Abstract

Public diplomacy lies at the heart of modern development of information age and shapes the concept of social and political thought. This paper analysis the concept of soft power vis-à-vis counter terrorism strategy of nation states and discusses the significance of the soft power and public/cultural diplomacy in building image, nation branding and ultimately building a narrative. It will bring the reference point of Pakistan on the issue of relevance with today’s world at the same time carrying a negative image of terrorist state. This paper establishes co-relation between nation branding and public diplomacy. Since the hard power is meeting with failure in order to curb the terrorism, there is limitation of state capacity to use hard power in bringing the structural changes needed for curbing terrorism. The paper recommends that there is a great need for revisiting religious narrative that extremists invoke for justification of their acts. 

Key Words

Soft Power, Image, Nation Branding, Public Diplomacy, Cultural Diplomacy

Introduction

Since the conception of “Soft Power” diplomacy of Joseph Nye, a term which he coined in 1990 (Nye, 1990) is highly relevant to public diplomacy & International Relations, which explains the need of soft-power in divergence with hard-power option of the state through military actions. He defined the soft power as an ability to shape the wants of others or the ability to influence the behavior without applying coercive or hard-power, indeed, it is the ability to change what others do (Nye, 2004. p 7-8).The academic discourses are focusing on what is the capability of Soft Power and how does it affect the diplomacy. Particularly after 9/11 the debate on soft power triggered a global debate on diplomacy vis-à-vis hard power as a tool of security policy as well as counter- terrorism measure particularly in Pakistan. Contrary to this, the modern politics is moving to the use of soft power. This shift is considered to be helpful as counter-terrorism measure to combat terrorism. The international alliances and forums are diverting funds and energies towards building soft power image of the states. Traditional foreign policy tools were based on hard power, however, the concept of soft power emerged out of the challenges of 21st century to influence the behavior of the states in international politics through public diplomacy. The behavioral influence of the state has been thoroughly debated after the 9/11 incident of the terrorism in United States by many political scientist such as Joseph Nye (2004), Scheinder (2005), Aendt (2005), Chong (2005) and gray (2011). With the result of soft-power framework after 9/11 the state capability has become a central focus as “capability” in terms of soft power directly linked not only the power and leverages of influence but also containing of the use of hard power.

In this context the integrated idea of “Nation branding” is also a new concept to deal with the country’s ability to promote its ability in such a manner that it sustain an image of that country in international politics, there this all he so deals with the country ability to influence the nations through public diplomacy for recognition of their own image as nation branding. Nation branding is concept which can directly reflect the ability of soft power particularly in the context of fighting terrorism. In post 9/11 scenario, It has been observed that the hard power used by United States in war against terrorism has not been complimented through the soft power, resultantly, the terrorism in world has not only be defused, costlier to maintain this was but also it has increased manifolds and affected many other countries in the world in the form of unconventional threat. 

The shift from conventional to un- conventional threat demanded states to envisage the policy and methods for fighting terrorism as their security and public diplomatic policy. The role of non-state actors becomes critically significant in challenging state capacity to fight terrorism particular it cannot be countered with hard power. In the absence of soft power capability the state gradually lose their legitimacy vis-à-vis non-state actors as they become more successful in their terrorist strategy. Keeping this in view, this paper would concentrate on the issue of soft-power vis-à-vis state capacity fight terrorism as an effective measure and influence the foreign policy of the countries, specifically considering the Pakistan security challenges and use of soft power in order to engage itself with international communities in terms of more strategic and goal oriented way. This paper would discuss how soft power improves the external security environment through employment of immaterial soft power in Pakistan’s situation.

Since International cooperation is critical to fight the war on terrorism, so the public diplomacy is the most central tool to ensure cooperation and merging itself to common goal of fighting against the global war on terror. For this purpose of the analysis will be looked into context of theory of diplomacy a correlation to terrorism and as diffusing element of terrorism.

Central Issue

Since the incident of 9/11 the hard power has been used against terrorism which has not been successful in defusing the terrorism but being prolonged more than one and half decade. The changing dynamics of globalization and role of non-state actors are completing states to compliment the hard power with the soft power to use persuasive approach through public diplomacy as counter-terrorism measure. 




Hypothesis




H1. Hard power will be counterproductive if not complimented with soft power for diffusing the terrorism incidents as an alternative approach. 

