Introduction
Improvement in film technology plays a crucial role in international relations by sharing persuasive and coercive ideas. Specifically, Hollywood films are heavily laden with cultural imperialist agendas because the directors and actors believe American culture is superior (Chen & Shen, 2021). This misunderstanding between Western film creators has led to an increase in movies and television shows whose primary agenda is to spread American foreign policies, culture, and soft power ideals in other parts of the world.
An increase in streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Starzplay Arabia, and Amazon Prime in Arab countries facilitates the propagation of Western ideals to citizens of these nations. Yahiaoui (2022) observed that Hollywood films serve as a conduit for seemingly harmless ideals, perpetuating the negative stereotypes of racial, gender, and political issues. Hollywood’s soft power effectively molds people’s opinions in politics, culture, and social affairs.
Governments and media understand the vast influence soft power has on people. They use films, pop culture, music, and books to spread ideologies. This paper adopts the definition of soft power as the influence and change of social and public opinions in a less transparent manner and channels (Alshehri, 2021). This power enables Hollywood creators to spread ideas to get Arab nations to change cultural and political views by influencing their behaviors.
Further, public diplomacy is deliberate communication that uses soft power to spread examples and information regarded by foreigners as positive (Rugh, 2017). This paper investigates the influence of Hollywood films on Arab countries and soft power theory on public diplomacy.
Research Question
How did historical soft power and its actors lead to social, economic, and political changes?
Research Objectives
In answering the research question, this research paper accomplishes the following objectives.
- Understanding the soft power theory and how countries use it to gain favors internationally.
- To illustrate how Hollywood films use soft power to influence the Arab world.
- The impact of soft power on social, economic, and political changes in the Arab world.
The Soft Power Theory
People live in an interconnected society with social forces, and what one does affects others. A person’s influence on others is the basic understanding or definition of power. Such power is either hard, where impact is achieved through coercion or soft, where ideals are propagated covertly.
Joseph Nye was regarded as the proponent of the soft power term in 1990, describing it as the ability to attract and persuade people without force or coercion (Alshehri, 2021). For instance, a parent can convince a child to carry out some activities or behave in a certain way by hinting out their benefits.
Similarly, nations and policymakers adopt strategic measures and policies to influence citizens’ intended actions. Developed nations use available resources, such as military and finances, to influence international policies and relations (Nye, 2021). Successful nations use their strength to portray a positive worldwide image that is endearing to other countries and garners respect and admiration.
Prosperous countries exploit their soft power appeal to create domestic and foreign policies that further their agenda in international relations. Indeed, the portrayal of positive growth can strongly influence developing nations to adopt policies and structures similar to soft power nations. As a result, the decisions around the issues affecting these developed nations (soft power) receive favorable outcomes in the international arena (Gallarotti & Chatin, 2016). Some countries give up their values and interests to align themselves with their role models.
Literature Review
Soft power nations use non-coercive approaches to endear themselves to other countries in some mutually beneficial relations. For instance, a government might provide foreign aid to support learners in developing nations and persuade them to change specific education policies. This trade-off enables the receiving country to develop learning infrastructure while the donor nation gains popularity in international relations.
Another example is how China successfully used soft power to alter its image and perception in the United States. China focuses on education, culture, and sports, with prominent National Basketball Association (NBA) figures such as Yao Ming acting as Chinese ambassadors to endorse consumer products (DeLisle, 2020). The immense NBA popularity in the US allowed the followers to learn about the positive aspects of China.
As a result, China benefited from using soft power by gaining the right to host the Summer Olympics in 2008, which it had lost in 2000 (DeLisle, 2020). The opportunity to host international events enables the country to showcase its modern and appealing lifestyle, culture, and economic/political stability.
Qatar is a perfect example of the use of soft power in portraying an ambitious and achieving popularity in the international arena. In 2010, Qatar became the first world nation and smallest country to win the right to hold the World Cup, which occurred in 2022 (Brannagan & Giulianotti, 2018).
There was controversy and arguments that Qatar bribed officials to win this bid and received huge backlash as people claimed they would not attend the event. However, since winning the rights, Qatar has engaged in numerous soft power activities to win people over and portray itself as a peace-loving and prosperous nation. The nation invested in UK property development, such as Canary Wharf Group, Barclays, Royal Dutch Shell, Miramax Film, and Qatar Airways became the sponsor for Paris Saint Germain and Manchester City football clubs (Brannagan & Giulianotti, 2018).
Qatar garnered huge success from overseas sponsorship and investment activities because they acted as national marketing strategies. Football fans around the globe learned about Qatar from Qatar Airways, which enticed them to learn more about this country. Qatar successfully sold its political, social, and cultural principles to other nations and has sold them to billions of international spectators watching the World Cup.
Governments and churches use religion as soft power to control dissent or extremist ideologies. For instance, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) adopted soft power such as the creation of the Ministry of Tolerance and religious institutions, including the Emirates Fatwa Council, Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, and Jurisprudence of Peace to counter the growing Muslim Brotherhood popularity (Baycar & Rakipoglu, 2022).
The UAE integrated digital platforms in developing online fatwas to promote peace and tolerance ideals in the country. The government’s approach helped create an image of a religious country where people peacefully tolerate divergent ideas and cultures. Indeed, research shows religion possesses influential soft power because Roman Catholics use it to enforce teachings on abortion (Baycar & Rakipoglu, 2022). Religious teachings use non-coercive techniques to persuade followers to adhere to the leaders’ wishes.
The Case Study
Hollywood wields much power in the entertainment industry because of its worldwide popularity, resources, and audience, which regularly consume its content. Therefore, Hollywood uses its strength to sell Western agenda and ideals to other parts of the world, primarily targeting Muslim and Arab nations.
