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WOMEN AND SOFT POWER For as long as any of us can remember, we have lived in a world controlled by hard power. A world where dominant nations have used money, arms and strong talk to coerce weaker nations into a global world order. Soft power, first identified by a Harvard Professor during the Clinton years, began as an alternative – if secondary – strategy for a less predictable, globalised world. Instead of forcing and intimidating the weak into compliance, these nations would use persuasion, attraction and influence for the same ends. Soft power took the form of diplomacy, trading must-have objects – from PCs to McDonalds - and exporting artists of all kinds who somehow embodied the values of the dominant nations. Using soft power as an adjunct to hard power, they could have a much greater hold on the weaker nations than ever. But what kind of world has emerged with hard power still calling most of the shots and soft power operating in the shadows? Fast, furious, fun: certainly. But on the brink of self-destruction in at least three ways: environmental degradation the world over, extreme poverty in developing nations and a nuclear arms build-up which threatens us all. From a global eye’s view, it is a hard and dangerous reality, with far too many losers. How did we come to this and how can we challenge it? All my life I have searched for ways and means to make a difference. But it was not until I became the mother of a boy, watching him struggle to come to a positive identity in this Western society, that I began to understand that masculinity has been the right hand in shaping the world as we know it. Men dominate leadership, ownership, invention and media visibility: they also, overwhelmingly, dominate crime, violence, militia and business. The world that we know and share is the world that they have fashioned. But I can see my boy has the option to grow up differently. In an age where women have begun to claw back some of their agency, he is far less sure about the function and purpose of his masculinity. Just as science begins to allow for essential differences between the sexes to be part of the picture, he is willing to address the downsides of his maleness, whether it be a quickness to anger or a reluctance to communicate. He wants to play well and often, the way that men do –but he wants to care well too and just as passionately. Knowing full well that many of the men that came before him will not be as open to a gentler story about the world as he is, what can girls and women do to help enable the changes that could take place? How can men and women work together to make a real difference to our world? Which words and concepts can create bridges between what women always wanted and men are beginning to value? Within the overwhelmingly male political culture, soft power has – till now - been marginalised. Nevertheless, it does offer an entry point for women – and the ‘less hard’ young men like my son - into society and politics: a means whereby they can begin to assert their values and vision of a very different world. A less violent, more cooperative, more mutually appreciative, more connected world. A more patient, developmental, transformative and conscious world. This book calls upon both women and men – but particularly older women and younger men - to pick up Soft Power where the politicians and experts have left it. No longer a second-best option, soft power has the potential to become the key to unlocking a new era of peace and development. If that sounds like a soft notion, then call me soft.
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WOMEN AND SOFT POWER -- Indra Adnan in the Guardian
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