Together with military power and economic robustness, “soft power” is one of the fundamental factors that contributes to the generation of the overall power of the country, readily used for defeating any plots of the foreign aggressors to safeguard independence, sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity, and national interests firmly. Consequently, leverage of national “soft power” in the cause of national defence and protection of the Fatherland is a regular, essential mission and an extremely important factor, especially in the present period.

In recent years, the concept of “soft power” is regularly mentioned and, in fact, has become a new “power resource” of each nation and greatly affected international relations. In an evolving, turbulent, unforeseeable world, that countries always attach importance to the use of “soft power” and regard it as a backbone has been a trend in the international community. Together with other strength, “soft power” is instrumental in expanding international cooperation, enhancing competitive edge, and safeguarding national interests, especially independence, sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity, political regime, people, and peaceful, stable environment conducive to national building and development.

According to Professor Joseph Nye, “soft power” lies in the ability to attract and persuade other countries to change their behaviour and policies voluntarily instead of resorting to economic, military power. Thus, it can be understood that “soft power” is all of the abilities that people, communities or a nation can create to attract and persuade other people and nations to follow voluntarily without using economic, military power. The core nature of “soft power” is one country’s attractiveness and ability to generate national power so appealing that other countries follow and change their behaviour and policies voluntarily in the spirit of cooperation and without resorting to coercion.

Contrary to “soft power,” one country’s “hard power” lies in military power – military strength, modern weapons and equipment, military mobility, command, control, and support, military doctrine, most notably military art and other organic components – and economic power including the size of the economy and its development level, economic structure, level of integration, competitive edge, and mobilisation for national defence and security. The nature of one country’s “hard power” is to coerce other countries to act according to its wishes while the “soft power” emphasises the ability to attract and persuade other countries to follow voluntarily. “Soft power” and “hard power” have a close tie; supplement and reinforce each other. When “soft power” and “hard power” are combined effectively, they can create national overall power.

“Soft power” is all of abilities one country can create and exists in every aspect of the social life such as politics, economy, culture, and military. More importantly, “soft power” is clearly manifested by the cultural values with unique characteristics of each nation, values of the politics, and foreign policy of each country. Today, all countries pay attention to the use of “soft power” in both internal and external relations with a view to creating overall power to protect national interests. These countries are China, the United States, Russia, South Korea, Singapore, among others.

China is the most typical example of using “soft power,” especially in the cultural field. The 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, for the first time, affirmed that “soft power” is a vital component of the national overall power as well as international competitive edge of the country. As for the United States, besides strengthening military and economic power, it also attaches great importance to propagation in order to popularise American values, including free and democratic ones, to create attract high-quality human resources to work, study, and live in this country. Russia has tapped into “soft power” characterised by friendly diplomacy in connection with political and economic interests to achieve certain influence in international relations. It has become a nation with the ability to arrange and settle hard regional, international problems, which is noted and appreciated by other nations. In addition to major powers, even small countries with small land area and population are able to use “soft power” properly to exert a significant effect on the world. South Korea has soon mapped out “soft power” development strategy on the basis of combining resources closely and effectively, notably the development and popularisation of national culture. More importantly, this country has developed its culture into an industry in association with other goals. Therefore, the culture and image of South Korea are felt in every region and the world, contributing to enhanced position in the international arena. Owing to another approach through scientific organisation and administration of the society, a peaceful, stable environment, appropriate social policies, and the ability to attract and use talented people, Singapore has attracted many great scientists, capital investment, and business operations from other countries, thus becoming one of the leading trade centres in the world and the best country to live and work.

As far as Viet Nam is concerned, throughout the course of national building and defence, “soft power” has always been an integral part of the national overall power. During the Le dynasty, in the Great proclamation upon the pacification of the Wu, Nguyen Trai expressed “soft power” clearly through “taking the great cause to defeat the brutality, taking the humanity to overwhelm the ruthlessness,” and the strategy to “win the enemy’s heart without fighting a battle.” In the Ho Chi Minh era, President Ho Chi Minh brought Vietnamese “soft power” to a new height through the perspectives on acting flexibly while maintaining firmly his own principles, the country taking the people as the roots, taking manpower to benefit the people, culture lighting the way for the nation, great national unity, and policies on developing Vietnamese people, educating the corps of cadres and party members on revolutionary morality, and so on. Nowadays, “soft power” is brought into full play in the cause of reform, national building, and defence. At the 29th Diplomatic Conference convened in August 2016, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong affirmed that the real strength and position here is expressed by not only material strength but also “soft power”. Viet Nam’s current fortune, position, potential, and international prestige are attributed to full leverage of “soft power” and other sources of strength of the country.

Both theory and practice prove that “soft power” has been occupying an extremely important position and role, and together with “hard power,” formed the overall power of the country to firmly safeguard the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland. Therefore, in today’s cause of defending the Fatherland, together with establishing fundamental elements of the all-people national defence, there is a need to research and develop “soft power” of the country to fulfill this vital strategic mission.

