Switzerland rates among world’s top ‘soft powers’

The publication has ranked the Swiss among the top ten countries in the world in its annual “Soft Power Survey” of nations that exert global influence non-militarily.

Collaborating with the Institute of Government, Monocle came up with a list of 30 countries “who best attract favour from other nations through culture, sport, cuisine, design, diplomacy and beyond”.

Switzerland ranks eighth, unchanged from the previous year, again cracking the top ten list headed this year by Germany, followed by the UK, the US, France and Japan.

Sweden placed sixth, Australia seventh, Canada ninth and Italy tenth.

“Stick a Swiss flag on something and watch the sales rocket,” Monocle says in an audio summary of its report on its website.

“The words, ‘Made in Switzerland’ have resonance across the world.”

Monocle hypes Swiss diplomacy, noting that it in turbulent times it is a “substantial draw”.

“Diplomacy is still something the Swiss excel at,” it says.

“In recent months it has been hard to move in Geneva without bumping into a delegation attending peace talks on Syria or nuclear talks with Iran.”

Monocle sasy that sport is not one of Switzerland’s strengths “and one would struggle to name a famous actor but there’s always the Swiss chocolate”.

It praises top-ranked Germany, which did away with military conscription two years ago, for its excellence in “pursuing its ideas, values and aims using diplomatic, cultural and economic tools”.

It notes Germany “is understandably wary about projecting a dominant image abroad” but it has become a global power “by quietly doing the simple things well”.

For more information about the survey, check here.