K-Pop, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Indian Cricket – what do these three things have in common? Soft power, of course.
In this episode, we're going to be talking about Soft Power in the 21st century and the unusual but fascinating displays of it.
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about Soft Power in the 21st century.
[00:00:27] You might remember that one of the first episodes we ever made, over 4 years ago now, was about soft power in general, but in this episode we are going to revisit the topic by looking at three unusual but fascinating displays of soft power: Korean pop music, the president of Ukraine and the sport of cricket.
[00:00:49] OK then, soft power in the 21st century.
[00:00:55] Every year, a company called Brand Directory publishes something called The Global Soft Power Index.
[00:01:03] It is a report that surveys over 100,000 people across 101 different countries, and asks them a range of questions about how they feel towards other countries.
[00:01:17] The end result is this large index, a comprehensive report that ranks 121 countries by their so-called “soft power”, how attractive they are perceived to be on a global scale.
[00:01:32] Every year the countries tend to change a bit, some increasing, others decreasing, but the rankings tend to be relatively similar year on year.
[00:01:44] In 2023, the top country globally was, you might be able to guess, the United States of America.
[00:01:52] It was then followed by the UK, then Germany, then Japan, and China came in at number five.
[00:01:59] And just to give you all of the top ten, France came sixth, then Canada, then Switzerland, then Italy at number nine, and the United Arab Emirates shot up from number 15 in 2022 to number 10 in 2023.
[00:02:15] And if you’re wondering which country lost its spot in the top 10 this year, it was Russia, which went from number 9 to number 13.
[00:02:24] Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to spend the rest of this episode reading you out the rest of the list, but I wanted to start with this as I think it gives you a useful introduction to think about “soft power”, and how it relates to the three examples we are going to talk about today: K-Pop, President Zelenskyy, and cricket.
[00:02:46] But first, let’s remind ourselves of what soft power is.
[00:02:52] The term was coined by a political theorist and Harvard professor called Joseph Nye in 1990.
[00:03:00] It means the ability to exert power by attracting people, rather than forcing them with military or economic means.
[00:03:11] He came up with the term to try to explain and understand the post-Cold War world, one in which power was more than about how strong your army was or how many nuclear weapons you had.
[00:03:25] Power could also be “soft”, not “hard”, the carrot was just as important as the stick.
[00:03:33] You could be powerful by attraction, it was just as important for a country to invest in elements of its culture and society that would attract people from other countries rather than simply investing in its military capabilities in order to scare other countries.
[00:03:51] It was a message that came at the right time. American military dominance was waning, and “soft power” was seen as a useful tool to counterbalance this.
[00:04:05] And soft power, of course, isn’t something limited to the United States. In the post Cold War era, countries all over the world have continued to invest in soft power initiatives, projects to improve the way in which their country is perceived by people in other countries.
[00:04:24] From organisations like the British Council, which promotes British culture and of course teaches people English, right through to China’s Confucius Institutes, which do the same thing but for China and Mandarin, many countries all over the world invest heavily in initiatives that make their country and culture seem more attractive to foreigners.
[00:04:47] These examples are some obvious, government-sponsored soft power initiatives, but more often than not a country's soft power comes from unexpected places.
[00:05:01] And it is three examples of this that we are going to talk about today: Korean Pop Music, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Cricket.
[00:05:13] Let’s start with Korean Pop Music, or K-Pop for short.
[00:05:18] South Korea is a relatively small country, just over 50 million people, with pretty limited natural resources.
[00:05:27] But it packs a sizable punch when it comes to pop music, and soft power overall.
[00:05:35] The band BTS is perhaps Korea’s most successful recent export, and it is certainly the country’s most successful musical export, after selling more than 40 million albums.
[00:05:47] You’ve probably heard a BTS song.
[00:05:50] They are absolutely everywhere, and are so big that they were even asked to visit The White House to meet President Joe Biden.
[00:05:58] Now, it’s unclear whether the then 80-year-old American President knew who BTS were, but their cultural impact has been huge.
[00:06:08] They managed to sell out London’s Wembley Stadium, something that only 12 artists have ever managed to do. They got 100 million views on Youtube in 48 hours, and got four no. 1 albums as quickly as The Beatles did.
[00:06:25] And this isn’t merely the story of one group that struck it lucky.
[00:06:30] BTS are surfing a wave that started in the late 1990s, something called “Hallyu”. Hallyu comes from the Mandarin, hánliú, and it literally means “Korean Wave”.
[00:06:44] It refers to the mass popularisation of Korean culture outside Korea. It started in mainland China, where Korean soap operas and TV dramas became incredibly popular in the late 1990s, and has now spread all over the world with Korean cultural exports: movies and TV shows like Parasite and Squid Game, and K-Pop like Psy’s hit single Gangnam Style and the chart-topping sensation that is BTS.
[00:07:15] Now, how, you might be asking, has such a small country managed to have such an outsized cultural impact?
[00:07:23] Well, for a country to produce great musicians, filmmakers and artists, clearly it needs to have a certain base level of economic security and prosperity; great filmmakers and musicians are unlikely to emerge if there are no jobs available and they struggle to put food on the table.
[00:07:42] Many countries have this, of course, so what is so special about South Korea?
[00:07:48] Well, governments certainly do not “create” culture, but there are certain things that a government can do to help foster an environment in which culture can be created by its citizens.