H2. Soft power strategies can help in depicting positive nation’s branding and can improve national security environment

Contemporary Debates and Literature Review

As we see the development of soft-power literature, Joseph Nye's concept of soft-power seems to be more relevant in this regard. Nye has advanced the definition gradually from his early form of Nye's soft power remains: the capacity or ability to attain through attraction rather than coercion (Nye, 2004). Though, the author stretched the concept towards "the ability to affect others by co-optive means of agenda framing, persuading and extending positive attraction to achieve preferred outcomes (Nye, 2011). In later years, he further deliberated on the definition of soft-power while getting outcome into the purview of the earlier definition.

In the academic discourses of soft power, Nye’s book, Soft Power: The means to Success in the World Politics (2004) remains good source of understanding of soft power, its outcome and its bearing on War on terror. Zachary Abuzain his book Militant Islam in South East Asian (2003) gave a comprehensive history of the condition and factors which caused the Islam to grow in South East Asia. His intense work shows that how the militant organization such as Al Qaeda has been able to develop in the regions, with the structure of the organization, and their governance structure developed, penetrated ideologically, financially and logistically in the society. He argues that “the historical roots of militant Islam are not new in the region, but the links to international terrorist groups are. Al-Qaida was able to graft onto existing 3 movements as well as establish independent cell” (Zachary, 2003).He described the evolution of radicalism in the ASEAN region and also and tried to discover the role of state in the multilateral state responses to the increasing militancy.

By analyzing the employed strategies by states for combating, co-opting or coping with Islamists militant Groups, he highlights a key concern that, whether states as main actor are trying to solve the causes grounded behind the Muslim disaffection or only using the war as tool against the terrorism to just suppress the immediate symptoms (Zachary, 2003). Paul K. Davis and Brian Michael Jerkins have discussed; in Deterrence and Influence in Counter-terrorism, the measures ranging from reduction of the influence of the terrorism to deterrence of terrorism by al Qaeda and other organization. As per their analysis the successful and effective counter-terrorism strategies spawned by serious deep rooted problems have invoke first the crushing of current threat of terrorism and then bringing about changes to make less likely the reemergence of terrorism (Jenkin, 2002. p. xii).

Analysis

Jerkin in Escalation Ladder of the Coerciveness of Influence described that though the element of co-optation and inducement can help in defusing terrorism as source of soft of power but in case of Al-Qaeda, they are apprehensive that it would world based on the commitment of the followers of the particularly the Osama Bin Ladin. Nevertheless in this context the authors “the concept of deterrence is both too limiting and too naive to be applicable to the war on terrorism” (Jerkins, 2002, p, xviii). On the basis of historical analysis of the terrorism they have suggested that coercive approach should be part of the grand strategy to curb the terrorism. Shaping the behavior & influences of belief is significant in the correlation of soft power and terrorism, in this context, the authors of the book Two Faces of Power, Bachrach and Baratz (1962) comprehended the national power capacity to influence people in the society, which was previously was not much focused as power of the state literature, although including the Lukes (2005), in his book Power: A Radical View, have discussed the power relation of the state in the national context and not in International relations context. Though, the state soft power relations with national and international relations is growing and becoming more relevant visa-a-vis terrorism. So it is emerging in public diplomacy literature mostly based on the Nye’s soft power concept.

As Nye (2008) described that public-diplomacy can be seen as an effective instrument that the governments employs to mobilize soft-power resources to attract not only the governmental bodies of other nations but also the people of those countries. Nye emphasized on deter as an alternate measure of war on terror, and discussed how the terrorist organizations are using modern media of communication for their actions as well as mind making of for recruits for Jihad in his article . He is of the view that (Nye, 2008b) grotesque message stuff comprises the language of religion as justification and its dynamics are just like an ideology that looks forward to harness the energy from a greater variety of grievances. He by referring to the Donald Rumsfel, the former secretary of defense, argues that “what metric we should use to measure success in a war on terrorism. He concluded that success is depending on; whether the number of terrorists we were killing or deterring was greater than the number of enemy was recruiting” (Nye, 2008b, p 1).

