Soft power has always been important to UK foreign policy. Churchill made soft power sing… he made soft power work.’ Making soft power singĪs Churchill put it prophetically in 1943, ‘The empires of the future are empires of the mind’ As Professor David Cannadine describes: ‘By sheer force of eloquence and personality, he made Britain seem bigger… nobler and more important than it had the… capacity in reality to be. His interests in art and culture also arguably gave him, during his 1930’s ‘wilderness’ years, both refuge and realisation of what was at stake in the coming war. These soft power skills helped Churchill persuade Britain to fight on and America to help Britain at a time when UK hard power was fully stretched. He also Championed English in the cause of building the peace, supporting the development of a simplified ‘Basic English’ as a language for world diplomacy, culture and commerce after the war. And he mastered the English language so well that President Kennedy (quoting Edward R Murrow) later described how ‘he mobilised… and sent it into battle’. He was the only statesman ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He played up his own image until it was a symbol of resistance to tyranny. With his image, his writing, and his rhetoric, the great warlord and leader was as much a persuader as a fighter. Winston Churchill was a hard power leader with a soft power underbelly. The great warlord and leader was as much a persuader as a fighter It argues that future leaders should learn from Churchill the importance of culture for persuasion. The report explores the valuable role culture plays in soft power and the vital role soft power plays in international relations. As part of the Churchill Global Leaders Programme to mark the occasion, the British Council has produced a report in collaboration with the Barbican, the City of London, and the Creative Industries Federation, including the recommendations arising from public debates on the subject of Churchill and soft power that it co-hosted in London and Washington DC. November 2015 Tomorrow’s world leaders should understand culture if they are to be effective influencers.Ģ015 is the 50th anniversary Churchill’s death.
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