GS Paper: GS2-19.Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

Context

• Increased interest, especially by smaller nations in the world, in investing more and doing well in elite sports in international sporting events boosts a nation’s chances of attaining soft power.
• India’s medal tally at recent International sports events demonstrate the country’s soft power on the global stage and encourage working towards the status of a great “geopolitical actor”.

What is soft power?

• Origin:
  • As far back as the 4^th century BC, Kautilya (chankyaniti) had propounded the concept of Saam(advice or cajole),daam(pay or bribe),dand(punish),bhed(exploit secrets) which acquired western touch and can be understood by Soft power, smart power, hard power, and sharp power respectively.
  • Joseph Nye introduced the concept of “soft power” in the late 1980s. For Nye, power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you want.
• Meaning:
• Soft power is the ability of a country to persuade others to do what it wants without force or coercion.
• Soft power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes you want.

Why Soft power is so significant?

Use of ‘Soft Power’ includes the number of cultural missions such as language schools, Olympic Medals and the quality of a country’s overall growth. Soft power produces following things:

• Familiarity: If people know more about your country, culture, sports, and its talents, businesses, and resources, then soft power is enhanced.
• Reputation: For a nation to be attractive and a role model for others, its overall reputation must be strong and positive.
• Influence: A direct measure of the perceived presence and impact that your country has in other countries
• Business/Innovation/Sports: The attractiveness of a country’s economic model, its digital engagement with the world, performance in sports etc.
• Government: Showcases the ability of country’s political leadership and what it delivers to its people in different arenas.
• Multi-Alignment: As a country rises up the ‘Soft Power’ list, more and more outside parties align themselves with the common goals of that country.

Why the Sports being used as a tool of soft power in modern international relations?

Sport can be used as tool of soft power both internationally and domestically.

• International platform: Sports provide a platform for countries to showcase their culture, values and tradition.
• Puts a Better image of a country: Sports as a tool to achieve social, political, and financial goals, and improve the image of the country.
• International exposure: The focus on culture and peaceful values in sports make it a useful tool for countries to use soft power to achieve international goals and improve their public diplomacy.
• Reducing differences: Sports provides a platform for trust-building; and reconciliation, integration and anti-racism.
• Learning from China’s Case:
• Dongfeng Liu (International Professor of Sport Management) in his survey on China’s performance in the Olympics he found that a country’s Olympic achievement has a positive effect on its national soft power.
• As china is a communist country and reputation about human rights is not good, so China uses its superiority in elite sports to build “people-to-people” relations with other countries. For example, athletes from African countries such as Madagascar are trained in swimming, badminton, table tennis, etc. in China, which helps Beijing create a positive impact on a wider population and result in better formal relations as well.
• There is also China’s memorandum of understanding with countries such as Kenya so that Chinese runners can train with Kenyan athletes, as they are among the best in the world when it comes to long-distance running.

Introspection on India’s performance at recent International Sports events

• It is being said that the golden period of Indian sports may have begun as at the Tokyo Olympics and then the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games (CWG) are examples of a good performance.
• India’s medal tally in the Tokyo Olympics Games — seven — was its most decorated Olympic Games in Indian history.
• At the Commonwealth games (CWG) 2022, Indian athletes won 61 medals, including 22 gold.
• India has one of the world’s poorest population-to-medal ratios when it comes to the Olympics.
• Ensuring competent coaches, and having adequate funding and more sports academics still remain major issues even decades later
• India spends only three paise per day per capita on sports. In contrast China spends 1 per day per capita.

What can be done to increase the country’s sporting performance and soft power?

• Train Indian players overseas:
• India should concentrate on forging MoUs with nations that excel in specific sports and train Indian players overseas.
• For example, Australia and the United Kingdom can assist us in swimming given their standing here.
• When it comes to running, negotiating collaborative training agreements with African countries such as Kenya would be ideal.
• No Politics over assistance:
• There should be no politics in seeking or even offering assistance.
• For example China has requested Indian assistance in improving cricket development in China (Chongqing city).
• Private Investment:
• Private investment needs to be harnessed to develop infrastructure. The better a country performs in sporting events the greater a sports person’s interest in their sports atmosphere. This also creates a huge market for private players to invest in.
• For example, leading corporate houses in India have already shown how their active participation and investment can improve sporting performance as a result of unique corporate sports programmes.
• Public –private partnership at grass root :
• The Government should also work on a public-private partnership (PPP) model to create basic sporting infrastructure.
• As recommended by NITI Aayog, at the district level too so that talent can be captured at an early stage.

