Soft Power: The New Great Game

by Robert Winder

In recent years the modern world has developed a brave new 'soft power'. It is the power of friendly persuasion rather than command, and it invites nations to compete (as they did in the nineteenth century) to expand their 'sphere of influence' as brands in a global marketplace.

In Bloody Foreigners and The Last Wolf , Robert Winder explored the way Britain was shaped first by migration, and then by hidden geographical factors. Now, in Soft Power he reveals the ways in which modern states are asserting themselves not through traditional realpolitik but through alternative business, language, culture, ideas, sport, education, music, even food - the texture and values of history and daily life.

Moving from West to East, the book tells the story of soft power by exploring the varied ways in which it operates - from an American sheriff in Poland to an English garden in Ravello, a French vineyard in Australia, an Asian restaurant in Spain, a Chinese Friendship Hall in Sudan; the fact that fifty-eight modern heads of state were educated in Britain; the student exchange that took a teenage Deng Xiaoping to a small town on the Loire; the way that Japan could seduce the world with chic food and smart computer games.

Now there may be a new twist in this Great game. With soft power's quiet ingredients - education, science, trade, cultural values - and a new emphasis on shared mutual interest, it may be the only force supple enough to tackle the challenges the future looks likely to pose - not least the slam-the-door reflexes pulling in the other direction.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

454 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 6, 2020

About the author

Robert Winder, formerly literary editor of The Independent for five years and Deputy Editor of Granta magazine during the late 1990s, is the author of Hell for Leather, a book about modern cricket, a book about British immigration, and also two novels, as well as many articles and book reviews in British periodicals. Winder is a team member of the Gaieties Cricket Club, whose chairman was Harold Pinter.

Reviews

[Bhadra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sections on the UK, US, Europe and Russia were interesting. China was reasonably interesting too. However the author wrote three slim chapters on India, Africa, and South America and Australia which felt like they were shoehorned in so he could reasonably claim that this book was "global". The chapters on India and Africa were ill-researched, patronising and focused mainly on their interactions with the Western world - especially the UK - rather than their soft power as it stood. Just to give you an example, half of the African chapter was about museums...not necessarily African museums...

[Rupert Maspero · Rating 3 out of 5]

The underlying message was interesting but I expected the book to offer ways in which a country could improve or create soft power. However, the book was mostly observations of how the author's sports interests were soft power.

Shame as he spoke so interestingly at Cheltenham Lit festival about the concept.

[' Syamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Setiap negara mempunyai aura masing-masing yang mampu mempengaruhi negara lain yang dipanggil kuasa lunak.

Russia menawarkan pada negara Afrika satu model kepimpinan yang lain dari barat iaitu mempunyai kepimpinan yang kuat dan berpegang teguh pada nilai tradisi