Coalitions of Cultural Power
Syeda Maleeka Fatima
Rawalpindi: In today’s digitally connected world, visuals and narratives shape global perceptions more powerfully than formal policies or treaties. Cultural storytelling has become an essential tool of modern statecraft. Countries increasingly prioritize building influence through images, sounds, and symbols rather than through traditional military or economic might.
South Korea has captivated global youth through K-pop and K-dramas, crafting a modern identity of creativity and cool. Similarly, Turkey has successfully projected its Ottoman past and Islamic identity through state-supported media productions like Diriliş: Ertuğrul, building a soft power empire across the Muslim world.
In contrast, Pakistan still appears to be navigating the global soft power landscape reactively—often defending its image rather than asserting it. This is despite the fact that Pakistan is richly endowed with cultural resources.
From its Sufi qawwalis and vibrant truck art to a dynamic meme culture and music that fuses Eastern and Western influences, Pakistan has all the elements of compelling nation branding. The issue is not a lack of cultural content, but rather the absence of institutional coordination and long-term vision for public diplomacy.
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Pakistan’s strategic relationships with Turkey, China, and Iran hold immense potential for building coalitions based on shared culture, heritage, and civilizational narratives. However, these ties have remained underutilized in the cultural domain. When Diriliş: Ertuğrul became a cultural phenomenon in Pakistan, it was a perfect opportunity to build long-term collaborations with Turkey through actor exchanges, co-productions, and shared storytelling.
Yet, the moment passed without strategic follow-up. Similarly, while Pakistan and China enjoy deep economic ties through the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), their cultural engagement remains minimal. CPEC could be enriched with cultural events, digital archives, and school exchanges that humanize the partnership beyond commerce and infrastructure.
Iran, too, shares deep spiritual and poetic ties with Pakistan. The legacy of Allama Iqbal, who wrote extensively in Persian, and the annual religious pilgrimages of Pakistani Shia Muslims to Mashhad and Qom are powerful cultural connections.
Yet, there are few structured collaborations in film, literature, or visual arts that could transform these shared traditions into tools of public diplomacy. Iran has made significant global impact through its cinema and literature—even under international sanctions—while Pakistan has yet to fully leverage its own cultural power.
To address this gap, Pakistan needs to institutionalize its cultural diplomacy. First, a National Cultural Diplomacy Council should be established under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This body would be responsible for identifying key cultural assets, engaging with private creators, and forming partnerships with foreign embassies to promote a coherent international image.
Second, Pakistan should initiate trilateral cultural agreements with Turkey, Iran, and China. These partnerships could involve joint festivals, digital storytelling series on shared heritage, youth exchanges, and co-produced films that reflect non-Western civilizational values.
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Third, Pakistan should invest in creative fellowships for its young musicians, writers, influencers, and filmmakers to collaborate with peers from allied countries. These low-cost, high-impact initiatives would generate fresh, globally appealing content and give Pakistan’s Gen Z a meaningful role in reshaping the country’s image.
Fourth, the next phase of CPEC should include cultural components—such as bilingual media platforms, regional school exchange programs, and community arts initiatives—so that economic cooperation also builds mutual understanding and goodwill.
By pursuing these strategies, Pakistan can project a multifaceted identity rooted in creativity, tradition, and resilience. This would allow the country to shift away from being perceived through the lens of political crisis and towards a narrative of cultural continuity.
Moreover, it would help challenge the often simplistic binary between Islam and the West by offering a third, postcolonial space grounded in spirituality, diversity, and modernity. Rather than competing with Bollywood or replicating K-pop, Pakistan should focus on amplifying its own unique voice—poetic, humorous, spiritual, and proudly diverse.
The global appetite for non-Western narratives is growing. Turkey has already capitalized on it, Iran has held its ground through art and literature, and even China despite language barriers is improving its storytelling capacity.
Pakistan can do the same, but only if it realizes that in today’s world, public diplomacy is no longer about ideology or crisis communication it is about identity expression. Soft power is no longer an extravagance; it is the new global influence currency. With strategic investments and collaborative imagination, Pakistan can rise from the periphery of global cultural consciousness to a position of central relevance. But for that, it must act—deliberately, creatively, and now.
The article is the writer’s opinion, it may or may not adhere to the organization’s editorial policy.
Syeda Maleeka Fatima an undergraduate student at Fatima Jinnah Women University.
