BALANCE of CULTURE

A Political Oscars 2013

Amid all the singing and dancing last night in Hollywood, there was also a little "message" from the US government to Iran at the end of the Academy Awards...

Michelle Obama's appearance at the Oscars last night was definitely a surprise (though not quite unprecedented) as she presented the coveted "Best Picture" award to Argo. Apparently the Academy and the White House lack any perceived reservations about further politicizing the controversial film, which has been heavily lauded despite the Iranian government denouncing it as "anti-Iran." 

Not only does this move indicate a general consensus between Hollywood and our government's inherent and influential soft power relationship, but it also happened to be timed just before Iran's already-tense nuclear talk resumes in Kazakhstan this week. 

Art and Diplomacy 2013

After connecting with the State Department on its global art initiatives when Hillary Clinton became Secretary of State, I'm thrilled to see a brief piece by Secretary Clinton about our Art in Embassies program. The program now celebrates 50 years of work and continues to contribute to our vast diplomatic resource pool:

In my line of work, we often talk about the art of diplomacy as we try to make people's lives a little better around the world. But, in fact, art is also a tool of diplomacy. It reaches beyond governments, past the conference rooms and presidential palaces, to help us connect with more people in more places. It is a universal language in our search for common ground, an expression of our shared humanity.

This subject really brings me back to my grad school days, where I researched the history and significance of nations using large international exhibitions towards cultural diplomacy. Although I was the only one in my program to combine art with international relations (and got plenty of resistance for it, I should add!), it's thrilling to see this topic discussed more and more in the mainstream media. 

North Korea's Hollywood Dreams and a Hidden Famine

The underprivileged lives of North Koreans are hardly a secret to those who bother to read the news once in a while, but sometimes the details are (understandably) lost in the spectacle of the country's rural poverty. John Everard recently shared some of his own experiences with Pyongyang's elite class and their infatuation with Hollywood and South Korea while he served as Britain's ambassador to the DPRK:

I was often asked for medicines, but not as often as I was asked for DVDs of television soap operas, usually but not always from South Korea. These portrayed a world of which North Koreans can only dream--of people who eat well in smart restaurants, have their own cars and live in flats where the heating always works--and my contacts devoured them ravenously. I once lent one set of DVDs of Desperate Housewives and met the same person the next day with big rings under their eyes. They had sat up all night and watched the entire series in one setting.

While detractors may dismiss a story like this as evidence of a lack of a severe humanitarian crisis, let's remember that this is a country with millions of people--many of whom still barely exist due to the most recent "hidden famine."

First Time for Gay Rights in Inaugural Address

President Obama's second inaugural address this morning in DC was historic for several reasons, including how it was the very first time an American president has called for gay rights:

"Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law--for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well."

Though this statement isn't necessarily a specific foreign policy implication, it's a message that certainly provokes signals of progression, compassion, and reason to observers and citizens in regions that still severely stigmatize and punish homosexuality, such as the Middle East and most of Africa. 

BoC Dérive: 18 January 2013

Almost looks like a wedding invitation, doesn't it? Hoping for a safe and civilized inauguration weekend for everyone.  :-)

Online Dérive:

SWEAR-IN: President Obama will use the bibles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln for his inauguration on Monday.

PINOCCHIO: The French are having a field day with Lance Armstrong's confession because they knew he was cheating all along. 

TERROR: Hostages give new chilling details about the Algerian gas field raid. 

DATA: China's Baidu and France Telecom are entering the growing African smartphone market.

IMAGE: Despite being under China's shadow, can Japan increase its regional influence with ASEAN?

SUSTAIN: What Mali means for Europe's soft power.

LEMONADE: My neighborhood recently had a bulldozer party.

Algeria: Contain, Contain, Contain

As we witness the aftermath of the Amenas gas field raid in Algeria where 41 foreigners were taken hostage, Jihadist websites are busy influencing their local audience with images that glorify Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who is believed to have led the raid. Belmokhtar was a long-time al Qaeda commander and recently formed his own splinter group that reports to al Qaeda's senior leadership:

Although rich oil and gas resources often boost economies of developing states, these very assets tend to simultaneously increase political instability by promoting large degrees of governmental corruption while discouraging other sectors to grow domestically. 

North Africa's lack of security issues have hit Western media pretty frequently in the past couple of years, but perhaps with all the foreign hostages involved this time (British, French, Irish, Japanese, American, Norwegian, Malaysian, Romanian) the world won't dismiss the significance of pursuing classic containment in the region. 

