The conference in Rome

Soft power and multilateralism for a geopolitics of persuasion and technology

International group, led by Italy, presents Soft Power index to address global security technology risks

by Gianluca Ansalone

28 January 2026

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Promoting pragmatic and effective multilateralism. Strengthen the ability of states to attract consensus through persuasion. Shaping and updating rules of coexistence based on common values. Develop prosperity and growth through culture, innovation, the arts, sport.

It sounds like an impossible wish list but it is only part of what is called 'soft power'. Made famous by the work of the American political scientist Joe Nye, who passed away a few months ago in the midst of the cultural battle between the US Administration and Harvard University, of which he was Professor Emeritus, 'soft power' has never been intended to replace or surpass military force, the coercive capacity even in terms of deterrence. It is rather another dimension, useful to amplify and strengthen the role of states in defining the new rules of the game.

In a world that is rapidly shaping itself around spheres of influence and where the only rule left seems to be that of the strongest, there is apparently very little room for the exercise of diplomacy and consensus building.

In reality, this is not the case. Countries compete to attract resources, investment, knowledge and talent. To declare the failure of persuasion and soft power is to turn dramatically to territorial conquest and aggression alone. Instead, reclaiming its role is not a nostalgic exercise, but rather the idea that the traumatic crisis of multilateralism need not be chaos.

The thirty years behind us have opened the door to new opportunities, lifted a billion people off the poverty line, and launched disruptive innovations and technologies into our lives. The problem is that this frantic race has been associated with the most significant redistribution of power in contemporary history, which by definition rewards the few and leaves the many on the sidelines. Many states, many communities, many individuals.

This does not mean that the idea of an open, interdependent and connected world is to be thrown away. Rather, that world needs to be rethought and updated so as not to close the doors to change, which is in many ways inescapable, while redefining, updating and improving the rules of the game.

This is the spirit that has been animating a group of international scholars, entrepreneurs, intellectuals, managers, and civil servants for some years now, who have given life to the Soft Power Club at the instigation of Francesco Rutelli. The club members, of global origin and extraction, are driven by the common desire to contribute to relaunching a pragmatic and effective multilateralism. And they do so from Italy, a country that, due to its history, tradition and capacity for innovation, has a unique role in promoting soft power at global level.

These days, in Rome, the Club is meeting to address challenges that were unheard of even a year ago, given the speed of change around us. The conference will deal with two major themes: measuring the soft power of countries and working against the use of emerging technologies and platforms for interference and manipulation.

The first issue is crucial. The effectiveness of any of our actions is now defined in terms of measurability. If something is not measurable, it is simply considered useless or superfluous. How do we measure the economic impact of a country's culture? How much is its image worth? How much power do its heritage, its food, its cultural innovation generate? These questions were recently answered by two eminent economists from the International Monetary Fund, who were the first to develop a synthetic index to measure the soft power of countries on a global level. It is a complex and articulated index that one of the authors, Serhan Cevik, will present at a conference in Rome, hosted by the Bank of Italy. With speeches by Lord Charles Powell, former Chief of Staff to Margareth Thatcher, the Mayor of Rome Gualtieri, a city that embodies history and innovation that can be widely measured, as is well demonstrated by the data on the reception of pilgrims from all over the world during the Jubilee that has just ended, and representatives of our Central Bank, the World Bank and the Mattei Foundation, the members of the Club will work on an increasingly precise and solid codification of an index capable of measuring the impact of soft power on the success, positioning and economic and social growth of countries, starting with our own. The work of the International Monetary Fund already makes it unequivocally clear that power has no single dimension and should therefore not be measured only through the percentage ratio of military expenditure to Gross Domestic Product.

This same session will be an opportunity to announce the launch of a permanent Observatory on the geopolitics of food, again an aspect that puts Italy at the centre of the new global competition. Promoted by the Soft Power Club, Confagricoltura and Future Proof Society, the Observatory will, among other things, work on the development of an index of the soft power of food.

The next session of the conference, hosted by the Chamber of Deputies, will address a second particularly relevant aspect: the use of new technologies for the purposes of mystification and interference in the internal affairs of states. We have already collected an enormous number of examples and testimonies of a use that we should not hesitate to define as military and strategic of disinformation and manipulation, which is literally capable of undermining the social and economic stability of individual countries. The riots in the streets of London after the dissemination of a fake video accusing an illegal immigrant of the massacre of some students in a school camp or the false withdrawal of the favourite candidate in the general election in Ireland are only the most recent examples of the systematic use of the network to attack the pillars of the internal life of states and generate chaos.

Speeches by Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, Chamber of Deputies Vice-President Giorgio Mulè and the President of the Culture, Science and Education Commission, Hon. Mollicone, will provide the backdrop to the keynote speeches by Alberto Tripi, President of Almaviva, and the Director General of the UN Energy Agency, Fatih Birol. Entrepreneurs, managers, jurists, communication experts, Club members and politicians such as Antonio Nicita will discuss the implications of the pervasive use of new technologies, starting with Artificial Intelligence, to enshrine a very clear principle: the technological revolution is underway, it is irreversible and must be embraced. Its effects will be disruptive in many ways, most of them positive. But we cannot hide or omit its risks, which must therefore be weighed and addressed. The proposal that will be launched is very clear: technology must be a valuable ally for governments, agencies and companies to detect and locate systemic threats to the security, prosperity and stability of states. The conference will put forward a proposal for an international treaty to limit the use of these technologies for military purposes, to contain the new systemic threats, to prevent the delegation of the use of weapons to the Ia, and to avert the danger of infiltration into the 'nervous fabric' of countries. During the Cold War, it was precisely the signing of an agreement on the limitation of strategic weapons, the Start, that opened a glimmer of trust and dialogue between two superpowers on the brink of mutual nuclear destruction.

This is a complex plan of action, which the Soft Power Club wishes to make available to public, national and international decision-makers. Not, therefore, mere optimism of the will but a profound and concrete rethinking of what power has become today, how it is exercised and how much space there still is for a power that is combined with military power and can be no less effective.

Geopolitics expert, co-founder of the Soft Power Club and author of the forthcoming volume Estremi - Il mondo in bilico tra chaos e polarizzazione (Guerini, April 2026)