Nations that dismiss soft power can end up on the naughty list

Once upon a time in Lapland I gave Santa Claus a lift. As he squeezed himself into the passenger seat of my rented Kia, I tried and failed to resist the urge to make a comment comparing this with his normal ride.

- Steve Bloomfield International Editor

Santa is a pro, he wants you to feel welcome, so he managed a small chuckle, but it wasn’t the full ho ho ho. The rest of the journey, a 15-minute drive to the patch of land where he kept his reindeer, was mainly filled with awkward silences, occasionally filled with Santa’s views on speed cameras (not a fan).

The reason for my Lapland trip wasn't to check on whether I'd made it on to the nice list that year — it was to explore the idea of Finland’s “soft power” and the role that Santa plays in it. After a fierce battle with Denmark, which also had ambitions to be seen as the home of Father Christmas, the Finnish city of Rovaniemi, 800km north of Helsinki and just outside the Arctic Circle, had established itself as Santa's “official” residence.

The term “soft power” was coined by the Harvard professor Joseph Nye, who died last week at the age of 88. His idea was that a nation’s ability to get others to do what it wanted was not down to military might or economic heft alone. Instead, a nation could exert power through its culture and diplomacy, its values and even its sport. As he put it: “Seduction is always more effective than coercion.”