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A Charm Offensive
Michael Z. Wise
03/01/2004
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Some
thinkers, among them Joseph Nye, dean of the Kennedy School of Government at
Harvard, argue that commercial exports already exert a form of “soft power’”
that influences other societies by implicitly promoting such American values as
personal freedom, upward mobility and democratic openness. But fast food and
show biz do not present an adequate picture. Targeted distribution of
independent films like Spellbound, which chronicles a multicultural mix of kids
as they compete in the National Spelling Bee, would give foreign audiences an
entirely different image of what American society holds dear than the far wider
shown Terminator films. The new State Department program—under which Yo-Yo
Ma has already gone to Lithuania—creates opportunities for the kind of
person-to-person contact that is too often missing in an era of instant global
communication. When measured in military power, U.S. strength is
unparalleled. But while this may evoke fear and respect, it does not necessarily
engender affection. The vitality and ingenuity of American artistic creation and
ideas are a wellspring of inspiration. By helping present a realistic picture of
democracy’s benefits, they offer a way to export hope instead of
fear. Michael Z. Wise writes frequently about the arts and covered Central Europe for
Reuters
and the Washington Post. He organized Arts & Minds, a conference on cultural diplomacy that was held at Columbia University in
April 2003. |  |
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