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Feels very short sighted, the Factbook is a great example of low cost soft power.
by afavour 9mo ago
Feels very short sighted, the Factbook is a great example of low cost soft power.
- adammarples 9mo agoWhat is this soft power and what can the US do with it?
- afavour 9mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_power
- BLKNSLVR 9mo agoI believe Trump has asked that exact question. But also asked how much it costs and whether it can be privatized.
- LPisGood 9mo agoShape the world to benefit the US - having US dollar be strong primarily.
- jonstewart 9mo agoMake the dollar the global currency and reap the benefits of facilitating gentle commerce?
- biofox 9mo agoDid you forget the /s? Some people mentioned the dollar as the global reserve currency, but there's also the use of English as the global lingua franca, the US being the largest global destination for talent and investment, and countries (previous) willingness to make sacrifices or deal with the US on less-than-perfect terms out of a sense of shared culture.
- mikemarsh 9mo agoSome people really do think of soft power, propaganda, shady covert operations, etc. as something "the other guys" do (China! KGB-Putin!), but assume the US is somehow above all that. Basically a neoconservative-esque sentimental view of the USA as "the good guys" on "the global stage" (although many would rightly recoil at the comparison to neocons).
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- kergonath 9mo agoHaving friends means that you can build bases where if you ask nicely, rather than having to invade. It prevents those friends from undermining you in a lot of cases. It makes them help you when you need, e.g. to get your hands on someone plotting attacks against you. It makes them more likely to trade with you under advantageous terms. I am sure you could think about at least a dozen other cases in a couple of minutes. Soft power is spending pennies to convince other countries to do your dirty work.
- vdqtp3 9mo ago> build bases where if you ask nicely, rather than having to invade How much of that actually came from soft power rather than "hard power", like USA actions in WW2?
- cfmcdonald 9mo agoI think it's instructive to compare the U.S. and Soviet stances in Europe after WW2. To maintain a military presence in Eastern Europe, the Soviets had to rely on repression, coercion, and occupation. This was expensive and fragile and eventually fell apart. The U.S. was openly welcomed into Germany and other countries in Western Europe. This was the value of "soft power."
- kergonath 9mo agoAmong the countries that host US bases, how many had to accept it under the threat of force, invasion, or occupation? I would guess Japan and Germany (initially). Look at the map here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Foreign_bases_2.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Foreign_bases_2.png . Brute force was not a facto in the vast majority of them.
- PlatoIsADisease 9mo agoI remember this from literally 20 years ago. Maybe the traffic made it not worth the cost? And 'soft power'? Like lying about stats and using it for propaganda? Otherwise its just objective and someone else can do the work. For some reason I never attributed it to the US or CIA.
- potatototoo99 9mo agoYou can make propaganda without lying, by choosing what metrics you value over others for example, by adding them or omitting them or implying whether a stat increasing is positive or negative.
- PlatoIsADisease 9mo agoInteresting. I read about this. "Concealment and spinning" are two ways to not lie.
- wongarsu 9mo agoAlso choosing which methodology is the "right" one to measure a specific number. There are lots of ways to measure ethnic groups, the size of the capital or the unemployment rate. If you publish the numbers you get to choose which one suits you best, you just have to be globally consistent
- woodruffw 9mo ago“Soft power” refers usually to credibility. The point of the Factbook is to be a credible public resource for an entity that would otherwise not have much.
- PlatoIsADisease 9mo agoIn International Relations, my #1 or #2 hobby, credibility does not refer to soft power. (my number 1 hobby is philosophy)
- jfyi 9mo ago
- some_random 9mo agoAre we remembering the same Factbook? It had summary statistics for every country and some brief blurbs about their history, climate, economy, etc. Strictly speaking yeah it generated some legitimacy to publish a resource like this and I find it hard to believe the CIA can't scrape a few quarters together to keep it running, but most of it's value is sentimental.
- Retric 9mo agoSoft power includes positive perception. Every time someone learns that GPS is completely paid for by the American government and then freely available to the rest of the world, that shapes perception. The Facebook being quoted by so many school kids worldwide was a cheap softening of how the world perceived the CIA and America. Now how valuable that is isn’t clear, but when something is that cheap it doesn’t take much to be a net gain.
- CGMthrowaway 9mo agoWe have Hollywood and spy movies/series now.
- Retric 9mo agoHollywood and spy movies/series predate the web. What makes the CIA Factbook useful is it reframes learning about other countries.
- 0sdi 9mo agoAmericans famously have near-zero knowledge of other countries. Nothing valuable was lost in this aspect. You need something new.
- CGMthrowaway 9mo agoI had something similar to this talking globe[1] when I was a kid and it was amazing for raising my geopolitical awareness. You tap on a country with the pen and it tells you the name and some facts about it. Even if I hadn't learned anything, I had fun pressing "Azerbaijan" over and over because 10-year-old me thought it was a funny spelling and pronunciation. [1]https://www.walmart.com/ip/World-Globe-for-Kids-Interactive-Globe-with-Smart-Pen-Educational-Globe-for-Children-with-Interactive-Maps-9/209185759?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=101555868 https://www.walmart.com/ip/World-Globe-for-Kids-Interactive-...
- TiredOfLife 9mo agoOne of Trump administration's main goal is to destroy US soft power
- jfyi 9mo agoI agree, well mostly. The administration is dispensing with the institutions of soft power. I don't think it's the main goal so much as a consequence of their worldview. Soft power is essentially worthless to people who have no interest in maintaining a facade of international cooperation.
- zackmorris 9mo agoOr maybe a conscious decision, as neoconservative Robert Kagan writes: "President Trump has managed in just one year to destroy the American order that was and has weakened America's ability to protect its interests in the world that will be. Americans thought defending the liberal world order was too expensive. Wait until they start paying for what comes next," https://www.npr.org/2026/02/04/nx-s1-5699388/is-the-u-s-heading-into-a-dictatorship https://www.npr.org/2026/02/04/nx-s1-5699388/is-the-u-s-head...
- chuckadams 9mo ago> Wait until they start paying for what comes next They'll just blame liberals and double down on the authoritarianism as they've always done.