The economic crisis seems to have worked miracles for Romania's 'soft power' - think cultural influence rather than cruise missile attack, sending it up to 15th place among 20 emerging economies, based on an index that measures non military or purely economic based global power and influence, or 'soft power', a term coined 20 years ago by Joseph Nye.

The index recently published by Ernst & Young places Romania among the nine countries in the ranking that have had an upwards trend since the beginning of recession. Eastern Europe dominated the rankings, with 10 regional countries included, based on data from 2010.

With soft power defined as the ability of a state to influence the actions of others through persuasion or attraction, rather than coercion, Romania relies on certain features that define its country brand. “Romania's country brand sits on soft power pillars. The fact that Brancusi is one of the most expensive and sold artists in the world, that we are successfully exporting Romanian movies and a series of cultural values and personalities along with them, the fact that recently the Romanian gymnastics team won the European gold medals perfectly illustrate this 15th place,” said Bogdan Ion, Country Managing Partner, Ernst & Young Romania. Romania could consolidate advantages like these, for which other countries sacrifice huge resources, he went on.

The soft power is influenced by 14 variables, such as media exports, language enrollments (meaning the number of US college students enrolled to study another country’s native language), Olympic presence, presence in TIME 100 most influential people, most admired companies, freedom index, voter turnout, rule of law, CO2 emissions, immigration, tourism, university ranking, English fluency.

Other countries in the region that rank better than Romania are Hungary – eight place, the Czech Republic - 9th spot, Slovakia, Poland and Estonia. Ukraine and Chile comes just before Romania. The country managed to outrank Croatia, Argentina and Indonesia.

Although not strictly speaking a measure of economic might, the world's larger economies come out on top, as cultural influence rises with economic influence. China is number one, followed by India, Russia and Brazil, among the emerging economies. Worldwide, the US ranks first, followed by France, Germany, UK, Canada, Italy,

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo: Brancusi sculpture that sold for USD 12.6 million at a recent auction in New York)