First, it is necessary to continue to make the most of the cultural ‘soft power” in the cause of national defence. Viet Nam is a nation with a huge cultural treasure, which reflects people’s life, production, creativity, richness of the spiritual life, and the unique organisation of communities, most notably the cultural values showing the indomitable struggle of Vietnamese people against invaders’ assimilation and the unyielding armed struggle against many powerful foreign aggressors. Culture is the spiritual foundation of a country. Vietnamese cultural “soft power” is the ability to mobilise material cultural values (tangible) and the spiritual one (intangible) of the country for the cause of national defence. Of note, the spiritual cultural value is expressed in various forms such as patriotism, community cohesion, unyieldingness, mutual support, aspiration for peace, benevolence, humanity, friendliness, tolerance, and so on. The tangible and intangible cultural values reflect unique features in terms of spiritual values of Vietnamese people over generations. Given its long history and special geographical location, Viet Nam has many historical, cultural sites and typical tourist attractions, which constitutes a country with a diverse and rich culture. The spiritual cultural value and material cultural value make up the Vietnamese cultural value rich in national identities. This is the “soft power” and fundamental motive in mobilising manpower and resources for national defence. The popularisation of these cultural values in the international community serves to attract and make friends with everyone to ceaselessly promote the position and prestige of Viet Nam. Overseas Vietnamese, therefore, need to increasingly permeate Vietnamese cultural values among international friends to attract foreign people and organisations to study, work, do business, visit, and settle down in Viet Nam, thereby making Vietnamese cultural values further pervasive in the international community. This is one of the vital bases for preserving peace and preventing the risk of instability, conflict, and war.

Second, there is a need to promote national “soft power” from political values of the country. In the course of its long history, Vietnamese country is always associated with a specific political regime. After gaining independence, our Party, Uncle Ho, and people chose the socialist regime as the political regime of our country. This is the political regime where the superiority has been proved by reality. It is also the primary foundation and fundamental motive for mobilising manpower and material resources to successfully carry out the wars of resistance for national liberation in the past. In the current comprehensive national reform, socialism continues to be studied and developed in line with characteristics of the country and the development trend of human society with a view to enhancing international integration of the country. When assessing “soft power” from political values of a country, it is important to take political stability and social security policies of that political regime into account. While many countries in the world face political instability frequently because of many different reasons, Viet Nam enjoys a political stability. A stable, peaceful environment is a huge advantage and extremely vital “soft power,” which greatly attracts international friends to Viet Nam. When they are in Viet Nam, they can feel secure about their lives, property, and interests. In addition to political stability, social policies of Viet Nam are also particularly appealing to international friends. In Viet Nam, people are the owners of their destinies; have the rights to live, pursue happiness, and master the society. Their spiritual, material life is always ensured as much as possible. People are free to work and live in peace. This is the vital source of “soft power” coming from values of Vietnamese politics, which needs to be developed in the direction of robustness, in depth, fostering people’s confidence, and attracting international friends to come to Viet Nam and support Viet Nam wholeheartedly, thereby strengthening national defence.

Moreover, it is necessary to further tap into “soft power” of Viet Nam coming from the foreign policy of the country. In the history of countering foreign aggressors, our ancestors attached special importance to combination of military operations and diplomatic struggle. In the Ho Chi Minh’s era, “fighting while talking” is one of the most pivotal mottos that guides the people’s war of Viet Nam. In the cause of comprehensive reform of the country, the diplomatic guideline of openness, multilateralisation, diversification, and “more friends and fewer enemies” and diplomatic policies which emphasise that Viet Nam is a friend and reliable partner of countries in the international community; Viet Nam is committed to resolving disputes and differences by peaceful means based on respecting international law and national interests, refraining from the threat or use of force in international relations, shelving the past and looking towards the future, and expanding international cooperation, together with a flexible but resolute, clever, friendly diplomatic method established from the wet rice civilisation, have created an extremely important source of “soft power” extensively pervasive and greatly attractive to international friends. This is also the source of strength to ceaselessly increase the position, prestige, and competitive edge of Viet Nam, which needs to be further leveraged and developed, creating vital foundation for safeguarding the Fatherland from afar and protecting the country since it has not been put at risk. It can be said that, thanks to diplomatic “soft power” and other activities, Viet Nam has established diplomatic relations with 193 countries in the world so far, in which 12 countries are its comprehensive strategic partnerships, 18 countries are strategic partnerships, including all of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Viet Nam has also resolved border issues properly with its neighbouring countries and settled complex issues in the East Sea by peaceful means on the basis of international law and the Charter of the United Nations step by step. More importantly, Viet Nam always emphasises justice, great national unity, national independence and socialism, consistency of its strategic principles, flexibility in its stratagems, compliance with President Ho Chi Minh’s perspectives on acting flexibly while maintaining firmly his own principles, being a friend of all democratic countries, and having no desire to make an enemy of any countries. This is one of a fundamental source of “soft power,” together with other types of power, to make up the national overall power to firmly safeguard the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland.

Lieutenant General, Associate Professor, Doctor TRAN THAI BINH