'Soft Power is Important in Preventing the Emergence & Spread of Transnational Security Issues' - Secretary Defence

Secretary Defence Eng. Karunasena Hettiarachchi delivering his keynote address to the inaugural sessions of the ‘Colombo Defence Seminar - 2016’ opined that the soft power is important in preventing the emergence and spread of transnational security issues. He compared ‘hard power’ to carrots, and getting no longer prominent.

Here follows the full text of his speech;

“It gives me immense pleasure to deliver the key note speech at Colombo Defence Seminar 2016 with many distinguished scholars and participants from 70 nations and I congratulate commander of the army and the organizers for all the hard work. I wish the conference success and I hope 4110 the deliberations will be of great value to everyone.

It was Joseph Nye who said, “Get Smart combining Hard and Soft power, in today's information age, success is the result not merely of whose army wins but also of whose story wins.”

In the post Westphalian world order hard power has become increasingly counterproductive, as witnessed in the recent Arab Spring; soft power has gained widespread currency and is now regarded as an important and comprehensive indicator of national strength.

Soft power is a state's ability to influence the actions of others through persuasion or attraction, rather than coercion. Hard power, in the form of carrots or sticks is the military and economic might utilized by a nation state to coerce desired outcomes from other political bodies.

The 6th Colombo Defense Seminar centers on the importance of soft power in its influence in global issues, highlighting the importance of persuasive diplomacy in the dawn of an information age dominated by in-creasing flows of information and ideas.

This year's Defense Seminar is significant for another factor. This seminar is held at a moment when the first-ever National Security think-tank was established under the vision of our President HE Maithripala Sirisena and our National Security Council. As Chair of Institute of National Security Studies I invite the scholars to work closely with the new think tank. Seven years after the end of war on terrorism, our leadership has realized how important it is to share the knowledge gained over the decades with the international community. In the post-IS age of widespread terror, our in-house expertise on defeating terrorists can be of immense benefit for the rest of the world.

Today the global debate is dominated by the vitality of ensuring national, international and human security, given the traditional and non-traditional security issues that sprung up in the short span of the last couple of years. From the insurgencies in Syria to the Bangladesh attacks it is vital to understand that this clash of civilizations is in fact a clash of ideologies and thereby reminiscence that defeating an ideology is far more difficult than physically defeating an enemy at a battleground. The persuasive power of the 19 years old Malala Yousfzai, was able to move populations by an ideology against terrorism. The diffusion of thoughts against her offenders gave rise to a very attractive ideology against terrorism, to which many people responded to.

In my view, soft power is important in preventing the emergence and spread of transnational security issues of a grave nature such as terrorism and separatism. Whether soft power can fight a security issue once it has emerged depends on the issue itself. If it's a hard security issue such as terrorism, soft power is 'powerless' in fighting it. The concept of "smart power," which is a mix of both soft and hard power strategies might be the best solution in such instances.

At its core, soft power rests on the ability to shape the preferences of others through intangible national assets such as an attractive personality, culture, political values and institutions and policies that are seen as legitimate or having moral authority. This was a strategy utilized by our Western and Eastern friends.

For example, post-World War II movement toward free trade and democracy was the direct result of the world wanting to emulate America's culture, institutions and values, which was a consequence of America's soft power strategy in exerting a global influence.

On the other hand, in 2014 the Chinese President Xi Jinping highlighted the importance of increasing Chinese soft power to better communicate China's messages to the world, in order to challenge the growing debate on "China Threat" and pose itself as a benign power.

Importantly, soft power is more than just the ability to influence others. Influence, after all, can also rest on the hard power of threats or payments. Although persuasion and the ability to move others by argument are integral elements of soft power, it is the ability to attract, and attraction that often leads to acquiescence, which is the defining factor of soft power.

Soft Power: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a rich soil with diverse cultural entities, which is often underutilized in our cultural diplomatic relations. Understanding this importance of cultural diplomacy late Lakshman Kadiragamar commissioned a book called “The World of Stanley Kirinde” on a great artist of Sri Lanka which was a corner stone of the state foreign policy.

However, this approach of “attraction” and consequently “acquiescence” of others in the global stage, have not been developed in Sri Lanka and this is the necessity that need be stressed upon. Our President is following an Asia centric - balanced foreign policy further strengthening relations with both the West and the East. You see a perfect balance in our foreign policy now. However, there are many ways soft power can support this initiative.

Public Diplomacy

The best form of public diplomacy is our culture. The multiculturalism embedded in Sri Lankan linguistics, religions and, even the Law, are strong points of forming both a global image as an advocate of promoting multicultural security.

From the examples of tolerance and respect for other religions and ethnicities that persisted in the past, from the removal of the figure of the cow in the moon statue of Polonnaruwa era to the influence of the Hindu culture in the Kandyan temples, we can assert the idelas of the ancient Ceylonese people in the lines of ethnic and religious amity and coexistence. It will also serve as means of developing such a rich multicultural setting and a civic identity within the nation which has been threatened by incidents in the recent past.

Economic Diplomacy

Economic diplomacy is another arena which could enable Sri Lanka to maintain a global presence irrespective of its developing status. Supplemented by strong institutions conducive to development and investment, we can reach greater strengths in terms of economic prosperity as well as economic diplomacy. The power of the youth in our human capital is yet to be vitalized. Empowering the youth, in terms of ideation as well as in-novation can ensure a sustainable and long standing soft power policy. Projects of empowerment are tools that can be used with the collaboration of other countries in building resilient and long term relationships.

Military Soft Power

Military soft power is an extremely important aspect that we are still exploring. It was Winston Churchill who said “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind” at Harvard University in 1943. Churchill prophetically saw the importance of the ability of individuals to influence culture and of culture to influence individuals. Churchill's use of common culture, language and values to persuade the United States to join Britain as an ally, and use of history, art, writing and thinking to appeal to the rest of the world made him a completely different personality from a war soldier. This is an excellent example for Sri Lanka. Having deterred terror-ism by hard power, we are still in the process of reconciliation.

We are a nation with successful historical experiences of reconciliation ranging from Vijaya's kingdom to colonial reconciliation. Thus, military assistance in reconciliation, rehabilitation as well as rebuilding disrupted communities is vital.

Moreover, humanitarian assistance in the event of natural disasters is an integral step in developing a national as well as a global image of a humanitarian.

Furthermore, the exchange, diffusion and collaboration of ideas, lessons learnt and knowledge with the security institutions across the globe, equally envisage better connectivity and ensures high soft power capabilities. Establishment of the Defense think tank thus is one of the initial steps in developing our military soft power agenda in the line of such collaboration.

Conclusion

The massive reorganization of the world order and the rapid 'fluidity' that we see in the global systems has made it very difficult for governments to address issues, especially those related to security, in a comprehensive and a meaningful manner. This is largely because the ‘tool kits’ that bureaucracies have today for addressing security issues rely more on the use of hard power. They are too rigid to handle the subtle nuances of these issues, created by the 'fluidity' of the global system. In this context, soft power is increasingly gaining importance as a vital tool to 'nip' these new security issues 'in the bud' and prevent potential necessities to use hard security measures after their escalation into a potential security threat.

The noteworthy point is understanding the importance of transforming the Sri Lankan identity from a “soldier of a thirty-year war”, to an advocate of values, culture, institutions, art, tourism, education and economic and military capabilities in informing, influencing and shaping ideas in the global stage.

The information age is the age of ideas. Ideas don't respond to guns. They can only be changed, shaped or informed using soft power. In this light, the soft power is an entity that should be explored at least now, than never.”

Thank you!