Daily Times

Notwithstanding its rich historical and cultural heritage, Pakistan has been unable to attract the world’s attention.

Traditionally, the hard power of a nation remains one of the basic tools of foreign policy projection around the world. But after the process of globalisation, the term “soft power” became current, which reflected the peaceful application of power. The “soft power” indicates the ability of a nation to project its positive aspects abroad, without the use of hard power or compulsion. The term was coined by an American political scientist Joseph S Nye, who thought that successful modern states need both hard and soft forces to shape their permanent attitudes and preferences. Nye defines soft power as “the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion,” which includes “culture, values and foreign policies.”

Although “soft power” has many positive benefits, in the case of developing or less developed countries, it has been reduced to a mere intellectual debate.

In Islamic countries, even those, which are secular and progressive, there is a powerful tendency to insert Islam into their foreign as well as internal policies only to increase their prestige and to promote their interests abroad which we call “Islamic soft power.”

Alongside soft power, the modern world has experienced yet another concept, i.e. “public diplomacy”, which includes traditional diplomacy through private individuals and groups. Public diplomacy is an instrument of soft power, which includes such activities as educational exchange programs for scholars and students; visitor programs; language training; cultural events and exchanges and radio and television broadcasting, etc. By such activities, the “displaying” country improves its image for a wider acceptance by the “receiving” country.

In the aftermath of 9/11, Pakistan has been suffering from an image problem despite having many positives attributes to its credit. How bitterly ironic it appears that the largest victim of terrorism is Pakistan itself, which launched three full-scale army operations against terrorism extending over several years; costing it over 70 thousand precious lives and a huge loss in material and infrastructure. Have we ever asked ourselves how many countries in the world know this straight but true fact? If no one in the world knows it, the blame squarely lies with us for having failed to purvey our soft image as being the worst victim of terrorism. How come the Indian lie, calling us a terrorist state, was sold in the world market so clamorously, while nobody was aware of Pakistan’s all-out war against terror and its immense sacrifices?

Notwithstanding its rich historical and cultural heritage, Pakistan has not been able to attract the world’s attention. The key to counter the negative narratives about Pakistan was through soft power. A country becomes attractive when it has values that other states admire and wish to emulate. Pakistan does have both hard and soft power. It has enormous potential for growth, which we could use to our advantage as our soft power but which we failed to capitalise in time. There is no doubt that the ominous developments playing havoc in this region did not allow us to heed the equally important diplomatic offensive which made us suffer gravely. But then in a war, all fronts have to be equally guarded.

Pakistan is a multi-cultural society with extremely diverse and appealing cultures. The projection of cultural diversity through media can portray a softer image of Pakistan. Pakistan is home to rich and the world’s oldest civilisations–Gandhara and Indus Valley (Mohen-jo-Daro). It is the gateway to the world’s great religions: Islam and Buddhism. It is rich in tourism, which stretches from the mighty Karakoram in the North to the vast alluvial delta of the Indus River in the South. Pakistan is home to numerous peaks above 7,000 meters. It is endowed with a rich and varied flora and fauna. Mighty Himalayas, Karakoram and the Hindukush ranges, with their alpine meadows and a permanent snow line, coniferous forests of the hills running down to the sub-mountain areas, the vast Indus plain merging into the great desert, the coastline and wetlands, which can hold any tourist breathlessly awful in wonder and amazement.

It was our misfortune that due to active Indian propaganda against us as a “terrorist state,” and partly due to the internal law and order coupled by the alarming situation on our borders, (the indolence of our foreign missions, notwithstanding), we could not tap our tourism industry to its full potential. The outside world could never know what a beautiful country Pakistan was and still is! Pakistan has done wonders in sports, i.e. cricket, hockey, squash, and snooker. The country has a flourishing and thriving think-tank culture, which can engage their counterparts globally. The country has a vibrant media and evolving civil society. Pakistani diaspora is spread all over the world and is earning a lot of goodwill for Pakistan due to their sheer hard work. Recently the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has brightened the prospects of economic development. Pakistan has a youth bulge and a good size of human capital.

There is no doubt that Pakistan’s immediate source of soft power stemmed from hard power. Pakistan should project itself as a resilient nation

Its educational institutions have produced some of the best-qualified professionals in the world, including doctors, engineers, bankers, financiers, and entrepreneurs. It has higher educational institutions, which often rank in the world’s top five hundred institutes. In comparison with India, keeping in view its ratio of area and population, it is no mean achievement of Pakistan.

There is no doubt that Pakistan’s immediate source of soft power stemmed from hard power. Pakistan should project itself as a resilient nation. Pakistan’s army is one of the fourth most professional and disciplined armies in the world, defending the homeland in war, and doing exemplary rescue missions in peace. They have also assisted in disaster management and humanitarian relief work. They have already done their remarkable role as peacekeepers to the UN missions.

Pakistan needs formulating a well-calibrated strategy to project its soft power. The use of soft power should be a policy tool rather than a mere projection of a soft image. For this Pakistani diaspora, human capital including vibrant youth and skilled manpower, and media could be used as sources of enhancing the soft image of Pakistan in the world.

The reality is that Pakistan has not been able to project its soft power as India had done. Very recently, except Kashmir we have noted nothing wrong against India—that is what our FO feeds our rulers. On the other hand, Modi has launched a virulent campaign against us implicating us in over a dozen human rights violations and acts of terrorism, which he repeats in all his speeches.

India’s edge over us is that through its skilful diplomacy it has scrupulously concealed all its negatives (by all means far more alarming than those of Pakistan) through international press and media. For instance its rising intolerance towards minorities especially its gradual elimination of Muslim identities, its strict alignment to Hindutwa, an abominable Nationalistic creed turning India into a unitary religious state, its rising tide of egregious poverty, and rank corruption, etc. all have been skilfully shut off from the world gaze, and in its place yoga and Bollywood have been projected as India’s shining examples to show to the world that there is everywhere hunky-dory in India. India has projected its soft power through its foreign policy, movies, books and lobbies. Both India and the US wanted to have unrestrained access to the Central Asian states without bargaining. Non-aligned movement was one of India’s projects of soft image.

One cannot deny that Pakistan has problems, but then so do other countries, as has been shown above in the case of India where problems are much graver than Pakistan. Some years ago while strolling with my wife in New York City in daylight I was warned by my cousin that we could not freely roam about two areas, East Harlem and Mott Haven which were not safe even during the daytime.

The embarrassment Pakistan faces before the world today is only due to its failure in projecting its soft power despite being immensely gifted by nature. We have braved many a storm and learnt much from our past errors. We have found honest leadership, and are now hopefully on the path to peace and honour in the world.

The writer is a former member of the Provincial Civil Service, and an author of Moments in Silence