The Soft Power 30: getting to grips with the measurement challenge
The question all countries face today is how best to achieve their foreign policy goals in an increasingly complex and inter dependent world. Challenges and opportunities now rarely sit within national borders. Power has never been more diffuse, moving not just from west to east but also from governments to non state actors. The digital revolution is accelerating this diffusion of power, enabling citizens to come together within, and beyond, countries in a way that has never been possible. The result is a world in which the use of soft power is increasingly important to the shaping of global outcomes whether they be driven by state or non state actors. This paper provides an overview of the research undertaken as part of the Soft Power 30 study in 2015 and 2016. It focuses more on the theoretical considerations that went into the development of a composite index designed to measure the soft power resources of countries in a comparable way. The aim of the paper is to give a more detailed account of the methodology used in the research, report on results so far, consider the growing implications of digital diplomacy for soft power, and give a look ahead to considerations for future research.