[00:08:01] In the case of Korea, this does appear to be intentional.
[00:08:07] There is a story about a government report that was published in 1994, shortly after the release of the first Jurassic Park movie. The author of the report stated that the Korean government would make the same amount of money by making just one hit movie like Jurassic Park as it would from selling 1.5 million Hyundai cars.
[00:08:31] This was clearly an attractive proposition; instead of doing the capital and labour intensive work of producing cars, it could make one hit movie that would not only generate as much revenue but also help change Korea’s global reputation from the world’s factory to a premier creator of global culture and entertainment.
[00:08:55] After this, the Korean government put into place a series of initiatives that encouraged people to take up creative pursuits, it fostered an environment in which future creatives could thrive, and the result is the Korean Wave that we see today.
[00:09:12] But, of course, a country cannot simply throw money at so-called “cultural projects” and hope that a BTS or a Squid Game or a Parasite will emerge a few years later.
[00:09:25] There are plenty of other factors that are at play, and in the case of the gigantic success of K-Pop, one important factor that is often referenced is the close links to American musical culture that were forged after the Korean War.
[00:09:42] As you may know, the US has maintained a military presence in South Korea since the Korean War. Even today, there are over 20,000 US soldiers stationed in the country.
[00:09:55] One of the main influences of K-Pop is thought to be the early years of the US military presence, when Korean bands would perform music that was heavily influenced by US pop music, but with a distinctly Korean element to it.
[00:10:11] And of course modern K-Pop has similarities with US pop music, but it is unique in its style, it is visibly different from Western pop music.
[00:10:22] It is highly manufactured, with flawless performances and highly disciplined and choreographed shows.
[00:10:29] And of course, from BTS to Psy, it is unbelievably popular all across the world.
[00:10:35] And if you are thinking “so what”, well K-Pop has had a huge impact directly on Korea’s soft power, and brought tangible benefits to South Korea.
[00:10:48] In 2017, BTS was the reason that 1 in 13 tourists visited Korea.
[00:10:56] Korean is the 7th most popular language to learn on Duolingo, despite the fact that it is certainly not an easy language.
[00:11:05] And Korea currently ranks number 15 on the global soft power charts.
[00:11:11] Not bad for a country that, in 1980. had a GDP per capita that was between Ivory Coast and Colombia, and is still dwarfed by two powerful neighbours in the form of China to the West and Japan to the East.
[00:11:27] Now, our next stop on this soft power exploration will be Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
[00:11:35] To state the obvious, this is a very different kind of soft power to K-Pop, but let’s remember that soft power comes from the perception foreigners have of a country.
[00:11:48] Often this comes from the individuals who are the most visible representations of a country. This can be its pop stars, its actors or its footballers, but it’s also the politicians who lead the country.
[00:12:02] In the case of Zelenskyy, this presents an interesting way to explore the idea of soft power.
[00:12:10] When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, it might have seemed like soft power would play no role in the conflict.
[00:12:20] After all, soft power is a long game, it's a question of attraction and persuasion.
[00:12:28] Hard power, on the other hand, refers to military action and economic sanctions, the cold steel of a rifle and the musty smell of dollar bills. And as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine and jets started dropping bombs on Ukrainian cities, there were bigger priorities than making sure that Ukrainian culture could flourish and be attractive to foreigners; it was a case of national survival.
[00:12:56] But soft power is about attraction and persuasion, and Zelenskyy provided a masterclass on the importance of perception to attract and persuade.
[00:13:09] Famously, when he was offered assistance to leave the country, when it looked like he might be captured by Russian forces, he responded with “I need ammunition, not a ride”.
[00:13:22] He would release videos of him in camouflage clothing, army gear, wandering through the rubble of Kiev, talking directly to the individual on the other side of the camera. He was talking to you and to me.
[00:13:36] He would give military-style briefings, was careful to be seen as a leader on the ground, conscious that he was to many people outside Ukraine, the symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
[00:13:50] And while Vladimir Putin might have thought, or at least hoped, that Zelenskyy would have left Ukraine out of fear that he'd be killed or captured, he didn’t. He stayed, and made sure that he used every tool at his disposal to keep Ukraine front and centre of the international news.
[00:14:11] And the result was what we see today, a huge outpouring of sympathy and support for Ukraine in the West.
[00:14:20] Now, this is not to suggest that things would have gone completely differently if Zelenskyy had acted in a different way, or to demean the bravery and sacrifice of the Ukrainian people, but let me ask you to do a quick thought experiment.
[00:14:38] Imagine that, instead of Zelensky in his green t-shirt and army trousers from a bunker in Kiev, Ukraine had been led by a 70-year-old man in a suit who had fled on the first plane to the safety of Germany, let’s say.
[00:14:54] Would there've been exactly the same amount of goodwill towards Ukraine? Perhaps you could argue it would be the same, but I can't imagine you could argue it would have been more.
[00:15:06] What’s abundantly clear is that Zelenskyy was and still is a very savvy media operator.
[00:15:14] And the result has been, as we all know, not only a vast amount of financial and military aid from Western governments to Ukraine but, overall, support for this from the people of those Western governments.
[00:15:29] Soft power in the form of people being attracted by the behaviour of the leader of a country has transformed into hard power in the form of military and financial aid.