Maintaining direct relation with people is much emphasized for extension of one’s state value and culture to represent its image in other country. Melissen (2005, p 8) in his book Wielding Soft Power: The New Public Diplomacy has furthered his arguments on extension of culture and values to other countries through public diplomacy. The literature on soft power also discusses the concept of “war on ideas”, as a measure for fighting terrorism such as Williams (2009, p 219) in his book chapter, The US Military and Public Diplomacy has put forward that public diplomacy is critical in order to win the “war on ideas”. In search of alternatives of hard power to curb the war on terrorism, the academic discourse in constantly developing ideas to focus on public diplomacy and influencing the behavior of the other nation and also to engage people in ideas war. Van Ham as strained on this idea also in his writing War, and Videotape: Public-diplomacy and the USA’s War on terrorism, where he emphasized that public diplomacy should be engaged on three levels; a) engage foreign people directly, b) Influence citizen to get change in a foreign government and c) create an image of one's homeland and policies as positive. By presenting a critic of American public diplomacy approach in the wake of war on terror, he is of the view that United States public diplomacy takes Muslim culture for granted and at some point contradictory to the US led modernity, this understanding of US further put the gulf between US policies and Muslim culture. The reality is otherwise as Muslim culture accepts constituent element of modernity and that the Muslims have an innate albeit repressed, desire to support both liberal democracy and capitalism (Ham, 2003, p 431-432). He analyzed the US diplomacy in the context of thesis of “End of History” where he maintains that Muslim Culture does not clash but accommodates; a Muslim may be of critical to the US policy initiatives towards Middle East but accepts the US led liberal values like individual choice of freedom. Engagement in dialogue with governments and people is emerging as modern and important feature of public-diplomacy in the literature in post 9/11 scenario and comprehended that the United States public diplomacy demands now from US to enter into the dialogue with Muslim states to understand essence of Muslim cultural diplomacy (Ham, 2003, p 432).

The focus of such literature is to establish that public diplomacy needs soft power to employ in-order to win the heart and mind of people along with ideas of war. Combined with the idea of soft-power of nye the concept of Noopolitik emerged in the literate as defined by John Arquila and David Ronfeldt in their writing, “The Promise of Noöpolitik” as framework or approach to diplomacy and strategy for the information age that focused on the shaping and sharing of ideas, values, norms, ethics and laws through soft-power (Arquilla and Ronfeldt, 2008). Ham, in his writing presented the idea of ‘Noopolitik’ in contrast with the realpolitik to further his arguments that war on terror need strategy to use strategy of soft through the extension of values, norms, ideas and use of media (Arquilla & Ronfeldt, 2008, p 440).

This brings him in line with the greater proponent of soft power like Joseph Nye. There are other writers who have based soft power on the culture and values as compared to the hard power which is based on like Fraser (2003), who analyses the Nye soft power for in application in the context of American Foreign policy, Hynek (2010) has applied it for Canadian persuade of soft power and Heng (2010) has discussed the policies of soft power policies of China and Japan. Though conception of Nye of soft power have many critics and skeptics also on the basis on the question of its utility against the war on terrorism though this difference is not satisfactorily so far explained by critics, such as Fraser (2003).

Nye concept of soft power has been considered as shallow by Bohas (2006, p 410) as he maintained that real power has to be used through force. For him the conception of power is compromising the real concept of soft power which he termed as problematic dichotomy. Some other writers such as Gray (2011, p 29) argued that potentially soft-power is dangerous idea, not because it is unsound but for the faulty inference that careless or unwary observers draw from it. Ferguson (2004) also in his book Colossus: The Price of America's Empire mentioned this concept of soft power was already existed in the form of colonialism. Ferguson categorically states that soft-power is merely the velvet-glove concealing an iron hand (Ferguson, 2004, p. 24). The available literature on soft-power reflects that term “soft power” remained vague and confusing also for some writers such Zahran and Ramos (2010, p 11) in book, From Hegemony to Soft-power: Implications of a Conceptual Change, argue that state can use soft power for the persuades of hard power through multilateral insinuations, it can lead towards coercive power again (Zahran and Ramos, 2010, p. 11). They are of the view that influencing behavior of other nations and people can give command to country to create hard power.

