SI-015-01 :
National Soft Power Operating System (SPOS)

Situation
Thailand’s soft power assets—culture, cuisine, tourism, entertainment, wellness, and creative industries—are rich and globally appealing, yet remain fragmented across multiple agencies, industries, and initiatives.

There is no unified system to coordinate strategy, align stakeholders, manage data, or scale impact. Government bodies, private sector players, creators, and international channels operate independently, leading to duplication of efforts, inconsistent messaging, and limited global reach.

Moreover, soft power initiatives are often campaign-driven and short-term, lacking continuity, performance tracking, and integration with economic and diplomatic strategies. This absence of an operational core prevents Thailand from transforming cultural assets into sustained global influence and scalable economic value.

Shift
Soft power must transition from fragmented promotion and isolated initiatives to a system-driven, platform-based operating model through the establishment of a National Soft Power Operating System (SPOS).

SPOS functions as the central coordination and orchestration layer, integrating policy, industry, talent, content, and global distribution into a unified system. It enables strategic alignment, real-time data integration, performance monitoring, and coordinated execution across all soft power domains.

The shift is from “doing more activities” to building a system that continuously produces, scales, and optimizes soft power impact. Soft power becomes an operational capability, not just a cultural expression.

Advantage
Thailand’s diverse soft power assets across multiple sectors provide a strong foundation for system integration.

The country’s established tourism industry, globally recognized cuisine, growing creative sectors, and emerging digital ecosystem offer multiple entry points for scaling soft power.

Additionally, Thailand’s centralized policy environment enables the creation of a unified coordination mechanism, while its openness to global markets allows rapid expansion through international partnerships and platforms.

This positions Thailand to build SPOS as a first-mover integrated soft power system in the region.

Additional Structural Advantage
Thailand can leverage existing infrastructure and ecosystems to build SPOS as a multi-layered operating architecture, including:

• a policy and governance layer (alignment across ministries and national strategy)

• an industry and ecosystem layer (creative sectors, tourism, food, wellness, media)

• a content and distribution layer (production, platforms, global channels)

• a data and intelligence layer (performance tracking, audience insights, trend analysis)

Integration with digital platforms enables real-time measurement of global reach and engagement, while alignment with economic and diplomatic systems ensures that soft power contributes directly to national objectives.

Furthermore, SPOS can be designed to interface with broader national systems, creating synergy between cultural influence, economic growth, and global positioning.

Implication
Without a centralized operating system, Thailand’s soft power will remain underutilized, inconsistent, and difficult to scale, limiting its ability to compete globally.

This results in missed economic opportunities, fragmented national branding, and reduced influence in global cultural industries.

Conversely, SPOS enables Thailand to systematically generate, amplify, and sustain soft power impact, transforming cultural assets into long-term economic value and strategic influence.

It creates a feedback-driven system where content, talent, and industries continuously evolve based on global demand and performance data.

SPOS becomes the core infrastructure for national soft power, ensuring coherence, scalability, and long-term competitiveness.

Action Layer