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India's Edge Over China: Soft Power
In the struggle to win support around Asia, India's openness gives the country a big advantage compared with China, columnist John Lee writes
By John Lee
ASIA
While China's neighbors look at the country's rise with a mixture of apprehension and admiration, the story of India's reemergence as a regional power is more attractive to many states in the region. After all, unlike China, India has no history of invasion or domination in East and Southeast Asia and does not have competing claims in the South China Sea with other Asian states. Moreover, "in today's world," India's then-Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said in a speech last November, "it is not the size of the army that wins but the country that tells the better story." As the world's largest democracy, with a vibrant press and thriving entertainment industry, India has huge soft power advantages over China and its state-controlled media. The implication is India can take advantage of that goodwill as Asia's two giants battle for influence in the region and around the world.
Tharoor is correct to refer to India's soft-power advantages. But goodwill towards India and the enormous potential of Indian soft power—the ability to influence the behavior of other states through attraction and cooptation rather than military force or economic inducement—does not arise simply from the growing popularity of Bollywood movies or the fact that Indian contestants (along with those from Venezuela) have won more Miss World contests than any other country. The fact that one likes Indian culture may not necessarily lead foreign governments to accede and acquiesce to Indian foreign policy objectives.
Instead, power—soft or hard—needs to be understood within the context of how attractiveness and influence in the region is acquired and wielded. The regional order over the past two decades has been characterized by a move toward open markets, multinational cooperation, international rule-of-law, and an evolving democratic community—all backed by American preeminence and Washington's security alliances and partnerships with key capitals, such as Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra, Singapore, Manila and Bangkok. The enduring preference of all key states (with the exception of China) is to maintain the existing order vis-à-vis newly reemerging powers such as China and India.
STRATEGICALLY COMFORTABLE
That India is rising through full and unapologetic participation in the American-led regional order works to its advantage. Although India is not looking to become an American ally, New Delhi is fundamentally satisfied with the existing strategic order. As Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo puts it in an interview with The Hindu newspaper in January 2007, "We see India's presence as being a beneficial and beneficent one to all of us in Southeast Asia."
Moreover, India was already a robust democratic country that has remained intact despite still-open wounds from decades of disastrous socialist economic policies. That allows the country to leverage what Professor Michael Mandelbaum of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies calls "democratic exemplarism"—a paradigm emerging from the successful examples of not just the U.S. but the evolving liberal democracies in East and Southeast Asia.
In particular, Indian politics and society are well aligned with regional standards of what constitutes a modern and legitimate social and political system. Unlike the intolerance of political pluralism in China, India's domestic habits of negotiation and compromise from 60 years of robust democracy offer greater reassurance to other states that these virtues will be carried over in New Delhi's interaction with other capitals.
NOT MUCH APPREHENSION
Therefore, in addition to being impressed with India's recently acquired hard-power abilities (such as its naval fleet of almost 60 surface ships), plus an economy that has been growing at a rate of 7 percent to 8 percent for almost two decades, political and strategic elites increasingly see India as a predictable, stabilizing, cooperative, and attractive rising power.(continued in the next post)
In the struggle to win support around Asia, India's openness gives the country a big advantage compared with China, columnist John Lee writes
By John Lee
ASIA
While China's neighbors look at the country's rise with a mixture of apprehension and admiration, the story of India's reemergence as a regional power is more attractive to many states in the region. After all, unlike China, India has no history of invasion or domination in East and Southeast Asia and does not have competing claims in the South China Sea with other Asian states. Moreover, "in today's world," India's then-Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said in a speech last November, "it is not the size of the army that wins but the country that tells the better story." As the world's largest democracy, with a vibrant press and thriving entertainment industry, India has huge soft power advantages over China and its state-controlled media. The implication is India can take advantage of that goodwill as Asia's two giants battle for influence in the region and around the world.
Tharoor is correct to refer to India's soft-power advantages. But goodwill towards India and the enormous potential of Indian soft power—the ability to influence the behavior of other states through attraction and cooptation rather than military force or economic inducement—does not arise simply from the growing popularity of Bollywood movies or the fact that Indian contestants (along with those from Venezuela) have won more Miss World contests than any other country. The fact that one likes Indian culture may not necessarily lead foreign governments to accede and acquiesce to Indian foreign policy objectives.
Instead, power—soft or hard—needs to be understood within the context of how attractiveness and influence in the region is acquired and wielded. The regional order over the past two decades has been characterized by a move toward open markets, multinational cooperation, international rule-of-law, and an evolving democratic community—all backed by American preeminence and Washington's security alliances and partnerships with key capitals, such as Tokyo, Seoul, Canberra, Singapore, Manila and Bangkok. The enduring preference of all key states (with the exception of China) is to maintain the existing order vis-à-vis newly reemerging powers such as China and India.
STRATEGICALLY COMFORTABLE
That India is rising through full and unapologetic participation in the American-led regional order works to its advantage. Although India is not looking to become an American ally, New Delhi is fundamentally satisfied with the existing strategic order. As Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo puts it in an interview with The Hindu newspaper in January 2007, "We see India's presence as being a beneficial and beneficent one to all of us in Southeast Asia."
Moreover, India was already a robust democratic country that has remained intact despite still-open wounds from decades of disastrous socialist economic policies. That allows the country to leverage what Professor Michael Mandelbaum of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies calls "democratic exemplarism"—a paradigm emerging from the successful examples of not just the U.S. but the evolving liberal democracies in East and Southeast Asia.
In particular, Indian politics and society are well aligned with regional standards of what constitutes a modern and legitimate social and political system. Unlike the intolerance of political pluralism in China, India's domestic habits of negotiation and compromise from 60 years of robust democracy offer greater reassurance to other states that these virtues will be carried over in New Delhi's interaction with other capitals.
NOT MUCH APPREHENSION
Therefore, in addition to being impressed with India's recently acquired hard-power abilities (such as its naval fleet of almost 60 surface ships), plus an economy that has been growing at a rate of 7 percent to 8 percent for almost two decades, political and strategic elites increasingly see India as a predictable, stabilizing, cooperative, and attractive rising power.(continued in the next post)
