Nation Rebranding Through a New Approach to Cultural Diplomacy: A Case Study of Mauritius

Whenever the word “power†is uttered in the context of international relations, notions such as force or payoff immediately come to mind. These, put together, connote the idea of hard power as this involves leveraging hard resources and capabilities to reach desired outcomes when dealing with the other countries of the world. Soft power, also known as the second and third face of power, however, refers to a country’s use of attractions to achieve certain positive diplomatic results without ‘twisting the arms of others’. Several resources could be used as soft power, including a nation’s tangible and intangible cultural assets. Based on a theoretical framework built up from existing literature on power and soft power, and the author’s experiences in the performing arts for more than 40 years now and observations of the functioning of Mauritian diplomacy, this article reflects upon two potential soft power resources, namely, music and dance, two important intangible cultural expressions, thriving on the Mauritian soil for more than 180 years now, and attempts to elucidate how these art forms could be factored in as added value to Mauritian diplomacy for nation rebranding. Such a proven strategy, which has been adopted by other countries, has not had the required attention from Mauritian policy makers and technocrats so far. The author is convinced that a judicious utilization of music and dance in Mauritian international relations will contribute immensely to the country’s overall development, not only politically and economically, but also culturally.