Conclusion

• Sports as a tool of soft power had always been a key element of leadership from the ancient times. Sports provide an international platform to develop an attitude of unity in a divided multi-polar modern world.

Mains Question

Q. Sports provide an international platform to develop an attitude of unity and influence others in a divided multi-polar modern world. Discuss in this context that soft power is not an end but a means to an end.

 

Context

Adrift at the end of the 20th century, the world of the 21st century is proving to be highly chaotic.

Lack of strong European leadership

• Europe has been undergoing several major changes in recent months
• Germany, which has steered European politics for almost two wdecades under Angela Merkel, now has a Chancellor (Olaf Scholz) who has hardly any foreign policy experience.
• Without Germany’s steadying hand, Europe would be virtually adrift in troubled waters.
• Emmanuel Macron may have been re-elected the President of France, but his wings have been clipped with the Opposition now gaining a majority in the French National Assembly.
•  The United Kingdom is in deep trouble, if not disarray.
• Consequently, at a time when actual and moral issues require both deft and firm handling, Europe appears rudderless.
• Economic impact: Compounding this situation is the negative economic impact of the war in Ukraine.
• What is evident already is that apart from the spiralling cost of energy, food and fertilizers, quite a few countries confront the spectre of food scarcity given that Ukraine and Russia were generally viewed as the granaries of the world.
• Apart from this, nations do face several other problems as well, including, in some cases, a foreign exchange crisis.
• The instruments employed by the West against Russia, such as sanctions, have not had the desired impact as far as the latter is concerned.

Growing Russia-China closeness and its implications for Indo-Pacific

• The situation in Europe is still to be decided, but what is also becoming obvious is that outside Europe, the conflict is beginning to take on a different dimension, leading to the emergence of new patchworks of relationships.
• China’s growing influence in the Pacific region, including in the Indo-Pacific, and further strengthened by the entente with Russia, may hardly be a by-product of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, but it has induced fresh energy into a possible conflict between two rival power blocs.
• Asia unwilling to take sides: Understanding the changing nature of relationships in Asia, and considering that most Asian nations appear unwilling to take sides in the event of a conflict, is important.
• No unity of purpose: Unlike the unity and the strength displayed by European nations — there is no evidence of any such unity of purpose in the event that China was to launch a conflict with Taiwan.

Challenges for India

• India cannot ignore the situation created by the stronger bonds between Russia and China.
• Uncertainty about Russia: India will need to determine whether Russia can be expected to play a role as a ‘trusted friend’ of India’s.
• Again, it would be too much to hope that in dealing with China, India can expect the same kind of support it may need from the Quad.
• China sidelining India: China, however, seems intent on establishing its dominance and also sidelining India in Asia, which New Delhi would have discerned in the course of the virtual BRICS Summit hosted by China in June.
• Afghanistan challenge: Apart from China, India also urgently needs to come to terms with a Taliban Afghanistan.
• Sri Lanka Challenge: At this time, the democratic upsurge in Sri Lanka presents India with a fresh set of problems.
• In a situation where ‘rage’ and ‘anger’ are the dominant sentiments, there is every reason for concern that even governments that have maintained a ‘hands-off’ relationship could become targets of the new forces emerging in Sri Lanka.

Major developments in West Asia

• The Abraham Accords in 2020, which brought about the entente between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, has been the harbinger of certain new trends in the tangled web of relationships among countries of West Asia.
• But even as the U.S.’s relations with Arab nations in West Asia appear to weaken, Russia and China are beginning to play key roles, with Iran as the fulcrum for establishing new relationships.
• China continues to steadily build on its connections with the region, and with Iran in particular.
• How India is dealing with the situation: India has been making steady progress in enlarging its contacts and influence in West Asia.
•  While the India-Israel relationship dates back to the 1990s, the India-UAE relationship has blossomed in the past couple of years.
• India-Iran relations, however, seem to have reached a stalemate of late.
• Issues with I2U2: India has joined a U.S.-based group, the I2U2, comprising India, Israel the UAE and the U.S.
• Details of the new arrangements are unclear, but it is evident that the target is Iran, as China is for the Quad, injecting yet another element of uncertainty into an already troubled region.

