American Empire and the Arsenal of Entertainment: Soft Power and Cultural Weaponization

The concept of 'Soft Power' is used to discuss how culture can assert dominance within international relations, but what if entertainment could be used as a weapon itself? Despite recent upheavals like the worldwide financial meltdown and the Arab Spring, organized global resistance to American power remains fragmented. Advanced communications technologies have played an essential role in the rise and persistence of American power, and in many respects, has been a 'weapon' against rejection of American influence abroad. Armed with print media, theme parks, radio and television broadcasts, and now online platforms and social networking, American Empire in the twenty-first century has evolved with technological breakthroughs and must be understood through these new sources of power.