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We tend to think of "soft power" as "They watch our TV and eat our fast-food franchises, so they'll implicity love us." Did we underestimate the soft power of

by hakfoo 4y ago

We tend to think of "soft power" as "They watch our TV and eat our fast-food franchises, so they'll implicity love us." Did we underestimate the soft power of actual wads of limited-strings-attached cash? This is a pretty obvious and direct way to buy friends, and it seems odd the West can't figure out how to execute it just as efficiently. Maybe it's not considered an option because it provides neither a punitive angle nor a lever to demand privatization and austerity measures. Maybe the state can't lean hard enough on the bankers to get them to cooperate with the plan.

Panzer04 4y ago
It costs money? Most democratic countries have issues giving away too much money in foreign aid, especially given the budgetary deficits the vast majority of countries are running nowadays. China doesn’t have to deal with any of that, the government can spend money with very little oversight.
- hakfoo 4y ago
  If we didn't have such siloed mindsets, you'd expect that foreign aid would come right out of the limitless "national security" spigot. How many incredibly expensive "peacekeeping" and "regime change" adventures could have been prevented by removing debt burdens that were preventing countries from stabilizing and advancing up the economic food chain 5-10-20 years prior?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - defrost 4y ago
    Pretty much all of them. The US doesn't have a great record on use of diplomatic soft power, it appears from afar that military hardware lobbyists achieve their goal of getting at least a factor of 10x more spent on war toys than on diplomatic programs that would circumvent the need to use said toys. ( I suspect the overspend factor on hardware Vs HR approaches is way more than 10 )
pjc50 4y ago
I'm remembering the literal pallets of cash that were flown into Iraq and then vanished. But Afghanistan shows the problem with buying loyalty and the impression of stability: as soon as you stop paying, it evaporates overnight. The deeper problem is that the US isn't actually all that good at institution-building, rule-of-law, dealing with ethnic conflict, etc. within the US.
Rapzid 4y ago
Well the suspicion a few years ago was that China was loaning out money to developing countries for infra projects hoping to get them over a barrel down the road. Super high repayment costs seized assets perhaps. Much was written about this and the western governments even sounded the alarm on taking Chinese loans.

by hakfoo 4y ago

Panzer04 4y ago

It costs money? Most democratic countries have issues giving away too much money in foreign aid, especially given the budgetary deficits the vast majority of countries are running nowadays. China doesn’t have to deal with any of that, the government can spend money with very little oversight.

hakfoo 4y ago
If we didn't have such siloed mindsets, you'd expect that foreign aid would come right out of the limitless "national security" spigot. How many incredibly expensive "peacekeeping" and "regime change" adventures could have been prevented by removing debt burdens that were preventing countries from stabilizing and advancing up the economic food chain 5-10-20 years prior?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- defrost 4y ago
  Pretty much all of them. The US doesn't have a great record on use of diplomatic soft power, it appears from afar that military hardware lobbyists achieve their goal of getting at least a factor of 10x more spent on war toys than on diplomatic programs that would circumvent the need to use said toys. ( I suspect the overspend factor on hardware Vs HR approaches is way more than 10 )

pjc50 4y ago

I'm remembering the literal pallets of cash that were flown into Iraq and then vanished. But Afghanistan shows the problem with buying loyalty and the impression of stability: as soon as you stop paying, it evaporates overnight. The deeper problem is that the US isn't actually all that good at institution-building, rule-of-law, dealing with ethnic conflict, etc. within the US.

Rapzid 4y ago

Well the suspicion a few years ago was that China was loaning out money to developing countries for infra projects hoping to get them over a barrel down the road. Super high repayment costs seized assets perhaps. Much was written about this and the western governments even sounded the alarm on taking Chinese loans.