[00:15:41] And again to reference Duolingo, Ukrainian went from the 37th most popular language to learn in 2021 to the 17th most popular in 2022.
[00:15:54] Now, I want to move on to our third and final example, that of cricket.
[00:16:01] This is kind of two examples rolled into one, as we’ll be looking at cricket and soft power in two separate countries.
[00:16:10] Cricket, as you may know, was invented in England, and became popular in the 18th and 19th centuries as a "gentleman's game", something played by upper class men of the Victorian era.
[00:16:25] In England it's still relatively popular, but it pales in comparison to football, and even to rugby and tennis.
[00:16:35] As the British Empire continued to colonise every corner of the world, the officers of the Empire brought with them their favourite sports, including, of course, cricket.
[00:16:47] It turned out that, in many of these countries, cricket became very popular, even after the British left.
[00:16:56] If you look at the list of the best cricketing countries in the world, you will see a theme.
[00:17:02] Australia, England of course, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
[00:17:13] All of these countries were, at one point in time, under British colonial rule, and the fact that this unusual sport became so popular there created a strong link between those countries and their coloniser, Britain.
[00:17:29] But you might have noticed that there is one important country missing in that list, the country that is, as of the time of recording this episode, the top-ranked cricketing country in the world, and a country with almost a billion cricket fans: India.
[00:17:47] If you´ve been to India, you will know quite how popular cricket is. 93% of all sport watched on TV in India is cricket, the Indian Cricket League is the most valuable in the world, at a reported $30 billion, and Indian cricket stars are some of the best paid sportspeople in the entire world.
[00:18:10] Now, other than there just being a lot of money in it and people inside India being passionate about cricket, how does this relate to soft power?
[00:18:21] Well, much like football is an important factor in the soft power of countries like England, Spain and Italy, the fact that India is the world’s premier destination for cricket is a contributor to the country’s soft power among the world’s growing number of cricket fans. India, not England, is the world's top cricketing destination.
[00:18:44] And, like with Zelenskyy and Ukraine in our previous example, cricket is also an interesting bridge between soft and hard power: both in 1987 and in 2011, after heightened periods of tension between India and Pakistan, the leaders of both countries decided to display a show of unity by meeting at a sporting event loved by both Indians and Pakistanis: a cricket match.
[00:19:15] Now, cricket is only one element of Indian soft power; clearly there are many more attractive things about the world’s most populous country. But cricket is an interesting example because it is something that was originally a symbol of British power, and is still a link between the coloniser and its now much more powerful colony.
[00:19:37] But cricket has been transformed into something uniquely Indian, the “home of cricket” now as much Eden Gardens in Kolkata as it is Lord’s Stadium in London.
[00:19:49] So, there we go, a little exploration of soft power through the lens of K-Pop, Zelenskyy and cricket.
[00:19:58] In an age where the power of a country is often measured by the strength of its economy or the might of its military, these examples remind us that influence often springs from unexpected sources.
[00:20:11] The soft power of culture, leadership, and sport has the ability to transcend boundaries, alter perceptions, and sometimes, even change the course of history.
[00:20:24] OK then, that is it for today's little exploration of soft power through three unusual and unrelated examples.
[00:20:32] As always, I'd love to know what you thought about this episode.
[00:20:35] Are you a fan of K-Pop? How much impact do you think Zelenskyy had on the perception of Ukrainian resistance abroad? And what comes next for Indian cricket?
[00:20:46] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:20:49] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:20:57] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:21:03] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about Soft Power in the 21st century.
[00:00:27] You might remember that one of the first episodes we ever made, over 4 years ago now, was about soft power in general, but in this episode we are going to revisit the topic by looking at three unusual but fascinating displays of soft power: Korean pop music, the president of Ukraine and the sport of cricket.
[00:00:49] OK then, soft power in the 21st century.
[00:00:55] Every year, a company called Brand Directory publishes something called The Global Soft Power Index.
[00:01:03] It is a report that surveys over 100,000 people across 101 different countries, and asks them a range of questions about how they feel towards other countries.
[00:01:17] The end result is this large index, a comprehensive report that ranks 121 countries by their so-called “soft power”, how attractive they are perceived to be on a global scale.
[00:01:32] Every year the countries tend to change a bit, some increasing, others decreasing, but the rankings tend to be relatively similar year on year.
[00:01:44] In 2023, the top country globally was, you might be able to guess, the United States of America.
[00:01:52] It was then followed by the UK, then Germany, then Japan, and China came in at number five.
[00:01:59] And just to give you all of the top ten, France came sixth, then Canada, then Switzerland, then Italy at number nine, and the United Arab Emirates shot up from number 15 in 2022 to number 10 in 2023.
[00:02:15] And if you’re wondering which country lost its spot in the top 10 this year, it was Russia, which went from number 9 to number 13.
[00:02:24] Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to spend the rest of this episode reading you out the rest of the list, but I wanted to start with this as I think it gives you a useful introduction to think about “soft power”, and how it relates to the three examples we are going to talk about today: K-Pop, President Zelenskyy, and cricket.
[00:02:46] But first, let’s remind ourselves of what soft power is.
[00:02:52] The term was coined by a political theorist and Harvard professor called Joseph Nye in 1990.
