Good examples of soft power in history

[Simon_Jester]

I think it's inappropriate to call economic power 'hard' as opposed to 'soft' in all cases. In many situations, "soft power" successes stem from one country seeing another as glamorous or impressive- precisely because that other country is very rich. American movies sell because America is rich and can afford to make impressive movies, not because people in foreign countries somehow find stories rooted in our national narrative more compelling than their own.
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Also, I think that we might want to define the very concept of "victory" differently for soft power than for hard. For example, it might be argued that soft power scores a victory if my country's culture and customs persist even when conquered by foreigners. Sure, my government may not care about that, but the legacy of my civilization depends heavily on whether outsiders continue to value it even after it is militarily defeated.

A soft-power outcome that results in my cultural legacy surviving and my people ultimately triumphing over a conqueror may count as a win even if, in concrete terms, I "lost" the war.

For instance, one might argue that classical Greece lost the hard-power conflict with Rome, but won the soft-power conflict.

Or that China 'won' soft-power conflict with the Mongols by sinicizing them and ultimately modifying the invaders into something that could be overthrown by the native Ming dynasty.

And that the Germanic tribes won the hard-power conflict against the Romans centuries later, but lost (or at best stalemated) the soft-power conflict. Although they definitely gained by 'losing' in this way, because it enriched their own culture and allowed their descendants to thrive and reach new cultural heights in the medieval era.

[mr friendly guy]

Your criteria for "winning" in a soft power battle is interesting and I can see your point. However as you noted the government of the day might not care about that. I think therefore its important when discussing soft power, we should differentiate between a persisting cultural legacy and current geopolitical advantage. I suspect we will no doubt find the former interesting, but a lot of people who are otherwise interested in present geopolitics would find the latter more interesting.

BTW - I am not quite sure about the Mongol example. They certainly kept the bureaucrats around to run their new empire over Chinese lands, but they quickly reverted back once the Chinese expelled them again. In fact, Mongol language these days uses the Cyrilic alphabet, while in China the Mongols still use traditional script. If anything it would be Russian soft power that had the greater effect on the Mongols.

A better example might be the Sinicization of the Manchus. Certainly around Mao's time a lot of people had considered the Manchus all but assimilated into the local Chinese population. It was only through efforts that people with Manchu ancestry were identified and now self identify as Manchu, even though these modern day Manchus would unlikely to be considered as such during the height of Manchu power.

[Simon_Jester]

In many cases, the government has little or no say in how a nation's soft power spreads (or fails to spread). Moreover, it is often impossible to assess the true impact of soft power until generations after the fact. By nature it is gradual, and results in slow shifts in opinion and policy, rather than sudden, abrupt actions.
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And what I meant about the Mongols is that while they remained in China their government became sinicized. After being expelled from China they may have reverted. But the fact that the Mongols adopted Chinese norms while ruling China, rather than simply razing the cities to make more room for pasture or some such, is a significant victory for China! Even in strictly military terms, avoiding the total destruction of your lands would count as a great victory for soft power.

[Lonestar]

While I was in "soft power" had connotations of humanitarian aid. So, the 2004-05 Tsunami relief would be "soft power". Using a USNS Hospital Ship to visit Central and South America to fix harelips would be soft power. Even aid in developed nations, like Operation Tomodachi would be soft power.

Honestly, this is the first time I've heard it described as cultural influence rather than actions of the government that don't involve coercive tactics.

[mr friendly guy]

While I was in "soft power" had connotations of humanitarian aid. So, the 2004-05 Tsunami relief would be "soft power". Using a USNS Hospital Ship to visit Central and South America to fix harelips would be soft power. Even aid in developed nations, like Operation Tomodachi would be soft power.

Honestly, this is the first time I've heard it described as cultural influence rather than actions of the government that don't involve coercive tactics.

When I first heard the term, I intuitively thought it meant similar to what you are thinking as well. Apparently the guy who coined it envisaged a wider umbrella, which if this thread is anything to go by, its still hard to delineate soft power clearly.