For other writer such as Fan in his writing, Soft-power: Power of attraction or Confusion? finds Nye’s definition somehow confusing vis-à-vis hard power as for him Nye consider soft-power is nothing more than soft-face of hard-power (Fan,  2008, p 151).However Nye in his later writings replied to the critic and skeptics by explaining that soft-power is an analytical concept but not a theory (Nye Jr., 2010, p 219). He has described that soft-power may be used as a foreign policy tool effectively, where the debates on this concept has pushed issue towards theory. The literature on the effectiveness of soft power shows that there is a different between an idea of soft to persuade other countries through the American culture, values and foreign policy and actually how to do it. Somehow, Lukes (2005, p 490) emphasized on the need to understand the method of how to ‘attract’, or persuade to other nations and countries. He seems more concerned with the soft power that beliefs can be shaped to influence and how to set preference of the available option of influences. Mattern also criticizes Nye for ambiguous description of concept related to attraction and its application. He understands that “according to Nye, does one ‘amass’ soft power? As Nye argues, the sources of soft power lie in the attractiveness of political and cultural values, ideals, and visions–specifically, those that are universal (as opposed to parochial) in orientation. Disappointingly, Nye says nothing about why universal values are the ‘right’ ones or how one acquires such values (Mattern, 2005, p 588).

However the argument of this paper is to use soft power strategies more for the foreign policy tools, public diplomacy image building, nation branding than the implicit influences and behavior changes through agenda setting of other nations and people. If we look at the literature of the foreign policy instruments and its elements Brighi and Hill’s in their writing in an edited book, Foreign Policy. Theories, Actors, Cases,” they have classified foreign policy instrument in five categories i.e. political Intervention, Military Action, Positive Sanctions, diplomacy& negative Sanctions (Brighi & C. Hill, 2008, p 164).

The use of foreign policy instrument to influence the behavior has been earlier discussed by Lasswell book, Politics: Who Gets What, When, How, he describes the four core elements of foreign policy: economic, diplomatic, propaganda and military as instrument and discussed that they have different value outcomes. However, Baldwin (1985: p.13). discussed that the four instruments of foreign policy has been contained to two elements i.e war and diplomacy, by some writers, which contained the policy makers for making alternative choice in foreign policy decision making. Therefore, the literature of soft and hard power depicts the influential elements of behaviour as a source of power and foreign policy. However, if we look at the soft power literature vis-à-vis terrorism, we can find the previous work done by Alshehri, Colonel Abdulhadi in his writing Soft-power as an alternative to Hard-power in Counterterrorism in Saudi Arabia. In this project he highlight the Saudi counterterrorism strategy, he analyzed that in the context of terrorism Saudi Arabia has chosen the soft-power as a strategy to counter hard-power which earlier had failed. The Saudi is employing soft power strategy to counter-terrorism through media campaigns and reforms in educational structure.

It has been suggested in the literature that “different factors: culture, Religion, available local resources, local people cooperation and indigenous people grievances to make sure that strategy characterized of suitability, acceptability, feasibility, and assure of harmonizing the Ends, Ways and Means of the strategy” 5 He has suggested for an inclusive approach for addressing the terrorism. We can also find the work of Smith, Stroh & Williams in their paper Counterinsurgency Meets soft-power: An alternative Approach to Deterring Terrorist Recruitment in Mindanao who discussed the idea of noopolitik along with hard and soft power. In his view the real-politik cannot help terrorism and its governance unless soft power is applied with the approach of noopolitik which is based on information to deal with other nations and groups. The application of soft power for eradication of radicalization has been discussed by Jason Smith, Rieka Stroh & John Williams in their unpublished thesis on Counterinsurgency meets soft power in they analyses the soft power approaches for counter radicalization efforts, by applying the analogy of wining the heart and mind of the people to change the mindset behind the radicalization and ultimately terrorism.

The analysis suggests that the first step towards counter terrorism strategy is to build counter narrative. Further, discussion over the concept of soft power vis-à-vis counter terrorism strategy of nation states has provided credentials about the significance of the soft power and public/cultural diplomacy to build image, nation branding and ultimately building a counter-terrorism narrative. 

Terrorism & Shifting Perspective of Public-Diplomacy

Public-diplomacy is an old practice since the Roman Empire and it significance can be seen even through World Wars for turning war into peace and stability. The War time also make the world learn about the propaganda instrument of the diplomacy. During Cold-war, the significance of public-diplomacy was evident more in the budgetary priority in-order to win the hearts and mind of people by US. However the soft-power has been observed as a critical strategy for public diplomacy after 9/11 as war on terror started by Bush Administration has generated lot of sentiments against United States, to counter these sentiments, US employed different strategies to counter anti-Americanism. In October, 2001 former Madison Avenue advertising heavy weight Charlotte Beers was appointed as Under Secretary for public-diplomacy and public affairs. This had sat vacant since the Bush's administration (Krause & Evera, 2009). The biggest challenge in the wake of war on terrorism and attack on Iraq and Afghanistan was to improve public-diplomacy with Muslim-world and obviously the anti- American sentiments and counter the anti-Muslim propaganda. From this point the public-diplomacy has been taken as an important link with sof-power. Theory of public diplomacy inexorably increases the concept of soft power much earlier than actually idea of ‘Soft power ‘on the basis that public diplomacy, as it is also about exerting influence on the people and government. Now the countries required keeping themselves according to international norms and values, and their credibility is substantiated through their internal policies and those can influence and attract.

