![]() ![]() After all, as the father of soft power, Joseph Nye, wrote, soft power is all about getting another party to want what you want. Soft power takes the appeal of soft resources-attractive pop culture fixtures like movie stars and pop icons, tourist attractions, and a welcoming environment for study abroad programs-and combines them to create, and solidify, new long-term changes in how people think about or interact with the country in question. There is a distinction between nation branding-a country generally promoting a positive but relatively shallow view of itself-and soft power. The foundation had no involvement in the production of this video, the content of this article, or the content of the project as a whole.Īs intuitive as pop culture’s appeal is, it is important to make one distinction clear at the outset-being home to popular shows and bands is not in itself a form of soft power. Note: The Case for South Korean Soft Power project and the Korean language course at Middlebury featured in this video were both funded by the Korea Foundation. ![]() Now Korean cultural exports are pulling in audiences worldwide. This phenomenon is known as the Korean wave, or Hallyu-a term coined in the 1990s as Korean shows began gaining popularity in China. South Korean pop culture’s global takeover has included a vast range of offerings, starting with television dramas, video games, and pop music but now increasingly branching into movies, books, and even sports. For South Korea to really tap into the political potential of its pop culture, however, the government needs to be more deliberate in connecting celebrity influence with specific foreign policy goals. Right now, this process appears to be somewhat trial and error-randomly inviting celebrities to high-profile political events in hopes of attracting an audience of interested global fans. At various turns, this goal has involved bringing celebrities directly into traditional diplomatic events, enlisting them to record messages of support before major negotiations, and more.īut with this more active stance, South Korean officials must be strategic in how they invoke celebrity power. Now, rather than passively letting K-pop or Korean dramas continue to attract audiences around the world, the South Korean government wants to get actively involved in helping convert the country’s powerful pop culture and other soft resources into true soft power. This year alone, the world has seen the popular boy band BTS smashing records and snatching awards around the world, the critically acclaimed movie Parasite carving out a space for Korean cinema after becoming the first foreign language film ever to win the top prize at the Oscars, and Korean domination in the production of video games and, increasingly, in the popular e-sports arena. South Korea’s global cultural clout is no longer in question. ![]()
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