[00:03:00] It means the ability to exert power by attracting people, rather than forcing them with military or economic means.
[00:03:11] He came up with the term to try to explain and understand the post-Cold War world, one in which power was more than about how strong your army was or how many nuclear weapons you had.
[00:03:25] Power could also be “soft”, not “hard”, the carrot was just as important as the stick.
[00:03:33] You could be powerful by attraction, it was just as important for a country to invest in elements of its culture and society that would attract people from other countries rather than simply investing in its military capabilities in order to scare other countries.
[00:03:51] It was a message that came at the right time. American military dominance was waning, and “soft power” was seen as a useful tool to counterbalance this.
[00:04:05] And soft power, of course, isn’t something limited to the United States. In the post Cold War era, countries all over the world have continued to invest in soft power initiatives, projects to improve the way in which their country is perceived by people in other countries.
[00:04:24] From organisations like the British Council, which promotes British culture and of course teaches people English, right through to China’s Confucius Institutes, which do the same thing but for China and Mandarin, many countries all over the world invest heavily in initiatives that make their country and culture seem more attractive to foreigners.
[00:04:47] These examples are some obvious, government-sponsored soft power initiatives, but more often than not a country's soft power comes from unexpected places.
[00:05:01] And it is three examples of this that we are going to talk about today: Korean Pop Music, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Cricket.
[00:05:13] Let’s start with Korean Pop Music, or K-Pop for short.
[00:05:18] South Korea is a relatively small country, just over 50 million people, with pretty limited natural resources.
[00:05:27] But it packs a sizable punch when it comes to pop music, and soft power overall.
[00:05:35] The band BTS is perhaps Korea’s most successful recent export, and it is certainly the country’s most successful musical export, after selling more than 40 million albums.
[00:05:47] You’ve probably heard a BTS song.
[00:05:50] They are absolutely everywhere, and are so big that they were even asked to visit The White House to meet President Joe Biden.
[00:05:58] Now, it’s unclear whether the then 80-year-old American President knew who BTS were, but their cultural impact has been huge.
[00:06:08] They managed to sell out London’s Wembley Stadium, something that only 12 artists have ever managed to do. They got 100 million views on Youtube in 48 hours, and got four no. 1 albums as quickly as The Beatles did.
[00:06:25] And this isn’t merely the story of one group that struck it lucky.
[00:06:30] BTS are surfing a wave that started in the late 1990s, something called “Hallyu”. Hallyu comes from the Mandarin, hánliú, and it literally means “Korean Wave”.
[00:06:44] It refers to the mass popularisation of Korean culture outside Korea. It started in mainland China, where Korean soap operas and TV dramas became incredibly popular in the late 1990s, and has now spread all over the world with Korean cultural exports: movies and TV shows like Parasite and Squid Game, and K-Pop like Psy’s hit single Gangnam Style and the chart-topping sensation that is BTS.
[00:07:15] Now, how, you might be asking, has such a small country managed to have such an outsized cultural impact?
[00:07:23] Well, for a country to produce great musicians, filmmakers and artists, clearly it needs to have a certain base level of economic security and prosperity; great filmmakers and musicians are unlikely to emerge if there are no jobs available and they struggle to put food on the table.
[00:07:42] Many countries have this, of course, so what is so special about South Korea?
[00:07:48] Well, governments certainly do not “create” culture, but there are certain things that a government can do to help foster an environment in which culture can be created by its citizens.
[00:08:01] In the case of Korea, this does appear to be intentional.
[00:08:07] There is a story about a government report that was published in 1994, shortly after the release of the first Jurassic Park movie. The author of the report stated that the Korean government would make the same amount of money by making just one hit movie like Jurassic Park as it would from selling 1.5 million Hyundai cars.
[00:08:31] This was clearly an attractive proposition; instead of doing the capital and labour intensive work of producing cars, it could make one hit movie that would not only generate as much revenue but also help change Korea’s global reputation from the world’s factory to a premier creator of global culture and entertainment.
[00:08:55] After this, the Korean government put into place a series of initiatives that encouraged people to take up creative pursuits, it fostered an environment in which future creatives could thrive, and the result is the Korean Wave that we see today.
[00:09:12] But, of course, a country cannot simply throw money at so-called “cultural projects” and hope that a BTS or a Squid Game or a Parasite will emerge a few years later.
[00:09:25] There are plenty of other factors that are at play, and in the case of the gigantic success of K-Pop, one important factor that is often referenced is the close links to American musical culture that were forged after the Korean War.
[00:09:42] As you may know, the US has maintained a military presence in South Korea since the Korean War. Even today, there are over 20,000 US soldiers stationed in the country.
[00:09:55] One of the main influences of K-Pop is thought to be the early years of the US military presence, when Korean bands would perform music that was heavily influenced by US pop music, but with a distinctly Korean element to it.
[00:10:11] And of course modern K-Pop has similarities with US pop music, but it is unique in its style, it is visibly different from Western pop music.
[00:10:22] It is highly manufactured, with flawless performances and highly disciplined and choreographed shows.
[00:10:29] And of course, from BTS to Psy, it is unbelievably popular all across the world.
[00:10:35] And if you are thinking “so what”, well K-Pop has had a huge impact directly on Korea’s soft power, and brought tangible benefits to South Korea.
