China tries soft power in SA as US persists with hard line on Iran

April 10, 2019, 8:33 pm 

Members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Tehran this year. President Trump said the designation "will significantly expand the scope and scale of our maximum pressure on the Iranian regime."

By an interesting contrast, China seems to be exploring soft power options in South Asia to a greater degree as the US persists with the application of hard power in theatres such as the Middle East. These moves speak volumes for the perceptiveness or otherwise of the respective global powers.

International Relations scholarship and other sections of opinion in Sri Lanka in particular have been slow in correctly defining the brand of diplomacy China has been engaging in in our part of the world over the past 20 years or more. Generally speaking, it is economic diplomacy that is coming to the fore on the part of China but more specifically we are seeing China applying soft power as opposed to hard power. That is, economic or relatively peaceful options are being explored by China as opposed to the application of military means and coercive arrangements for the furtherance of its interests.

However, the US decision to slap the 'terrorist' label on Iran's Revolutionary Guards is more in the nature of a demonstration of hard power on the part of the US. Through this move, which is drastic, heavy-handed and seemingly precipitous, the US has further precluded the possibility of using peaceful diplomacy in ironing out its most vital differences with Iran. It amounts to a show of coercive power and to that extent is a demonstration of hard power on the US' part. The consequences of such initiatives could very well be a heightening of military tensions in the Middle East.

As opposed to these hard power initiatives by the US, China gives the impression of slowly but steadily expanding on its economic presence in South and South-East Asia by engaging relevant states and other actors in the regions concerned through the deployment of economic diplomacy. Sri Lanka witnessed an engagement of this kind when a senior delegation from the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) met the Sri Lankan think tank, the Pathfinder Foundation, for wide-ranging talks recently. Reports said the parties were primarily looking at establishing a joint study group 'to identify critical success factors that would have to be put in place to take the economic, investment and trade relationship between the two countries to the next level.'

The above is an example of track 2 diplomacy at work. Besides state-level talks between China and Sri Lanka, which exemplify track 1 diplomacy, aimed at furthering the legitimate interests of the states through cooperation and collaboration, track 2 diplomacy, involving non-state entities and personalities, is a means of achieving the same aims at a level below that of state-to-state talks. Track 2 complements track 1 diplomacy, besides strengthening people-to-people contact.

This exercise in track 2 diplomacy is one among numerous such demonstrations of soft power by China that are instrumental in consolidating ties between it and those states, which in China's thinking, are of the greatest importance to it in the economic, material and political spheres, for instance. The same considerations are at work when China deploys cultural means to cement ties between it and other such chosen states. Cases in points are China-inspired artistic events, such as 'Film Weeks' and inter-country ties in the educational sphere.

Needless to say, the same goes for major regional powers, such as India, which have been vibrantly involved in soft power projection over the years. The overall aim to be achieved is the furthering of the most vital interests of such powers through 'win-win' arrangements with smaller states and other entities that are seen to matter. Fundamentally, the preference is for soft power, including economic diplomacy, as opposed to hard power.

Compared to these Asian giants, the US could be considered as being militarily indiscreet and irresponsible. Given the existing political and military divisions in the Middle East, the US could be said to be 'tempting fate' by further provoking the antagonism of Iran. The decision on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards could raise the tensions between Iran and the US several notches higher and dangerously heighten the volatility of the region.

These measures by the US could serve its short term political interests but are unlikely to decrease Middle East tensions where the seeds of a regional war have been sown. Only time will tell whether the US has bolstered or jeopardized the security of its regional allies, such as, Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, for the present, America, indeed, seems to be 'first'. President Donald Trump's domestic constituency is being lulled into the belief that the US is the unchallenged number one world power.

These developments are a rich field of research for the student of international politics. While China and India are studies in the fruitful ways soft power could be deployed, the US is an object lesson in the continued use of hard power with grave implications for regional and world stability.

There is degree of myopia informing US foreign policy at present. While it is true that the US remains the world's foremost economic and military power this proposition would hold good, perhaps, for only a few decades more. It is important that the US looks beyond 2050 in its own interests but such long term vision is farthest from the Trump administration's thinking currently.

In contrast, China, India and other regional economic notables are preparing for the economic preponderance of the Asia-Pacific, which is already happening. No major power could expect to survive even in the near term without looking forward to integrating economically with the Asia-Pacific, which, among other things, will constitute the world's biggest consumer market.

Thus, while the US continues to be engaged in Realpolitik, China, for example, is looking at the glowing economic prospects the ASEAN region alone opens unto those powers that are enterprising and seeing the world as being propelled forward by economic forces. In a world bristling with these possibilities, soft power offers the best means of flourishing materially and economically. It is seen as the cement that binds the world together.