Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art IX

The American political scientist Joseph Nye coined the term soft power to describe the exertion of political power by the means of cultural amenity, ideology and institutions. Central to the concept of soft power is the intention to impose political ambitions without the use of economic incentives and/or military threats. Economic boost and military repression are, in turn, means of hard power.
The proposed lecture will apply Nye's concept of soft power to the multifaceted use of portraits of Alexander the Great in modern political discourse taking the current use of his person and face by the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) as vantage point. In modern Macedonia,
which is neither geographically nor ethnically identical with ancient Makedonia, Alexander the Great has been appropriated in various ways: statues of the great conqueror have been erected throughout the country, streets as well as the airport of Skopje have been named after him, and — to support their claim to Alexander (and his legacy) — the local football stadium of Skopje has been re-named the 'Philipp-II-Arena'. In addition, the government has transferred Roman statues
that had been found on Macedonian soil to Skopje to place them in front of the building of the prime minister's office.
While this suggests that the government has widened its goals and tries to establish not only a connection to Alexander but to antiquity in general, the lecture will exemplarily examine the ambition to exert political and ideological power by the means of a culturally constructed Alexanderfigure in two ways.
1) Alexander is used to provoke Greece, which denied the Republic the use of the name Macedonia, and to strengthen the own political standing in international circles. The result was/is a conflict that geared towards the media and provoked scholarly response on the Internet.
2) By constructing a relation to Alexander (and Antiquity) the government of Macedonia tries to provide an ideological figure and background for the culturally and ethnically diverse inhabitants of Macedonia. Alexander is used to aggressively provoke and circumscribe the other, while at the same define the self.