{"id":3501,"date":"2025-04-15T22:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T02:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/?p=3501"},"modified":"2025-04-15T22:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T02:55:12","slug":"bernstein-balanchine-ellington-and-the-waning-of-soft-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/2025\/04\/bernstein-balanchine-ellington-and-the-waning-of-soft-power.html","title":{"rendered":"Bernstein, Balanchine, Ellington and the Waning of “Soft Power”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>
Kabalevsky contratulates Bernstein<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Today\u2019s online Persuasion\/The American Purpose runs<\/em>\u00a0an essay<\/a> of mine building on the growing awareness that \u201csoft power\u201d diplomacy, long vital to American foreign policy, seems suddenly in abeyance. Referencing the three most potent cultural ambassadors to the USSR during the Cold War, I write in part:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If American diplomacy cannot today deploy a Leonard Bernstein, George Balanchine, or Duke Ellington, it is not merely because soft diplomacy is waning. With cultural consensus shattering, with cultural memory eroding, such creative artists\u2014not ephemeral epiphenomena, but icons carved deep into the American experience\u2014do not exist any longer. . . . <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who, today, embodies \u201cAmerica\u201d in the performing arts? Certainly no symphonic conductor, choreographer, or composer. President Trump, appointing himself chairman of the Kennedy Center, drops names like Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Elvis Presley. He mentions Phantom of the Opera, Cats<\/em>, and Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em>. Others might nominate Taylor Swift or Beyonc\u00e9. Who is to say what best represents the American arts right now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notions of individual freedom, however incompletely fulfilled, once grounded an historic American experiment in governance. Freedom and democracy forged a mainstream ideal. They limned . . . “the soul of a nation, making it possible for friends and adversaries alike to see what makes a country tick.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No longer.<\/strong> We cannot even agree on facts, on standards, and sources of truth. The present debate over whether the Voice of America is \u201cbalanced\u201d and \u201cobjective\u201d becomes futile in the absence of a mainstream \u201cfactual\u201d narrative about Palestinians and Israelis. In education, is there any feasible consensus about how Columbia University, now penalized by the president, handled \u201cfree speech\u201d? Does the Kennedy Center, chaired by the president, over-emphasize diversity, equality, and inclusivity? Many in the American arts privately agree that DEI has done more harm than good.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Viewed from the left, the American experience is overshadowed by the slave trade and the Indian Wars\u2014and a soft criterion of virtue is applied. Viewed from the right, the criterion is hard and emphasizes power regained. Ideals of freedom\u2014once embodied and shared by Leonard Bernstein, George Balanchine, and Duke Ellington\u2014sit uneasily in the back seat of this debate. And so, in the end, does soft diplomacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s online Persuasion\/The American Purpose runs\u00a0an essay of mine building on the growing awareness that \u201csoft power\u201d diplomacy, long vital to American foreign policy, seems suddenly in abeyance. Referencing the three most potent cultural ambassadors to the USSR during the Cold War, I write in part:\u00a0 If American diplomacy cannot today deploy a Leonard Bernstein, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QLHN-Ut","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3505,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3501\/revisions\/3505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/uq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}