Therefore, after 9/11 particularly the public-diplomacy is largely considered a vital postmodern tool of statecraft, which generates legitimacy and acknowledges that in globalized world the states have  monopoly on processing and diffusion of information. It further recognizes that updated communication tools offer new opportunities to interact with public at larger level by adopting a network-approach and evolving the most of an increasingly multi-centric global system of interdependence (Melissen, 2005, p 57).

The debate of public diplomacy became more relevant after US role as global hegemon on military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq, as they assumed that imperial interventionism is a very basis of soft power. Whereas it is actually weakening the US soft power ideological and cultural appeal that was considered counter- productive for US soft power in the form anti- American sentiments. As use of hard power is not attractive to pursued others therefore most often it is argued that soft and hard power is contrasted, whereas, for Nye the soft-power is an ability to achieve policy targets through attraction (Nye, 2004). If 9/11 is taken as start of new kind of war in the world against terrorism mostly with hard power, then the roots of it was over look for many years after 9/11. War on terrorism is also a critical area to reflect upon change in perspective. To combat terrorism with the hard power is also difficult as mostly terrorism by Al Qaeda or ISIS is simply motivated by religion and for them martyrdom is an important achievement, and more they are killed by use of hard power, more they feel they are getting closer to their objective of at least getting a martyrdom and more they are able to motivate people and particularly the youth that will land into paradise soon after they blast, suicide or killed by the forces. This is evident from the fact that US invasion in Iraq in 2003 portrayed an image of unilateralism based on realpolitik as well as military superiority most important to compel the Iraq for attraction through hard power. As if now it is very clear that the Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist are driven by particularly image of Islam , certain beliefs against the infidels, so it required eradication of such elements but also with the concept of deterrence too, which warrants use of soft power. The deterrence is used in a sense of quid pro quo, though as such no trade has to be made in this perspective, but still most emphasis from United States is to eradicate these organizations. Terrorism is a way of life for them and being, raison d’être of such terrorist organization hardly possible for them to change their actual way of life as they are not irrational (Ziemke, 2002).

Presently in International politics the Islamic radicalism and fundamentalism is fast growing elements which we are facing most often in Pakistan and including many other Muslim states, countries, is becoming source of hindrances of International relations due to this religious conflicts sates are facing hurdle in political relations as states are taking the counter-terrorism measures but those are not effective on the basis that the composition of the terrorist organization is much different from those of four-five decades ago. Currently the radicals are not only paying attention to their ideology and believe to die but today they are invisible, using all the latest technology, recruiting people and there is whole political economy working in terrorism. This issue therefore, requires a balance between Realpolitik and idealism. This what takes towards Noopolitik. The public-diplomacy within the framework of Noopolitik is the response of the balance between the two.




Contrast between Realpolitik and Noopolitik




Real Politik Noopolitik

States as the unit of analysis Nodes, non-state actors

Primary of hard power (Resources, etc.) Primary of soft Power

Power politics as zero-sum game Win-win, lose-lose possible

Systemic in anarchic, highly conflictual Harmony of interests, cooperation

Alliance conditional (Oriented to threat) Ally webs vital to security

Primary of national self-interest Primary of shared interests

Politics as unending quest for advantage Explicitly seeking a telos

Ethos is amoral, if not immoral Ethics crucially important

Behaviour driven by threat and power Common goals drive actors

Very guarded about information flows Propensity for info-sharing




The terrorism has not been curtailed because the cultural diplomacy as an instrument of the counter-terrorism has been given a very little attention even by the United States after 9/11. Unpredictably, the cultural diplomacy has been successful tool in the cold war, whereas it could be as much successful after the 9/11 incident too. This could bring America and Muslim World closer on the same goal of eradication of the terrorism form the world but it can be concluded that no publicity is also a kind of bad publicity in diplomacy. Therefore, a need of change in perspective of public diplomacy is required today to deal with the terrorism. Nevertheless certain cultural exchange and promotion organization like British Council and Goethe Institute have continued to work independent form their respective government pressure though got funding by the British and German Government their work. Schneider discussed that they won’t accept message from the respective government as they go for short-term political gains and that would undermine such organization’s credibility (Schneider, 2006, p 81). Public diplomacy is not mere a statement in the newspaper about soft image of a country or soft investment but it is long term engagement for implementation of soft power based on the country’s principles, values, art and culture as well as narrative. It is not something to be implemented only by the Ambassadors, of the country through formal diplomacy but also from the civil society, performers, thinkers, academician, to the extent of all layout of the society.




