Patterns and Indicators for Assessment and Evaluation of Soft Power Effectiveness in World Countries

Following the introduction of “soft power” by Joseph Nye in 1990s, this concept received special attention in studies related to power and the international relations, turning to a key concept in these areas. Power evaluation is commonly practiced in all forms of power and in soft power in particular. Being a relative concept, power becomes meaningful through evaluation, assessment and comparison. Therefore, it has always been a challenge for international affairs’ experts and political scientists to evaluate and assess the national power of the states to determine their position in world system. This paper intends to provide appropriate responses to the following questions: First; how significant is evaluation of soft power? Second; what are the challenges to soft power evaluation? And third; what are the major patterns for evaluation of soft power and the previous efforts to that end? The findings of this research work, achieved through a descriptive-analytical method, indicate that due to the increasing importance of soft power during the recent years, the techniques of evaluation and assessment of this form of power have eventually gained momentum, particularly in terms of adopting appropriate strategies in soft power literature. However, as this paper has found out, unlike hard power, it is difficult to evaluate effectiveness of soft power due to the nature of soft power and its typical resources. Regardless of these hardships and thanks to the importance of soft power evaluation, many steps have been already taken in international level and several patterns have been introduced in this field of study