NPQ, Winter 2005

BACK STORY: Soft power is a nation’s ability to influence other nations through their finance, trade, travel, information technologies, and most of all through their media (TV, film, art, music, etc.). In contrast, hard power is essentially military might. 

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The Winter of 2005 was a time when the US had gone unilaterally into a war in Iraq, and was mired there with no proof of their assertion that Saddam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons. The world opinion of the US was losing its luster and its soft power influence was declining. The cultural umbrella with which the US had covered the world was being turned upside down and casting a shadow of doubt. This was the era of “The Rise and Fall of America’s Soft Power.”

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Ideally, I would have found an umbrella that had the American flag on it and photographed it turned upside down. However that item was not available, so I used a white umbrella and got busy with PhotoShop. The typeface was selected because of how it evokes strength and confidence.