting, to engage in a familiar activity, and ultimately to alleviate unfamiliar or foreign feelings which might otherwise hinder cultural exchanges. Perhaps when British Prime Minister David Cameron and US President Barack Obama met to eat hamburgers and watch Basketball, it might have created a feeling that the two countries were closer together than ever, simply because they can meet in a casual manor, engaging in a part of this culture. We must also question whether Hard Power or Soft Power is most effective in establishing Cultural Imperialism. With Hard Power the subject nation was subjugated and over time adopted elements of its masters culture: popular sports and food, the direction or orientation of its traffic on the road or its model of democracy. But since the fall of the Hard Power Colonial Empires, in a world of Globalisation and Liberalisation, because of international hegemony; economic and technological prowess has allowed the West, the United States in particular, to assert a national monopoly which has defeated the poor competition of its cultural subjects, who through the use of Soft Power have come to accept and co-opt with countries like the USA. Which brings us to the assessment that instead of thinking of Western Soft Power being a form of Cultural Imperialism, Soft Power is a means to achieving Cultural Imperialism without creating the kind of tensions brought about by the use of Hard Power which sufficed to bring down the Empires of old.

Bibliography

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