SOFT POWER

THE NEW GREAT GAME FOR GLOBAL DOMINANCE

ROBERT WINDER

Little, Brown, 416pp, £20, ebook £20

‘That slippery oxymoronic phrase refers to the art of projecting one’s country without wielding a big stick – something Britain, having lost an empire, needs to be good at, and is,’ wrote Andrew Lycett in the Mail on

Sunday. ‘While hedging his bets on the effectiveness of this “weapon of mass distraction”, Winder is fascinating on related issues, such as the restitution of artworks. He suggests Britain could steal a march here by distributing its own cultural heritage across the world.’ As Max Hastings explained in his

Sunday Times review, the book ‘explores many nations’ exploitation of soft power, including the Russia Today TV network, a Kremlin-funded fake-news factory, and the growing international popularity of Japanese culture... A substantial part of the

‘Winder is fascinating on issues such as the restitution of artworks’

book addresses what the author sees as the diminution of global respect for Britain, and even more for the US, as a consequence of their recent conduct of their affairs.’ Hastings went on to note that Soft Power ‘reflects its author’s intelligence and wide reading’ and ‘pursues a host of themes, from Brexit to Israeli annexation policies; from the German VW emissions scandal to the negative impact of priests’ child abuse on Catholicism’. However, ‘iron discipline is needed for a writer to hold a course through such a diverse agenda as this and reach a useful destination. And in Winder’s book the reader becomes lost in a maze. It does not easily work to entwine the global popularity of French cooking with Covid-19 in the same volume.’