AP Photo
November 2010
"Taking Soft Power Seriously"
Journal Article, Comparative Strategy, issue 5, volume 29
By Matthew Kroenig, Former Research Fellow, Project on Managing the Atom/International Security Program, 2007–2008, Melissa McAdam and Steven Weber
The term soft power is entrenched in the theory and practice of American foreign policy, yet scholars have not yet developed, or empirically tested, a theory about the conditions under which governments can use soft power to their advantage—and that makes good policy hard to design. Drawing on research from the fields of communications, social psychology, and international relations theory, we develop a theory about the conditions under which state efforts to employ soft power will be most likely to succeed.
