How a countryʼs perceived openness affects its clout abroad

By THE DATA TEAM

JOSEPH NYE, an American political scientist, first coined the term “soft power” in 1990. It describes the ability to coax and persuade others, rather than coerce them. For countries, it is a way to spread influence subtly without the use of armies, sanctions or other forceful techniques.

By its nature, soft power is far harder to measure than the size and effectiveness of standing armies. In an attempt to put firm numbers to the concept, Portland, a London-based PR firm, and the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy have created an index of soft power, the most recent update of which was released today. It is made up of two parts: 30% is based on polling data on countries’ reputations abroad; the remainder relies on concrete statistics on variables such as diplomatic missions abroad, government foreign-aid budgets, memberships of multilateral organisations and so on. Changes in the 30-country ranking, which has been running for three years, seem to show that a countryʼs perceived openness is linked to its clout abroad.