Nation Branding and State Craft

 

This information and digitization age brought a new kind of economy through modern way of communication as new challenges for counter-terrorism  Terrorist use all soft mode of communication for their terrorism, all latest technology for the effective strategy along with coming up with a narration on the basis of their beliefs. There are online transfers of funds, transaction in soft modes of ATMs by terrorist and in the same way these latest sources of communication are used by the same the bad name, image and brand of those countries where these organization operates goes to the world. Migration on line, the foreign policy statement, the tweets of the foreign ministers or head of the states, becomes part of the nation branding and also soft power. The concept of “nation branding” was cited by Simon Anholt (1998) and for him the global economy is interdependent and competitive so there is a need to be attractive for the foreigners. This require a way or process to brand and no as such direct branding by nation but of course need policies based on soft power through public diplomacy to alter a nation appearance to the other nations (Szondi, 2008). 

This is an age of 24/7 news and current affairs, and a real time public diplomacy, public official, diplomats and foreign ministries are obligatory for instant response on local and global issues. The issue which emerged at national level build image internationally and problems occurred when the response of the issues like terrorism cannot integrate itself into national brand. This brings the nation’s bad branding as well incoherent and inconsistent national narrative which due to the information age is fast consumed by the internationally by other nations. Soft power and branding is not only the task of diplomats, it is something exhibits in nation’s behavior and attitude towards culture, foreign policy, institution and of course the cultural diplomacy through, media, our language , sports and cultural heritage, values. The shrine attacks in Pakistan are the attack on Pakistan soft power as they are reflection of Pakistan religious culture heritage. Equally important is our response to these terrorist attacks, radicalization and generally the terrorism itself. Diplomacy is a combination of two levels, track I. comes from the Government, elites, diplomacy and track II comes through society level, where all the individual communicate through a culture filter when transmitting their values of country to the other targeted country ( Hunt, 2013, p 37).

As Dinnie contends that public diplomacy and branding interacts in two ways: one is, with economic globalization and interdepend markets, and second is, that it establishes the national identity of a nation. However, the destination branding and nation branding differs as former relates to the tourism only though it is part of the overall branding of a nation (Dinnie, 2008, p 218).  Overall branding is a sum of individual’s perception in area of competence and this is a new phenomenon for the world keeping in view the challenge of both internal and external market. Nations have to take extremely conscious efforts to building positive image in the wake of terrorism.

If we look at, how important is to deal with the perception of the world regarding any nation and their markets, we can find that nation branding has a great role of image building and nation economic competitiveness as firms competes. When people demand and relates with a German Car, Japanese machinery, Italian painting and opera, heritage of china, courtesy of British or brusqueness of America, Hollywood of America, Bollywood of India, we instinctively trust them with brand of nations and respond to the brand images in a way as we do for other consumable brands for the respective country.  Therefore, these responses on policies towards nation establish a predominant positive image of a nation and source of attraction. But again in terms of terrorism this attraction does not seem to be working in case of America. Since the America is best known for international brands like Nike, MacDonald, Apple computer, Google, GAP, Hollywood, Disney, MTV, CNN, but soon after 9/11 the policies taken by US of hard power and public diplomacy, that makes quite unpopular and lot anti-American sentiments were generated. Since it is also war of ideas that good soft image a country can built by winning the war of heart and minds.

Like commercial brands, a nation’s image can be repackaged, repositioned and communicated in a professional fashion. He summarized the relationship the relationship between national identity, nation branding and nation’s image (Fan, 2010). In this case American has not taken the soft power approach towards public but its focus remained more on the markets. The Bush administration weakened its power to win the war of hearts and minds of the Muslim world and chosen to use hard power mechanism. The cultural diplomacy has declined after cold war by United States. In cold war from trade policy to export the American product to American values as well as, literature, music dance movies to bring American culture around the world. A two way communication is the requirement of the public diplomacy, which lacked after 9/11 of US public diplomacy.

