India has jumped a spot from rank 29 to 28 while Australia has slipped down from 13th to 14th place in Brand Finance’s Global Soft Power Index for 2023.
Brand Finance index which is based on a survey of 111,364 people across 101 countries has earlier noted that India is performing high in ‘Future Growth Potential’ under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The United States of America (USA), Britain, and Germany all retained their first, second, and third positions respectively.
Brand Finance ranks nations by their soft power standing based on familiarity, reputation and influence along with an assessment of eight soft power categories.
David Haigh, Chairman & CEO of Brand Finance, commented:
“While nations have turned to soft power to restore trade and tourism after a devastating health crisis, the world order has been disrupted by the hard power of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
The eight categories include culture and heritage, international relations, governance, business and trade, media and communication, education and science, people and values, and sustainability.
For the uninitiated, the term ‘soft power’ was coined by Joseph Nye to show a country’s ability to exert international influence to produce positive or favourable outcomes through persuasion rather than coercion.
In 2021-22, New Zealand, then under Jacinda Arden, was considered the fastest-rising nation that now has slipped down from 21st to 26th spot.
Further, despite their poor human rights records the Gulf nations such as the UAE have been ranked among the top ten for the first time.
Meanwhile, war-torn Ukraine has seen the ‘strongest soft power improvement’ among all ‘121 nations – jumping up from 51st to to 37th place.
The study observes:
“Russia’s Reputation ranking in the study, one of the main determinants of soft power, has fallen from 23rd to an abysmal 105th resulting in a soft power score erosion of -1.3 points and causing it to drop out of the Index’s overall top 10 ranking, down to 13th.”
The ranking notes that China retains “future growth potential” despite dropping in the ranking from 4th to 5th and being overtaken by Japan.
The full ranking, methodology, charts, commentary, expert contributions, and in-depth articles with interviews on nation brands around the world are available in the Global Soft Power Index 2023 report.
Global soft power rankings 2023.
