Everyone wants soft power. Few realize it starts by setting the table.
Last week, I joined 27 other students in the Huntsman Program for a one-week intensive in Paris to analyze how global cities operate.
We visited major global businesses and intergovernmental institutions. Most notably, UNESCO.
We joined a Q&A with Shawn Baxter, a senior diplomat representing the US Mission. Over the course of an hour, Baxter shared how diplomacy works in practice, especially within an organization that, on the surface, seems more symbolic than strategic.
On the surface, UNESCO brings benefits to Paris. But look closer, and you’ll see the reverse: Paris has subtly reshaped UNESCO.
Paris has quietly become the backdrop to intergovernmental affairs. Hosting UNESCO meant that French was the language of policy. Customs, ways of doing business, and cultural impacts on decisions skewed towards “the French way.” Paris benefited from more than economic spillover; it gave itself an outsized seat at the table. The once-international organization now acts more like its host.
France, as the anchor, also benefits from immense signaling power. The entire world turns to Paris when it comes to discussions on art, technology, science, and culture. Your national identity becomes a part of the global discourse.
Baxter emphasized how informal discussions sometimes moved the needle more than official hearings. Grabbing coffee between diplomats outside work settings has a way of ironing out disagreements. And if you’re a local Parisian, you’re around for all of it. Especially the moves where the policy takes shape.
France’s soft power strategy isn’t limited to bureaucracy. The Eiffel Tower, formerly viewed first as a feat of engineering, has now elevated to the status of a global cultural icon. When you think “global culture,” Paris gets there first, creating the feedback loop to beget further power.
Other players have caught on. Dubai has made a deliberate attempt to manufacture its soft power through hosting summits and events like COP28 and Expo 2020. Smart move, but it lacks the authentic, accrued power of heritage that the Old World commands.
India is late to this game. Despite hosting the G20 in 2023, it’s yet to house a permanent global institution. If we want to define the conversation for, say, rural development think tanks or digital public goods, we need to build the space where the conversation happens. Hosting lends itself to symbolic “ownership” over the domain.
India doesn’t need to outspend the West. It needs to out-host it.
All the way down to tech bros hosting “Founders’ Poker Nights” in SoMa, convening the group means you own the conversation. Build the room that people want to walk into. Host more parties.
Influence doesn’t play out only in projection; it plays out in space. And the house always wins.