FREEPIK
How powerful is the Philippines when measured against other nations? How much influence do we wield in global affairs?
To answer these questions, we first have to define what constitutes “power.” For much of history, power was defined by territorial reach, size of population, national wealth, military might or a combination thereof.
These attributes are referred to by political scientists as “hard power.”
But globalization has changed the world order. With borderless trade, open migration and multilateral alliances as the new norm, the definition of power had shifted to something completely different. Power is now defined as the ability to control people and events, the ability to influence decisions, the ability to act towards producing a desired effect, the ability to convert mindsets and the ability to get others to do what you want, not through coercion but by persuasion. These attributes are known as “soft power” and it is the world’s new benchmark of supremacy.