Large diplomatic or ceremonial events are routinely attacked as a waste of money by political opponents, regardless of which side holds power. The argument focuses attention on visible cost while the event's preventive or relational effects remain hard to demonstrate. Successful soft power often leaves no dramatic event to narrate, so it attracts less historical attention than open conflict. Court influence and other forms of informal diplomacy can therefore be underrepresented in surviving accounts.
Notable Point · 22:31-23:17
Why diplomatic soft power disappears from the record
Political criticism can dismiss diplomatic events as wasteful even when their preventive value is the reason nothing dramatic follows.