Yahiaoui (2022) argues that Hollywood uses its soft power to propagate negative stereotypes and Islamophobia through negative film representations. Indeed, the majority of the films from Hollywood about the Middle East solely focus on political interests, gender, and religion.
The three themes aim to persuade the locals about political instability in the Arab world and their backward cultures that discriminate against women. For instance, despite having no Arabic roots, the Aladdin film portrays Agrabah as dirty and impoverished. The Arabic antagonist is depicted as barbaric and an unforgiving villain who threatens to cut someone’s hand (Yahiaoui, 2022). In the same film, Jafar is described as an egotistical and power-crazed individual ready to rule with an iron fist.
In other Hollywood films, Muslim characters regularly play the role of volunteer vest bombers and terrorists (Yahiaoui, 2022). The success of Hollywood films in displaying the Arab world as terrorist nations helps the West sell their idea to the international communities that the Middle East should be liberated from dictators.
The vilification of the Arab world in Hollywood films grew worse following the 9/11 attacks. Kiran et al. (2021) indicate that the Hollywood projects after 9/11 mainly focused on the theme of war, with the Muslims portrayed as adversaries. Such films spread Islamophobia and successfully depict Muslims as distinct individuals from others. The portrayal of Muslims as bombers created a negative stereotype etched in people that resulted in discrimination and prejudice attacks.
Indeed, the media’s soft power propaganda facilitated and justified the American-led war on terror in the Arab world (Kiran et al., 2021). Hollywood achieves this Western government-sponsored agenda by playing Muslim antagonists with anti-west sentiments or threatening to attack American citizens. Consequently, the films create a local public discourse that perceives Muslims as fundamentalists, anti-west, and terrorists who need to be stopped. The West uses this Arab countries’ vilification as an opportunity to attack the nations under the guise of ending dictatorship and leading stability in the region.
So far, the examples reviewed indicate that Hollywood movies successfully use soft power to alienate the Arab world economically and politically. The cinemas achieve this political alienation of the Arabs by creating an “us” versus “others” scenario (Ghourchi & Mosaviyan, 2020). Most Americans and the West only know about the Arab world from what they see and witness in the films.
The portrayal is often that the Middle East and the Arabs are backward, unhygienic, and hate the progressive West (Ghourchi & Mosaviyan, 2020). The prejudice by the mainstream media and the films meant the US government had the necessary support when they wanted to invade the Middle East.
The US invaded Iraq in 2003, and the process destabilized the Middle East due to numerous civilian deaths, the destruction of infrastructure, and the overthrow of the existing governments (Blackstone, 2016). Despite the brutal nature of the American military conducting the mission, the West and the US government had tremendous support because the citizens had been made to believe that the war was avenging the 9/11 attack. The films had desensitized the Americans against the Arabs, whom they viewed as barbaric.
Hollywood films made significant social changes in the Arab world. For instance, despite the atrocious political and economic impacts the American-led military had on the Middle East, Arabs still positively perceive the US. Rugh (2017) reported on a survey from the UAE, Jordan, and Morocco where the participants had favorable opinions on American education, freedom and democracy, American people, movies and television, science and technology, and products.
A different survey 2010 in six Arab countries indicated that 76% of the participants watch American or European movies between three and seven times a week, whereas 47% watch them daily (Rugh, 2017). The two statistics indicate that Hollywood films and Western media utilize their soft power to present the West in a positive light.
Further, the Arab world adapts Hollywood films to suit local languages and cultural contexts. While translating foreign films into local does not constitute soft power, Arab viewers appreciate the content as American. It creates the belief that American content, culture, and products are superior.
The continued penetration of Western films has altered even some of the themes viewed in the Arab world. For instance, Perfect Strangers, a film addressing homosexuality, infidelity, women drinking, and Western values, gained popularity in Arab countries (Ballerini, 2022).
Previously, such issues in the Middle East were considered taboo to showcase and address, but the film evaded local censorship. The controversy it acquired in the Arab countries led to a public discourse on social issues to the extent that Egyptian actress Elham Shahin defended the film (Ballerini, 2022).
Therefore, it could be argued that the alluring lifestyle, tolerance, freedom, and high quality of life portrayed in Western films gained some acceptance in the Arab world. Promoting social cohesion, peace, luxury, and other Western values is a soft power that others respect, admire, and intend to learn.
However, some people still view and oppose the Western culture as a contaminant to their sacred values. For instance, the Egyptian House of Representatives Mostafa Bakry condemned Netflix for Perfect Strangers, and an Iranian commander ridiculed Michelle Obama for presenting Argo’s actor when they won Best Picture in 2013 (Ballerini, 2022). Despite this backlash, it showed that Hollywood films appeal to the Arab world consumers.
Conclusion
This paper defined soft power and its influence on public diplomacy in international relations. Soft power enables people to influence others through non-coercive ways such as education, sports, and films. Hollywood, the leading producer of cinemas worldwide, uses its capacity to create films that significantly influence culture.
Specifically, the report identified how Hollywood cinemas impact the Arab world because Muslims are portrayed as brutal terrorists. This portrayal creates a view of us versus others, where the Americans and the West are desensitized about the inhumane conduct of the military in the Arab world. Therefore, the Americans continue to support military invasion in the Middle East despite its damage to the region’s economic, social, and political development.
Further, soft power means that the American government, through Hollywood and mainstream media, persuades the rest of the world to support American ideals in the international arena favorably. As a result, foreign governments rarely intervene or condemn the American military when they invade an Arab nation.
Nonetheless, the paper has shown instances where Arab countries such as Qatar applied soft power to promote their ideologies and gain international recognition. This statement means that soft power theory is an effective tool for helping governments expand diplomatic relations worldwide.
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