In the Shadow of War, Iran Brings Soft Power Back to the Table |
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The evolution of the India-Iran relationship over the last month throws up an interesting paradox. While much has changed in Indian policy on Iran from when Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Israel, and a great deal of this change has been driven by the exigencies created by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, public opinion in India has not shifted away from Iran.
On the contrary, the conflict has revealed a surprising depth to the level of public support in India for Iran. The key to understanding this paradox – where an almost coercive use of economic power does not seem to have sparked local resentment – lies in soft power, and the related but often undervalued art of public diplomacy.
Over the last month, Iranian public diplomacy has, operating from within the constraints of a strained diplomatic relationship, created a positive space in the Indian public imagination for Iran to occupy. There are many lessons India can take from this, especially in its immediate neighbourhood, if it can transcend the trappings of its own populist political discourse.
Power is best understood as the ability of a state to achieve the outcomes it prefers in the world. While hard power (like military or economic force) is the ability to coerce another state to act in the manner one wants, what Joseph Nye terms “soft power” is the ability to make another state want the outcomes one wants. While soft power by itself isn’t usually sufficient to effect change, it can, when deployed well, create a public environment that welcomes such change.
Nye argues that the soft power of a country depends on three resources: its culture (to the extent that this culture is attractive to others), its political values and its foreign policy (when it is seen as legitimate and having moral authority).
On the face of it, there is little about the dominant Indian discourse today that suggests room for Iran to exercise such soft power. While Islamophobia remains central to the Hindutva public discourse, liberal voices in India are often susceptible to Western regime change framings, where the religiously conservative Muslim is portrayed as threatening by default.
Despite these difficulties, Iran has found two specific discursive framings that have resonated with the Indian public. First, they have refused to limit their idea of India to Hindutva and second, they have used anti-imperialism as the main legitimiser of their foreign policy.
India beyond Hindutva
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