Implications for nuclear deterrence

• The argument being adduced is that a wide gap exists today in regard to China and India’s nuclear deterrent capabilities, and implicitly blames India for its voluntary ban on testing and its ‘no-first-use’ doctrine from making progress in this arena.
• What is also implied is that India could overcome the lacuna by seeking the assistance of western nations which have such capabilities and knowledge.
• Way forward for India: It is important for India to guard against such pernicious attempts at this time to undo its carefully negotiated and structured nuclear policy and doctrine, and be inveigled into any anti-China western move on this front.

Conclusion

Geopolitical experts in the West confine their findings at present solely to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, believing that this alone would determine not only war and peace but also other critical aspects as well. Significant developments are also taking place in many other regions of the globe, which will have equal if not more relevance to the future of the international governance system.

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Context

The post-Cold War period of peace in Europe is more an aberration than norm in the continent’s history of conflicts.

Background of the First World War

• The Russian power had collapsed in its far east after the war with Japan in 1904-05.
• Faced with the erosion of Russian influence and the rise of Wilhelmine Germany, which together threatened to alter Europe’s balance of power, France and Britain, competing colonial powers, came together. 
• France had already reached an alliance with Russia.
• The three would later form the Triple Entente, triggering a dangerous security competition in Europe with the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy), which would eventually lead to the First World War in 1914.
• What triggered the great power security competition in the run-up to the First World War was the phenomenal rise of Wilhelmine Germany as a military and industrial power and the regional hegemons’ response to it.

Similarities with the past

• When Otto von Bismarck became the Minister-President of Prussia in September 1862, there was no unified German state.
•  Bismarck adopted an aggressive foreign policy, fought and won three wars — with Denmark, Austria and France — destroyed the confederation, established a stronger and larger German Reich that replaced Prussia.
• Bismarck stayed focused on transforming Germany internally in his last two decades.
• It was on the foundation Bismarck built that Wilhelmine Germany turned to weltpolitik in the early 20 century, seeking global domination.
• If Bismarck inherited a weak, loosely connected group of German speaking entities in 1862, Russian President Vladimir Putin got a Russia in 2000 that was a pale shadow of what was the Soviet Union.
• Bismarck spent his years in power expanding the borders of Germany and building a stronger state and economy.
• The post-Cold War Russia initially stayed focused on the restoration of the state and the economy, and then sought to expand its borders and challenge the continent’s balance of power — first the Crimean annexation and now the Ukraine invasion.
• While NATO’s expansion deepened Russia’s security concerns, driving it into aggressive moves, Russia’s aggression has strengthened NATO’s resolve to expand further into Russia’s neighbourhood.

Offensive realism

• Offensive realists argue that “revisionist powers” tend to use force to rewrite the balance of power if they find the circumstances are favourable, while the status quo powers, or the existing regional hegemons, would seek to thwart any new country attaining more power at their expense.
• The result of this type of competition is permanent rivalry and conflict.
• One major difference between the era of Wilhelmine Germany and modern Russia is that there were no well-defined international laws in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
• The international system has evolved ever since.
• But its basic instincts, as realists would argue, have not changed much.
• Mr. Putin’s Russia is not the first country that violated the sovereignty of a weaker power and flouted international laws in the “rules-based” order.

Future of Europe’s security

• Russia apparently had two strategic objectives in Ukraine —
• One, to expand Russian borders and create a buffer.
• And two, to reinforce Russia’s deterrence against NATO.
• While Russia has succeeded, though slowly, in expanding its borders by capturing almost all of Ukraine’s east, the war has backfired on its second objective.
• Russia’s inability to clinch a quick outright victory in Ukraine and the tactical retreats it has already made have invariably dealt a blow to the perception of Russian power that existed before the war.
• This has strengthened NATO, driving even Sweden and Finland into its arms. Besides, the economic sanctions would leave a long-term hole in Russia’s economy.
• But a Russia that is bogged down in Ukraine and encircled by NATO need not enhance Europe’s security.
• As Henry Kissinger said at Davos, Russia had been and would remain an important element in the European state system.

Conclusion

The prospects are bleak. There will not be peace in Europe unless either Russia accepts its diminished role and goes into another spell of strategic retreat or Europe and the West in general accommodate Russia’s security concerns. Both look unrealistic as of today.

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