Where is Rwanda's soft power?

The latest rankings of “soft power”—a country’s ability to influence others through persuasion instead of force, was released on July 14. The world’s most powerful topped the list but no African nation featured. So is soft power a preserve of the world’s rich nations? When Harvard University Professor Joseph S. Nye coined the term a few years ago, he did so in context of his country, United States of America whose image abroad was increasingly getting branded as ‘aggressor’ of other nations. In soft power, Nye was suggesting a rebranding of USA’s foreign policy approach where it could get its will done without necessarily using force. Critics of soft power argue that there’s no need for a country with effective hard power such as military might to waste time with persuasion where force could yield faster results. And that’s soft power’s biggest weakness; its effectiveness is difficult to evaluate and success requires huge amounts of patience. In international relations, persuasion is for the weak. It’s like two guys courting the same lady; the poorer guy will spend several years patiently trying to win her over through love and faithfulness; but the richer guy is likely to use money and other fancies to sweep the lady off her feet even in the absence of true love. To best understand soft power, randomly choose a country and list down the first things that come to your mind about it; positive thoughts are likely to influence you to form a positive view of that country and the reverse is true. Say you have two scholarship opportunities from which to choose; a university in the USA and another in China; if both colleges were offering full sponsorship, which of them would you choose? Whatever your choice, the factors behind it form that country’s source of soft-power; countries globally are in an aggressive race to be more attractive than their peers in many aspects from education to culture and foreign direct investment. I personally have reservations on soft power’s ability to tackle global threats such as terrorism or drug trafficking; some matters require force to deal with and that’s why countries still have to spend huge amounts of their budgets on military stockpiles and research. However, for softer aspects such as tourism or foreign direct investment, soft power becomes priceless. You’re not going to bully foreigners into investing in your country nor are you going to force tourism; you have to convince them and show reason why they should do so. Think about Rwanda for a second, in aspects of tourism and investment, what do you think is the country’s greatest source of soft power? I went into a brown study at the end of which I had a few elements that could do well as tools of Rwanda’s soft power. This week, a group picture of half a dozen young attractive ladies has been trending on Facebook; I think it was taken during ‘Ingando’ because the girls were donning military fatigues armed not with guns but sharp smiles and elegance. Many of the comments were from men outside Rwanda, in and outside the region, who jokingly asked how they could join the Rwandan military; In Rwanda’s gracious people, the country has one of its strongest tools of soft power that could influence both tourism and investment. The other tools are fairly well known; good governance, political stability and low corruption levels. Two weeks ago, two young Cameroonian investment advisors based in London travelled to Kigali to, in their own words, ‘validate all the good things we have heard about Rwanda.’ Prior to their travel, they had read widely about Rwanda including an article of mine published about nine months ago. During their weeklong stay here, they held over a dozen meetings with private businesses at the end of which they declared, ‘Rwanda is the best place in Africa for investment.’ As they toured the city, they took several pictures which they sent to their clients back in London in the process arousing more interest about the country. They marveled at the cleanliness and orderliness of Kigali city, the same factors that tend to win over foreigners on their maiden trip to Rwanda. These are things a Rwandan might take for granted but mean a lot to foreigners. How about President Kagame as a tool of Rwanda’s soft power? Think about it, why is everyone including foreigners, so doubtful of a Rwanda without Kagame? It’s fair to say that Kagame is the architect of most factors that have shaped Rwanda into an attractive destination for both tourists and investors; it’s also possible that his absence could hurt Rwanda’s soft power outlook.

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Where is Rwanda's soft power?