Diagnostic Essay - What is soft power?

Analyse how, and to what extent, it is manifested in your

country.

Soft power, a term that was popularized by Joseph Nye in 1990s, is a concept that utilize the
power of persuasion, mutual interest, and influence in order to achieve support (Pigman, 2012).
Soft power and public diplomacy are entangled, as effective public diplomacy requires mutual
respect and understanding from both parties that eventually lead to achieving mutual goal.
There are various tactics of soft power that has been known, including economic, cultural,
sport, education. However, not every tactic of soft power works for every country. This essay
will briefly explain what kind of soft power Indonesia government employed and the result of it.

Indonesia has been suffering from negative perceptions due to devastating terrorism attack in
Bali in 2002 (Sukma, 2011). It took Indonesia almost 2 decades to repair the damage especially
in ensuring the global community of Indonesia’s stability and safety. For the past decade,
Indonesia has been consistently improving its global image by hosting various international
events, such as Asian Games in 2018, Indonesian motorcycle Grand Prix in 2022, G20 Summit in
2022, etc. These efforts have been proven successful in improving the country’s image which
also led to numerous improvements in other sector, for instance investment in infrastructure
development across Indonesia. Economic diplomacy is also something that is being reinforced,
the participation of Indonesia in various international organization such as ASEAN, G20, APEC,
UN has boosted the country’s existence to international level which resulted in extensive
network building between countries. However, high investment and escalated infrastructure
development have not been able to satisfy the people. On the contrary, according to a survey
by Herlijanto (2017), almost 25% of correspondents reject the idea of China’s investment in
Indonesia, while 55% correspondents agree that investments should be allowed only in special
cases. These issues have showed that although Indonesia soft power might have worked to
urge investments into Indonesia, internal issues within the country are still unable to
accommodate positive investment environment.
On the other hand, cultural diplomacy has been one of the most desirable ways in advocating
Indonesia’s soft power. With 714 ethnic groups, 652 local ethnic languages, and over 3000
traditional dances and songs has made Indonesia one of the richest countries in culture,
indigenous values and identities (Viartasiwi et al, 2020). According to Chitty (2017), culture, as
an example of soft type public diplomacy aims to win hearts and empathy of opponents. These
connections are needed to build a strong positive image that will be beneficial for the country
in the future. However, despite the vast and rich culture that Indonesia have, culture diplomacy
has not been fully used yet. Today, Indonesia’s cultural diplomacy highly rely on government
agencies that promotes Indonesia to International communities, the Indonesian diaspora,
including students and workers through their cultural events, teaching Indonesia language
abroad, introducing batik and local delicacies. Extensive support from the government through
the ministry of tourism along with ministry of foreign affair are crucial in spreading awareness
towards Indonesia culture and value.

Reference
Chitty N 2017 Soft power, civic virtue and world politics The Routledge handbook of soft power
N Chitty, L Ji, G D Rawnsleyand C Hayden ed. (Oxford: Routledge) pp 9-36
Herlijanto J. 2017. Public Perceptions of China in Indonesia : The Indonesia National Survey.
Perspective (89), Issue : 2017.
Witarti, D. and Puspitasari, A.The Implementation of Indonesian Soft Power through
Swaggering Strategies in Asian Games.2018. DOI: 10.5220/0009104201870194
In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Social, Economy, Education and
Humanity (ICoSEEH 2019) - Sustainable Development in Developing Country for Facing
Industrial Revolution 4.0, pages 187-194 ISBN: 978-989-758-464-0
Sukma, Rizal. (2011). Soft Power and Public Diplomacy: The Case of Indonesia.
10.1057/9780230118447_6.