[00:10:48] In 2017, BTS was the reason that 1 in 13 tourists visited Korea.
[00:10:56] Korean is the 7th most popular language to learn on Duolingo, despite the fact that it is certainly not an easy language.
[00:11:05] And Korea currently ranks number 15 on the global soft power charts.
[00:11:11] Not bad for a country that, in 1980. had a GDP per capita that was between Ivory Coast and Colombia, and is still dwarfed by two powerful neighbours in the form of China to the West and Japan to the East.
[00:11:27] Now, our next stop on this soft power exploration will be Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
[00:11:35] To state the obvious, this is a very different kind of soft power to K-Pop, but let’s remember that soft power comes from the perception foreigners have of a country.
[00:11:48] Often this comes from the individuals who are the most visible representations of a country. This can be its pop stars, its actors or its footballers, but it’s also the politicians who lead the country.
[00:12:02] In the case of Zelenskyy, this presents an interesting way to explore the idea of soft power.
[00:12:10] When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, it might have seemed like soft power would play no role in the conflict.
[00:12:20] After all, soft power is a long game, it's a question of attraction and persuasion.
[00:12:28] Hard power, on the other hand, refers to military action and economic sanctions, the cold steel of a rifle and the musty smell of dollar bills. And as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine and jets started dropping bombs on Ukrainian cities, there were bigger priorities than making sure that Ukrainian culture could flourish and be attractive to foreigners; it was a case of national survival.
[00:12:56] But soft power is about attraction and persuasion, and Zelenskyy provided a masterclass on the importance of perception to attract and persuade.
[00:13:09] Famously, when he was offered assistance to leave the country, when it looked like he might be captured by Russian forces, he responded with “I need ammunition, not a ride”.
[00:13:22] He would release videos of him in camouflage clothing, army gear, wandering through the rubble of Kiev, talking directly to the individual on the other side of the camera. He was talking to you and to me.
[00:13:36] He would give military-style briefings, was careful to be seen as a leader on the ground, conscious that he was to many people outside Ukraine, the symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
[00:13:50] And while Vladimir Putin might have thought, or at least hoped, that Zelenskyy would have left Ukraine out of fear that he'd be killed or captured, he didn’t. He stayed, and made sure that he used every tool at his disposal to keep Ukraine front and centre of the international news.
[00:14:11] And the result was what we see today, a huge outpouring of sympathy and support for Ukraine in the West.
[00:14:20] Now, this is not to suggest that things would have gone completely differently if Zelenskyy had acted in a different way, or to demean the bravery and sacrifice of the Ukrainian people, but let me ask you to do a quick thought experiment.
[00:14:38] Imagine that, instead of Zelensky in his green t-shirt and army trousers from a bunker in Kiev, Ukraine had been led by a 70-year-old man in a suit who had fled on the first plane to the safety of Germany, let’s say.
[00:14:54] Would there've been exactly the same amount of goodwill towards Ukraine? Perhaps you could argue it would be the same, but I can't imagine you could argue it would have been more.
[00:15:06] What’s abundantly clear is that Zelenskyy was and still is a very savvy media operator.
[00:15:14] And the result has been, as we all know, not only a vast amount of financial and military aid from Western governments to Ukraine but, overall, support for this from the people of those Western governments.
[00:15:29] Soft power in the form of people being attracted by the behaviour of the leader of a country has transformed into hard power in the form of military and financial aid.
[00:15:41] And again to reference Duolingo, Ukrainian went from the 37th most popular language to learn in 2021 to the 17th most popular in 2022.
[00:15:54] Now, I want to move on to our third and final example, that of cricket.
[00:16:01] This is kind of two examples rolled into one, as we’ll be looking at cricket and soft power in two separate countries.
[00:16:10] Cricket, as you may know, was invented in England, and became popular in the 18th and 19th centuries as a "gentleman's game", something played by upper class men of the Victorian era.
[00:16:25] In England it's still relatively popular, but it pales in comparison to football, and even to rugby and tennis.
[00:16:35] As the British Empire continued to colonise every corner of the world, the officers of the Empire brought with them their favourite sports, including, of course, cricket.
[00:16:47] It turned out that, in many of these countries, cricket became very popular, even after the British left.
[00:16:56] If you look at the list of the best cricketing countries in the world, you will see a theme.
[00:17:02] Australia, England of course, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
[00:17:13] All of these countries were, at one point in time, under British colonial rule, and the fact that this unusual sport became so popular there created a strong link between those countries and their coloniser, Britain.
[00:17:29] But you might have noticed that there is one important country missing in that list, the country that is, as of the time of recording this episode, the top-ranked cricketing country in the world, and a country with almost a billion cricket fans: India.
[00:17:47] If you´ve been to India, you will know quite how popular cricket is. 93% of all sport watched on TV in India is cricket, the Indian Cricket League is the most valuable in the world, at a reported $30 billion, and Indian cricket stars are some of the best paid sportspeople in the entire world.
[00:18:10] Now, other than there just being a lot of money in it and people inside India being passionate about cricket, how does this relate to soft power?
[00:18:21] Well, much like football is an important factor in the soft power of countries like England, Spain and Italy, the fact that India is the world’s premier destination for cricket is a contributor to the country’s soft power among the world’s growing number of cricket fans. India, not England, is the world's top cricketing destination.
