Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Rachel Wells is a writer who covers leadership, AI, and upskilling. Some call them soft skills. Others call them power skills. But ...

The concept of soft power has become a hot topic in Southeast Asia of late, and Japanese stakeholders have been taken aback by the extent to which Korean soft power has penetrated Thai youth culture.

Power is the ability to get others to do what you want. That can be accomplished by coercion (“sticks”), payment (“carrots”) or attraction (“honey”). The first two methods are forms of hard power; ...