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competitive and modern country it shouldHOW TO IMPROVE focus part of its efforts in a real
SPAIN'S SOFT POWER modernization and not only in changing its
appearance.
Andrea Salazar and Oihana Olasagasti How does Spain benefit from soft
power?
Summary
Spain should continue betting in the
According to Joseph Nye, soft power (the promotion of soft power since this is very
ability to shape the preferences of others beneficial for them. As it is very well known,
through appeal and attraction) is one of the the touristic sector has a huge weight in the
most important and influential forms of Spanish soft power. Spain attracts millions of
power, therefore improving the projection people every year, due to its richness in
that countries have on their image in the culture, landscapes, gastronomy and more.
world should be taken into account when According to the Portland index, Spain
creating the government's agenda in foreign would be the 5th most culturally influential
policy. The Elcano Global Presence Index state, ranking over countries like Italy or
states that the relevance in the world Japan. This can be traced back to the fact
nowadays is defined in 23% by the military that Spain has always had an important
forces, in 41% by the economic power and cultural heritage. It is the third country in the
36% by soft power. This could be explained world with the most UNESCO World
since globalization encourages cultural and Heritage designations, with 48.
technological supremacy which makes soft All of these contribute greatly to the
power's importance increase. importance of tourism for Spain's economy.
On the one hand soft power has always been Indeed before COVID-19 started, tourism
one of Spain's strengths, mostly thanks to its was the sector that contributed the most to
large historical presence abroad and its the Spanish economy: 176.000 million euros
cultural wealth. However, according to the annually (2018), 14,6% of the total GDP
Soft Power 30 index, Spain still struggles in (Canalis, 2020).
areas like business, education and political Despite the fact, tourism is a fundamental
certainty. The big dependence Spain has on sector for the Spanish soft power, it is not the
its culture and tourism, which has been only strength Spain has.In 2020, 5 million
portrayed during the Covid-19 crisis, makes foreigners more started learning the Spanish
it perceived as a vulnerable country. language, and there are 22 million people
We believe that Spain should not only focus learning the language which makes the
on promoting its soft power, but also bet on Spanish language the 3rd most used language
the so-called smart power (the perfect in the Internet, and the 2nd with the most
combination of soft and hard power taking translated texts in the world
context into account) therefore it's necessary Focusing on the latter data, Spanish is
to improve what makes Spain look like a spoken by 483 million people throughout 30
vulnerable country to consequently erase the different countries (Global Spain, 2020). Not
effect that this has in its image. If Spain only is it spoken by a high number of people,
wants to change the image of itself as a but Spanish is also beneficial when it comes
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, to business. This is because by speaking of to other countries in Europe. The lack of
it, bilateral agreements involving Foreign consensus and continuity inside the
Direct Investments (FDI) increase seven government are the main reasons for making
times more. it weak. The main issue of having an
Furthermore, the Spanish language has unsteady government is that many other
played a key role between Spanish foreign sectors, such as, economy and education are
policy towards Latin American countries. dependent on it, meaning that they are also
Spain has been the main investor in Latin affected negatively.
American countries, this being beneficial for Spain ranks significantly low in education
the Spanish image in these countries, and as well. The PISA results in 2018, (which is
thus globally. Spain mainly contributes in an assessment whose purpose is to evaluate
sectors such as in the Latin American different educational systems, by examining
countries’ development, social 15 year old students all around the world on
modernization, energy, communication, the topics of mathematics, science and
infrastructure, tourism and public services. reading) portray that Spain does not stand
(Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, UE y out in education either. Moreover, Spain has
cooperación, 2020) a high rate of early school leavers. In 2016, it
Weaknesses was the second country with the highest
percentage after Malta, with 19% of the
Spain might seem to be in a decent position students dropping out of education
in the Soft Power 30 ranking, due to the fact (European Commission, 2016).
that in 2019 ranked in the 13th position. One of the main struggles Spain has is with
However, Spain could have ranked better if its business environment, this means the
some aspects were more taken into account image and the attractiveness of the market
and so improved. that a country can generate and its in this
The Soft Power 30 analyses each country’s area that Spain obtains its worst mark with a
soft power through seven different sections 23rd place in The Soft Power 30 (an index
which are, digital, enterprise, culture, that provides an in depth assessment of
education, engagement, government and countries' soft power resource).
polling. These areas are analyzed, as well as,
ranked in order to finally calculate the
country’s overall position. Regarding Spain,
three areas are weaker than the rest which
are the following: the government,
enterprise and education. By improving
these, it would not only increase Spain’s soft
power ranking but also areas currently
affected by these vulnerabilities will no
longer be damaged. But how can these be
improved?
As mentioned above, one of Spanish soft
power’s weaknesses is in its government.
There is a high instability inside it compared
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