[00:18:44] And, like with Zelenskyy and Ukraine in our previous example, cricket is also an interesting bridge between soft and hard power: both in 1987 and in 2011, after heightened periods of tension between India and Pakistan, the leaders of both countries decided to display a show of unity by meeting at a sporting event loved by both Indians and Pakistanis: a cricket match.
[00:19:15] Now, cricket is only one element of Indian soft power; clearly there are many more attractive things about the world’s most populous country. But cricket is an interesting example because it is something that was originally a symbol of British power, and is still a link between the coloniser and its now much more powerful colony.
[00:19:37] But cricket has been transformed into something uniquely Indian, the “home of cricket” now as much Eden Gardens in Kolkata as it is Lord’s Stadium in London.
[00:19:49] So, there we go, a little exploration of soft power through the lens of K-Pop, Zelenskyy and cricket.
[00:19:58] In an age where the power of a country is often measured by the strength of its economy or the might of its military, these examples remind us that influence often springs from unexpected sources.
[00:20:11] The soft power of culture, leadership, and sport has the ability to transcend boundaries, alter perceptions, and sometimes, even change the course of history.
[00:20:24] OK then, that is it for today's little exploration of soft power through three unusual and unrelated examples.
[00:20:32] As always, I'd love to know what you thought about this episode.
[00:20:35] Are you a fan of K-Pop? How much impact do you think Zelenskyy had on the perception of Ukrainian resistance abroad? And what comes next for Indian cricket?
[00:20:46] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:20:49] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:20:57] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:21:03] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
[00:00:05] Hello, hello hello, and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:00:11] The show where you can listen to fascinating stories, and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
[00:00:20] I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about Soft Power in the 21st century.
[00:00:27] You might remember that one of the first episodes we ever made, over 4 years ago now, was about soft power in general, but in this episode we are going to revisit the topic by looking at three unusual but fascinating displays of soft power: Korean pop music, the president of Ukraine and the sport of cricket.
[00:00:49] OK then, soft power in the 21st century.
[00:00:55] Every year, a company called Brand Directory publishes something called The Global Soft Power Index.
[00:01:03] It is a report that surveys over 100,000 people across 101 different countries, and asks them a range of questions about how they feel towards other countries.
[00:01:17] The end result is this large index, a comprehensive report that ranks 121 countries by their so-called “soft power”, how attractive they are perceived to be on a global scale.
[00:01:32] Every year the countries tend to change a bit, some increasing, others decreasing, but the rankings tend to be relatively similar year on year.
[00:01:44] In 2023, the top country globally was, you might be able to guess, the United States of America.
[00:01:52] It was then followed by the UK, then Germany, then Japan, and China came in at number five.
[00:01:59] And just to give you all of the top ten, France came sixth, then Canada, then Switzerland, then Italy at number nine, and the United Arab Emirates shot up from number 15 in 2022 to number 10 in 2023.
[00:02:15] And if you’re wondering which country lost its spot in the top 10 this year, it was Russia, which went from number 9 to number 13.
[00:02:24] Now, don’t worry, I’m not going to spend the rest of this episode reading you out the rest of the list, but I wanted to start with this as I think it gives you a useful introduction to think about “soft power”, and how it relates to the three examples we are going to talk about today: K-Pop, President Zelenskyy, and cricket.
[00:02:46] But first, let’s remind ourselves of what soft power is.
[00:02:52] The term was coined by a political theorist and Harvard professor called Joseph Nye in 1990.
[00:03:00] It means the ability to exert power by attracting people, rather than forcing them with military or economic means.
[00:03:11] He came up with the term to try to explain and understand the post-Cold War world, one in which power was more than about how strong your army was or how many nuclear weapons you had.
[00:03:25] Power could also be “soft”, not “hard”, the carrot was just as important as the stick.
[00:03:33] You could be powerful by attraction, it was just as important for a country to invest in elements of its culture and society that would attract people from other countries rather than simply investing in its military capabilities in order to scare other countries.
[00:03:51] It was a message that came at the right time. American military dominance was waning, and “soft power” was seen as a useful tool to counterbalance this.
[00:04:05] And soft power, of course, isn’t something limited to the United States. In the post Cold War era, countries all over the world have continued to invest in soft power initiatives, projects to improve the way in which their country is perceived by people in other countries.
[00:04:24] From organisations like the British Council, which promotes British culture and of course teaches people English, right through to China’s Confucius Institutes, which do the same thing but for China and Mandarin, many countries all over the world invest heavily in initiatives that make their country and culture seem more attractive to foreigners.
[00:04:47] These examples are some obvious, government-sponsored soft power initiatives, but more often than not a country's soft power comes from unexpected places.
[00:05:01] And it is three examples of this that we are going to talk about today: Korean Pop Music, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Cricket.
[00:05:13] Let’s start with Korean Pop Music, or K-Pop for short.
[00:05:18] South Korea is a relatively small country, just over 50 million people, with pretty limited natural resources.
[00:05:27] But it packs a sizable punch when it comes to pop music, and soft power overall.
[00:05:35] The band BTS is perhaps Korea’s most successful recent export, and it is certainly the country’s most successful musical export, after selling more than 40 million albums.
[00:05:47] You’ve probably heard a BTS song.
