Review Soft power: The new great game for global dominance (a review)

Soft Power: The New Great Game for Global Dominance is a background book for teachers of language, cultural studies, as well as diplomatic studies and politics. Its twenty chapters cover the USA, the UK, Western and Central Europe, Russia, Australasia, South America, India, Africa, China and Japan. Its central thesis is that a country’s international reputation depends on cultural customs and practices that have nothing to do with politics. It looks at a country’s or a region’s arts, sciences, export products, social customs and values to build a picture of what makes outsiders value it – or dismiss it. For teachers of European languages, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese it is a fascinating collection of detailed and in many cases revealing information.