Pakistan Branding and Terrorism

Public diplomacy becomes more relevant than hard power vis-à-vis national branding because it is associated with the possession of certain resources, territory, natural resource, population, economy size and of course the military force and political stability. Unfortunately, after the incident of 9/11 Pakistan being a front ally state is facing all kind of internal and external challenges of security, economic and social, over and above the negative nation branding also. There is critical need to discuss and present the ideas on the Pakistan soft power and its re-branding vis-a-vis it soft power.

From a perspective of branding, the wave of terrorism after 9/11, Pakistan has been facing critical situation in the International politics. The root of radicalization and extremism comes from the role of Pakistan in war against Russian invasion in Afghanistan in 1979.  The Pakistan soft image of 1970s was tarnished after 9/11 incident  as Taliban and AL Qaeda groups of terrorism find itself to place in North Waziristan and other related areas of the boarder of Afghanistan. Pakistan despite its anti-terrorism military operation to dismantle terrorist organization, still continues and suffering economically as well as socially.

It was generally considered by the western world that Islamic world is lacking soft power and so as was true for Pakistan image at international level. The Pakistan military action in the aftermath of 9/11 to curb the terrorism became counterproductive, despite military operation in Federal Administered Tribal Areas, signing the peace agreement with the militant, and introduction various anti-terrorism laws, the outcome remained inconsistent with the targeted outcome (Ahmed, 2014. p.59).

In the case of Pakistan, unless it uses the blend of hard and soft power to counter the terrorism under National Action Plan, despite anti-terrorism measures, Pakistan had been facing with terrorism acts on routine basis (Feyyaz, 2015). After 9/11, extremism movement in Pakistan is not restricted only to the border area of Pakistan but the influence of extremis is wide spread to the settled areas of Pakistan. The imprints of Pakistan, history, culture and tradition are being targeted which is termed here as “Cultural Terrorism”.  The Taliban attacks in Cinemas, media houses, CDs Shops &  shrines depict the mindset of the attackers, extremists want not just to snatch away the right to life, but also culture  cleansing and religious diversity in Pakistan where churches, temples, religious festivals, art, music and literary activities  threatens the guarantee of  life and peace.

The culture of preservation of history through poetry, drama and theater is being tarnished by cultural terrorism. There are new themes of poetry now in Pakistan in drama & art related such as suicide attack, missile and helicopter have entered into literature, especially poetry, reflecting the destructive nature of the insurgency and counter-insurgency operations (FATA Research Centre Report:, 2012: p. 4).

The culture and norms to protect the social values of the cooperation, tolerance and forgiveness is being replaced in an intangible way in Pakistan’s culture. Ironically its folklore and literature are shifting focus from serenity to security. The terrorist derived their ideology of cultural terrorism based on their perceived Islamic ideology (Maskell, 2002). Since religion remained integral part of the cultural identity in Pakistan, in many cases it is difficult to distinguish religion and culture as two separate concepts and that makes a collective identity of that nation is being exploited in cultural terrorism in Pakistan. The study of nations reveals that when Germany and Japan had been relying merely upon the hard power they faced problems. Further, it was the lack of soft power with USSR which led her to demise (Nuri, 2015, July 1, The News International).

Pakistan has to come out from the fragile narrative & mix messages of narrative such as good Taliban and bad Taliban. Pakistan as part of the world politics and of course the domestic non-religious reason is facing the negative image and branding issue internationally.

Way Forward

Pakistan hard power and military action requires non-military measures combining with soft power as required as counter-terrorism measure. Soft power no doubt will stem from hard power in case of Pakistan as pre-conditions for soft power to be exercised; soft power is an alternate form and not replacement of hard power.  

As compared to 15 years back, Pakistan is now emerging as more secure and stable, state and getting a positive image internationally.  Now it is not on the edge of default statues and it is evident from China’s biggest investment in Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) of $ 46 (b). Pakistan has growing middle class which is a positive indicator for socio-economic development of any country Pakistan getting stable democratically. Pakistan remains as beacon of the hope for the stability of the South Asian region also as it has pro-active foreign policy to maintain peace and stability in the region particularly after the US troops are withdrawn. Pakistan has most vibrant independent media and reaching out internationally. Pakistan drama, films containing culture content and music is being watched not only in the region but also it is being translated in other languages. The Coke studio, a traditional program with modern music instrument is very popular not in Asian but also in America.  However there are not adequate dedicated resources by the state which can promote Pakistan soft power image internationally.

