CEAPS Speaker/Political Science Workshop | "Is Soft Power a Zero-Sum Competition?" | Austin Strange (Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Politics and Public Administration, University of Hong Kong)

Abstract: Is soft power zero-sum? Is one state’s soft power gain inevitably another’s loss? Academic and policy debates, particularly on intensifying US-China competition, often adopt a zero-sum logic for analyzing soft power. Yet this assumption, apparently borrowed from classic theories of “hard” power transitions, has received little conceptual or empirical scrutiny. We study whether states can possess different types of positive reputation that can increase their soft power in specific domains or issue areas without necessarily diminishing the soft power of other states. Empirically, we examine this possibility in American and Chinese overseas development finance programs, which are popularly seen as having distinct reputations. Using an original survey experiment in Thailand, we test whether and how American- and Chinese-sponsored development activities reflecting different reputational elements affect views toward both governments. The findings show when soft power is built on a reputation for being a principled actor who does things the right way, it is generally perceived as zero-sum. However, when soft power is instead based on a reputation for being competent at completing concrete tasks, zero-sum perceptions weaken. Our findings deepen efforts to theorize soft power by illuminating conditions under which soft power competition may be more and less intense.

Biography: Austin Strange is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong, where he directs the Master of International and Public Affairs (MIPA) program. He researches and teaches international relations, international development, and Chinese foreign policy. He is the author of Chinese Global Infrastructure (Cambridge University Press) and co-author of Banking on Beijing: The Aims and Impacts of China’s Overseas Development Program (Cambridge University Press). At HKU he received the Early Career Teaching Award in 2022, Research Output Prize in 2023, and Outstanding Young Researcher Award in 2024. With colleagues Austin was awarded the Best New Dataset Award from the International Political Economy Society for developing AidData's Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset. Austin earned a Ph.D. from Harvard University, an M.A. from Zhejiang University, and a B.A. from College of William and Mary.