ABSTRACT
Introduction Critiques of soft power have often remarked on Joseph Nye’s agent-centred approach (e.g. Lukes 2007; Lock 2010). Nye himself has recognized and subsequently tried to tackle this issue (Nye 2007, 2011), albeit with limited success. This chapter, particularly interested in the performative aspects of soft power (Hayden 2012, p. 31, building among others on Stefano Guzzini) and the need for an approach that places mutuality and reciprocity at the heart of international communication and cultural relations, seeks to understand how the ‘audiences’ of soft power figure in the UK’s foreign policy discourse and practices. It traces the rhetoric (Hayden 2012) that is used by government to define the scope and mechanisms of British soft power, focusing particularly on the 2014 House of Lords report on soft power and the UK’s influence, Persuasion and Power in the Modern World (House of Lords 2014). This chapter also analyses the official rhetoric of the British Council (BC) and the BBC World Service (BBCWS) about their value and purpose. Long regarded as foundational institutions of British soft power, for over eight decades these institutions have acted in concert to expand their global networks and attract overseas citizens to learn the English language, enjoy British culture, benefit from its education and business opportunities and deepen their understanding of the British way of life, as well as aiming at exerting political influence among elites across the world (Gillespie and Webb 2012; Gillespie et al. 2014).