Pakistan also heading towards university education standards, it has sixty percent of youth as human resources, which of course needs to be developed as human capita. However Pakistan still lags behind in exploitation of its soft power despite having rich cultural civilization and our sacrifices we have gone through during last 15 years, Pakistan image is still of a fragile state. There is a deficit in image building in many areas of Pakistan through tourism, sports and performing art. Through cultural diplomacy Pakistan can contain the contribution of political violence and extremism towards terrorism. There are certain policy based institute and think tanks in Pakistan focusing their dialogue and debates on the need of revisiting the Pakistan narrative vis-à-vis religious thought and conflict which can be beseech of terrorist and extremist to justify their deeds.

Based on the series of working groups and dialogue between academics, politician, religious scholars and leaders in debates organized by Institute of Peace studies, aimed at reconstruct of a narrative embodying soft image. The wide number of organizations including charities and madrassas believe that extremists are misusing Islam for their petty agendas. But the fallout is being felt by the people all over the world. Such moderate elements have not been able to come to the forefront and ordinary people continue to fall prey to the extremist version of Islam. (Fayyaz, 2009. p.3) ‘Therefore, the spectrum of challenges is intellectual, religious to socio-culture, elaborated as under:

Intellectual Challenges: Religious extremism is basically a result of not giving proper attention and interpretation to the certain Islamic injunctions the constitutions. Responding to the extremist narrative of non-acceptance of cultural and social diversity, it was discussed that the fatwas and arguments of against the extremism of all segments of the society should be put forth. The extremist narrative about Kafir (Declaring infidel) should be countered to the general masses in details. This will help in building a new narrative exhibiting soft power for Pakistan.

Religious Challenges: There is a need to have understood the need of having a counter-narrative. A social harmony is required by highlighting the commonalities among different faith as well as the concept of tolerance and acceptance the diversity. One of the important tasks is awareness of the history of west, their evolution of the institution and building a level of trust between Muslim and the West.

Socio-Culture Context: The core issue in this challenge is the lack of moderation, tolerance, acceptance and refusal of diversity in Pakistani society. The other linked issue is the sectarian undercurrents & discourses. Cultural sensitivity is the important element and violating human right in the name of culture should be discouraged. This is possible if the cultural festivals, religious and communities should be celebrated that the governmental level.  Scholars should shape the public opinion for a societal awareness. A peaceful expression of concern should be promoted as foundations of peace narrative in Pakistan as theorized in the hypothesis of this paper. 

Conclusion

The contemporary world has recognized the terrorism as a common threat to human security-the chief component of national security policies of states across the globe. It has been more than one and half decade that the super power US along with NATO and non NATO allies using hard power to combat the terrorism but remains unsuccessful. The president Donald Trump admits the seventeen years’ failure in war against terrorism and Mr. Pompeo confesses that US is now ready to use soft power and cultural diplomacy as counter-terrorism measure in Afghanistan. This shift in US perception is because of the changing dynamics of globalization and role of non-state actors.  The national agenda driven non-state actors provide assistance to states to compliment the hard power with the soft power to use persuasive approach through public diplomacy as counter-terrorism measure. As the case of ongoing war on terror, terrorism has been decreased in the states they have given the place to soft power in their domestic and foreign policies. In Pakistan National Action Plan has been complimented with the soft power through cultural diplomacy consequently the terrorism has significantly been decreased. This study has brought about the reference point of Pakistan on the issue of relevance with today’s world at the same time carrying an image of terrorism harboring state. It has established co-relation between the two evolving concept and discipline the public diplomacy and nation-branding. This study has found that hard power is meeting with failure in order to curb the terrorism because there is limitation of state capacity of hard power to bring the structural changes for curbing the terrorism. By keeping in view soft-power and public-diplomacy is an effective strategy for new narrative and not just counter narrative as that is also counterproductive. It is recommended that there is a greater need for revisiting religious narrative that extremists invoke to justify their acts. Whatever be the specifics of the counter discourse, some sort of mechanism may be evolved, not least by engaging parliament and its bodies. Concluding the main argument, it has been evident in the course of fighting against terrorism the hard power is counterproductive if not complimented with soft power for diffusing the terrorism incidents as an alternative approach. Further, the soft power strategies has helped in depicting positive nation’s branding and can improve national security environment across the globe. 

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