The Timing of Russia's New Soft Power Plan

If timing is everything, then Russian President Vladimir Putin's three-year soft power initiative is right on schedule. The plan, which Putin ordered last July, involves the usual checklist for improving a nation's image abroad: building new (and modernizing currently existing) science and cultural centers, hosting youth festivals, and promoting the Russian language. 

So back to the timing of this…last summer Putin began stressing the importance of soft power, lamenting that Russia's image abroad was "lopsided" and thus needed attention by government officials.

But did this frame of mind just pop out of nowhere? It's difficult not to notice that Putin's July appeal for aggressively pursuing soft power conveniently occurred within four months of the arrests of feminist punk band Pussy Riot for their "hooliganism"--a case that produced perhaps the biggest media frenzy surrounding Russia in years. 

Putin has publicly discussed the subject of his country's image abroad in the past, but before states look to exercise soft power in order to counter unattractive domestic cases they might want to consider some self reflection.

Without acknowledging or dealing with the Russian Orthodox Church's exorbitant influence on not only Pussy Riot's criminal investigation but also their internal propaganda to their trusting citizens, Moscow's self-promotion of "youth," "culture," or even "science" abroad probably won't be received as very organic or even very trustworthy--at least not to most Western audiences who enjoy freedom of speech without a backlash from their local church, and so forth. According to polls by Levada Center, public opinion in Russia veered heavily with the Orthodoxy and even considered the global reactions to the arrests and harsh sentences as "unfair" and "hysterical." 

Ironically, despite Moscow's good intentions, Pussy Riot is the real winner from this situation. There are very few speedier ways to reveal a progressive sensibility in an unlikely setting than by getting arrested and jail time for playing a punk song that challenges conservative society. In this case, the soft power of the "unlikely setting" will probably get a lot less traction than anticipated simply because Pussy Riot's philosophy is already the status quo in many parts of the world.

China and India Use Buddhism For Regional Influence

As China and India continue to escalate their separate efforts in exerting influence around South Asia by funding tangible infrastructure--roads, ports, dams, and even an airport in Nepal--the two potential superpowers also are using a "softer" approach to shape perceptions: Buddhism. Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka are three key states in the region that all have deep cultural ties to Buddhism and thus are being courted by various "carrots" from both India and China. Some of these carrots include displays of ancient Buddhist relics, funding religious sites, and the sponsorships of international Buddhist conferences. 

Not surprisingly one of these Buddhist conferences, India's Global Buddhist Congregation, became a thorny issue for Beijing in 2011. The reason? The congregation ended up casting the Dalai Lama as Buddhism's global leader, in a sense solidifying India's agency over the Buddhist tradition while indirectly criticizing China's policies on Tibet.

Beijing's response: they actually delayed a scheduled meeting with Indian officials on Sino-Indian border negotiations. This is just one example of how soft power is in no way confined to abstract intangibles such as culture.

Niall Ferguson wrote an interesting piece on power back in 2003 where he states, "But the trouble with soft power is that it's, well, soft." Unfortunately this is true only when soft power is regulated exclusively to the realm of cultural and commercial goods, such as Michael Jackson and Big Macs. Today, soft power can directly and indirectly influence things once considered the domain of hard power, such as regional containment--one only has to look at China's "strategic encirclement" of improving relations (whether it's through direct foreign investment or Confucius Institutes) with most of India's neighbors to see this. 

Soft Power and Threat

One of my favorite soft power mentors Joe Nye has a brief interview out where he continues to offer new insight on research, foreign policy and, of course, power relations:

e-IR: Can soft power ever be threatening, and if so, is China's soft power a threat?

Nye: Like any form of power, soft power can be benign or threatening depending on the context and how it is used. It is not necessarily better to twist minds than to twist arms. If China uses its soft power as part of a campaign to expel the US from East Asia, that would be threatening. If Chinese soft power grows in the US and American soft power grows in China so that it becomes easier to manage conflict, then it is a joint gain situation. 

I really appreciate his acknowledgement of the threat of soft power. Compared to even just five years ago, soft power is swiftly becoming more mainstream--but the nuances of the theory haven't quite tipped yet, in my opinion. This "threat" aspect is one of those nuances. It's inspiring to see the concept's creator stay ahead of the conversation.

Read the full interview.  

North Korea's First Skate Park

North Korea's first skate park just opened in Pyongyang--makes me wonder if this is another step in the country's gradual catch-up game with the rest of the contemporary world. 

This could be a positive sign, as skateboarding is obviously an American concept. (Traditionally, anything American or Western was condemned in North Korea.) But with the young Kim Jong Un in power, maybe certain aspects of outside culture are slowly being accepted within their borders.