Donald Trump is eroding America’s soft power
Domestic or foreign policies that appear hypocritical and arrogant can undermine a nation’s attractiveness
Donald Trump’s presidency has eroded America’s soft power. Only 30% of people polled by Gallup in 134 countries held a favourable view of the US under his leadership, a drop of almost 20 points since Barack Obama’s presidency. The Pew Research Centre found that China, with 30% approval ratings, had reached nearparity with the US. And a British index, The Soft Power 30, showed America slipping from first place in 2016 to third place last year.
Trump’s defenders reply that soft power does not matter. Soft power rests on attraction rather than coercion or payment. It co-opts people rather than coerces them. At the personal level, parents know that their power will last longer if they model sound ethical values for their children, rather than relying only on spankings, allowances, or taking away the car keys.
Similarly, political leaders have long understood the power that comes from being able to set the agenda and determine the framework of a debate. If the US represents values that others want to follow, it can economise on sticks and carrots. Added to hard power, attraction can be a force multiplier.
A country’s soft power comes primarily from three sources: its culture (when it is attractive to others), its political values such as democracy and human rights (when it lives up to them), and its policies (when they are seen as legitimate because they are framed with some humility and awareness of others’ interests.) In all of these areas, Trump has reversed attractive American policies.
Domestic or foreign policies that appear hypocritical and arrogant can undermine soft power. For example, the steep decline in the attractiveness of the US in opinion polls conducted after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 were a reaction to the Bush administration and its policies. The war was not the first government policy that made the US unpopular. In the 1970s, many objected to the US war in Vietnam, and America’s global standing reflected the unpopularity of that policy. When the policy changed, the US recovered much of its lost soft power. One of the greatest sources of America’s soft power is the openness of its democratic processes.
Even when mistaken policies reduce its attractiveness, America’s ability to criticise and correct its mistakes makes it attractive to others at a deeper level. When protesters overseas were marching against the Vietnam War, they often sang “We Shall Overcome,” the anthem of the US civil rights movement. America, too, will certainly overcome. Given past experience, there is every to hope that the US will recover its soft power after Trump.