[00:05:50] They are absolutely everywhere, and are so big that they were even asked to visit The White House to meet President Joe Biden.
[00:05:58] Now, it’s unclear whether the then 80-year-old American President knew who BTS were, but their cultural impact has been huge.
[00:06:08] They managed to sell out London’s Wembley Stadium, something that only 12 artists have ever managed to do. They got 100 million views on Youtube in 48 hours, and got four no. 1 albums as quickly as The Beatles did.
[00:06:25] And this isn’t merely the story of one group that struck it lucky.
[00:06:30] BTS are surfing a wave that started in the late 1990s, something called “Hallyu”. Hallyu comes from the Mandarin, hánliú, and it literally means “Korean Wave”.
[00:06:44] It refers to the mass popularisation of Korean culture outside Korea. It started in mainland China, where Korean soap operas and TV dramas became incredibly popular in the late 1990s, and has now spread all over the world with Korean cultural exports: movies and TV shows like Parasite and Squid Game, and K-Pop like Psy’s hit single Gangnam Style and the chart-topping sensation that is BTS.
[00:07:15] Now, how, you might be asking, has such a small country managed to have such an outsized cultural impact?
[00:07:23] Well, for a country to produce great musicians, filmmakers and artists, clearly it needs to have a certain base level of economic security and prosperity; great filmmakers and musicians are unlikely to emerge if there are no jobs available and they struggle to put food on the table.
[00:07:42] Many countries have this, of course, so what is so special about South Korea?
[00:07:48] Well, governments certainly do not “create” culture, but there are certain things that a government can do to help foster an environment in which culture can be created by its citizens.
[00:08:01] In the case of Korea, this does appear to be intentional.
[00:08:07] There is a story about a government report that was published in 1994, shortly after the release of the first Jurassic Park movie. The author of the report stated that the Korean government would make the same amount of money by making just one hit movie like Jurassic Park as it would from selling 1.5 million Hyundai cars.
[00:08:31] This was clearly an attractive proposition; instead of doing the capital and labour intensive work of producing cars, it could make one hit movie that would not only generate as much revenue but also help change Korea’s global reputation from the world’s factory to a premier creator of global culture and entertainment.
[00:08:55] After this, the Korean government put into place a series of initiatives that encouraged people to take up creative pursuits, it fostered an environment in which future creatives could thrive, and the result is the Korean Wave that we see today.
[00:09:12] But, of course, a country cannot simply throw money at so-called “cultural projects” and hope that a BTS or a Squid Game or a Parasite will emerge a few years later.
[00:09:25] There are plenty of other factors that are at play, and in the case of the gigantic success of K-Pop, one important factor that is often referenced is the close links to American musical culture that were forged after the Korean War.
[00:09:42] As you may know, the US has maintained a military presence in South Korea since the Korean War. Even today, there are over 20,000 US soldiers stationed in the country.
[00:09:55] One of the main influences of K-Pop is thought to be the early years of the US military presence, when Korean bands would perform music that was heavily influenced by US pop music, but with a distinctly Korean element to it.
[00:10:11] And of course modern K-Pop has similarities with US pop music, but it is unique in its style, it is visibly different from Western pop music.
[00:10:22] It is highly manufactured, with flawless performances and highly disciplined and choreographed shows.
[00:10:29] And of course, from BTS to Psy, it is unbelievably popular all across the world.
[00:10:35] And if you are thinking “so what”, well K-Pop has had a huge impact directly on Korea’s soft power, and brought tangible benefits to South Korea.
[00:10:48] In 2017, BTS was the reason that 1 in 13 tourists visited Korea.
[00:10:56] Korean is the 7th most popular language to learn on Duolingo, despite the fact that it is certainly not an easy language.
[00:11:05] And Korea currently ranks number 15 on the global soft power charts.
[00:11:11] Not bad for a country that, in 1980. had a GDP per capita that was between Ivory Coast and Colombia, and is still dwarfed by two powerful neighbours in the form of China to the West and Japan to the East.
[00:11:27] Now, our next stop on this soft power exploration will be Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine.
[00:11:35] To state the obvious, this is a very different kind of soft power to K-Pop, but let’s remember that soft power comes from the perception foreigners have of a country.
[00:11:48] Often this comes from the individuals who are the most visible representations of a country. This can be its pop stars, its actors or its footballers, but it’s also the politicians who lead the country.
[00:12:02] In the case of Zelenskyy, this presents an interesting way to explore the idea of soft power.
[00:12:10] When Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, it might have seemed like soft power would play no role in the conflict.
[00:12:20] After all, soft power is a long game, it's a question of attraction and persuasion.
[00:12:28] Hard power, on the other hand, refers to military action and economic sanctions, the cold steel of a rifle and the musty smell of dollar bills. And as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine and jets started dropping bombs on Ukrainian cities, there were bigger priorities than making sure that Ukrainian culture could flourish and be attractive to foreigners; it was a case of national survival.
[00:12:56] But soft power is about attraction and persuasion, and Zelenskyy provided a masterclass on the importance of perception to attract and persuade.
[00:13:09] Famously, when he was offered assistance to leave the country, when it looked like he might be captured by Russian forces, he responded with “I need ammunition, not a ride”.
[00:13:22] He would release videos of him in camouflage clothing, army gear, wandering through the rubble of Kiev, talking directly to the individual on the other side of the camera. He was talking to you and to me.
