Power is at the heart of humanity’s need to bring about change. In the political arena, the power most often drawn upon is hard; in other words, activities that are confrontational, controlling, and coercive. Hard power includes all the different kinds of propaganda, power diplomacy, military activity, and development aid carried out with the intent to “fix”.
The Impact of Soft Power
The impact of soft power – public diplomacy – to achieve change is heavily underestimated. Potter has chosen Canada for this in-depth study of the impact of soft power. What he says speaks directly to a new world consciousness.
Soft power, or public diplomacy, refers to activities that lead by
- Co-opting and inclusion
- Validation
- Respect
- Attraction
These activities of conscious leadership by their very nature co-create positive outcomes. In any relationship where both parties feel included, respected and appreciated, positive outcomes are achievable.
Public Diplomacy Offers Tools for Positive Change
In Branding Canada, Potter demonstrates how Canada has successfully chosen as its ambassadors her exchange students, academics, scientists and researchers, artists and authors, athletes and even the Canadian tourist (Potter includes backpackers).
The results of this long term, low-key public diplomacy are far-reaching and long lasting. Canadians are welcome all over the planet as polite and respectful guests. Through international sporting events such as hockey and the Olympics, the world is familiar with the names of cities such as Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. This attracts foreign visitors, which in turn creates a bond that leaves a lasting impression. Canadians are sought after to join international policy committees because they have a reputation for offering leadership that listens rather than leadership that argues for its own position.
Values and Beliefs
Conscious leadership is founded on values and beliefs that empower people and lead to positive change. Potter repeats often and accurately that we live in a connected world. In this technologically connected environment where information flows continually, the values and beliefs of a nation are what brand that country and distinguish it from the rest of the world. The values and beliefs by which a nation conducts its business will be the country’s identifying characteristics.
The Impact of Soft Power to Brand a Nation
Potter underscores the importance of the tools of public diplomacy to brand a nation and in turn to influence. Canadians choose time and again to turn and face the complexities of human rights, religious diversity, health care, and culture as they co-create the kind of country they want to be.
Potter draws on the writings of John Ralston Saul, one of Canada’s best-known public intellectuals, to demonstrate how the world serves as a mirror to show Canadians what kind of society they have created. As Ralston Saul points out that if world perception is anything to go by, Canada’s way of engaging with the issues that challenge humanity is worthy of attention, not because Canadians force the world to do business their way, but because that is the way they conduct their own business. Canada’s soft power is a force to be reckoned with.
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