[00:13:36] He would give military-style briefings, was careful to be seen as a leader on the ground, conscious that he was to many people outside Ukraine, the symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
[00:13:50] And while Vladimir Putin might have thought, or at least hoped, that Zelenskyy would have left Ukraine out of fear that he'd be killed or captured, he didn’t. He stayed, and made sure that he used every tool at his disposal to keep Ukraine front and centre of the international news.
[00:14:11] And the result was what we see today, a huge outpouring of sympathy and support for Ukraine in the West.
[00:14:20] Now, this is not to suggest that things would have gone completely differently if Zelenskyy had acted in a different way, or to demean the bravery and sacrifice of the Ukrainian people, but let me ask you to do a quick thought experiment.
[00:14:38] Imagine that, instead of Zelensky in his green t-shirt and army trousers from a bunker in Kiev, Ukraine had been led by a 70-year-old man in a suit who had fled on the first plane to the safety of Germany, let’s say.
[00:14:54] Would there've been exactly the same amount of goodwill towards Ukraine? Perhaps you could argue it would be the same, but I can't imagine you could argue it would have been more.
[00:15:06] What’s abundantly clear is that Zelenskyy was and still is a very savvy media operator.
[00:15:14] And the result has been, as we all know, not only a vast amount of financial and military aid from Western governments to Ukraine but, overall, support for this from the people of those Western governments.
[00:15:29] Soft power in the form of people being attracted by the behaviour of the leader of a country has transformed into hard power in the form of military and financial aid.
[00:15:41] And again to reference Duolingo, Ukrainian went from the 37th most popular language to learn in 2021 to the 17th most popular in 2022.
[00:15:54] Now, I want to move on to our third and final example, that of cricket.
[00:16:01] This is kind of two examples rolled into one, as we’ll be looking at cricket and soft power in two separate countries.
[00:16:10] Cricket, as you may know, was invented in England, and became popular in the 18th and 19th centuries as a "gentleman's game", something played by upper class men of the Victorian era.
[00:16:25] In England it's still relatively popular, but it pales in comparison to football, and even to rugby and tennis.
[00:16:35] As the British Empire continued to colonise every corner of the world, the officers of the Empire brought with them their favourite sports, including, of course, cricket.
[00:16:47] It turned out that, in many of these countries, cricket became very popular, even after the British left.
[00:16:56] If you look at the list of the best cricketing countries in the world, you will see a theme.
[00:17:02] Australia, England of course, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
[00:17:13] All of these countries were, at one point in time, under British colonial rule, and the fact that this unusual sport became so popular there created a strong link between those countries and their coloniser, Britain.
[00:17:29] But you might have noticed that there is one important country missing in that list, the country that is, as of the time of recording this episode, the top-ranked cricketing country in the world, and a country with almost a billion cricket fans: India.
[00:17:47] If you´ve been to India, you will know quite how popular cricket is. 93% of all sport watched on TV in India is cricket, the Indian Cricket League is the most valuable in the world, at a reported $30 billion, and Indian cricket stars are some of the best paid sportspeople in the entire world.
[00:18:10] Now, other than there just being a lot of money in it and people inside India being passionate about cricket, how does this relate to soft power?
[00:18:21] Well, much like football is an important factor in the soft power of countries like England, Spain and Italy, the fact that India is the world’s premier destination for cricket is a contributor to the country’s soft power among the world’s growing number of cricket fans. India, not England, is the world's top cricketing destination.
[00:18:44] And, like with Zelenskyy and Ukraine in our previous example, cricket is also an interesting bridge between soft and hard power: both in 1987 and in 2011, after heightened periods of tension between India and Pakistan, the leaders of both countries decided to display a show of unity by meeting at a sporting event loved by both Indians and Pakistanis: a cricket match.
[00:19:15] Now, cricket is only one element of Indian soft power; clearly there are many more attractive things about the world’s most populous country. But cricket is an interesting example because it is something that was originally a symbol of British power, and is still a link between the coloniser and its now much more powerful colony.
[00:19:37] But cricket has been transformed into something uniquely Indian, the “home of cricket” now as much Eden Gardens in Kolkata as it is Lord’s Stadium in London.
[00:19:49] So, there we go, a little exploration of soft power through the lens of K-Pop, Zelenskyy and cricket.
[00:19:58] In an age where the power of a country is often measured by the strength of its economy or the might of its military, these examples remind us that influence often springs from unexpected sources.
[00:20:11] The soft power of culture, leadership, and sport has the ability to transcend boundaries, alter perceptions, and sometimes, even change the course of history.
[00:20:24] OK then, that is it for today's little exploration of soft power through three unusual and unrelated examples.
[00:20:32] As always, I'd love to know what you thought about this episode.
[00:20:35] Are you a fan of K-Pop? How much impact do you think Zelenskyy had on the perception of Ukrainian resistance abroad? And what comes next for Indian cricket?
[00:20:46] I would love to know, so let’s get this discussion started.
[00:20:49] You can head right into our community forum, which is at community.leonardoenglish.com and get chatting away to other curious minds.
[00:20:57] You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds, by Leonardo English.
[00:21:03] I'm Alastair Budge, you stay safe, and I'll catch you in the next episode.
[END OF EPISODE]
