Joseph S. Nye
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Member of the Board, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Contact:
Telephone: (617) 495-1123
Fax: (617)-496-3337
Email: Joseph_Nye@harvard.edu
AP Photo
May 15, 2012
"Judge the U.S. Candidates by Their Self-mastery and Openness"
Op-Ed, Daily Star
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"But the most important variable for voters to examine is the candidate's biography. I do not mean the slick books and television advertisements that are produced for their campaigns. While image consultants and acting ability can mask a candidate's character, an integrated life over time is the best basis to judge the authenticity of the next president's temperament and how he will govern."
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May 9, 2012
"China's Soft Power Deficit"
Op-Ed, Wall Street Journal
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"The 2008 Olympics was a success abroad, but shortly afterward China's domestic crackdown on human rights activists undercut its soft-power gains. The Shanghai Expo was also a great success, but it was followed by the jailing of Nobel Peace Laureate Liu Xiaobo. His empty chair at the Oslo ceremony was a powerful symbol. And for all the efforts to turn Xinhua and China Central Television into competitors for CNN and the BBC, there is little international audience for brittle propaganda."
March 2012
"The Twenty-First Century Will Not Be a 'Post-American' World"
Journal Article, International Studies Quarterly, issue 1, volume 56
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"After the collapse of Cold War bipolarity, power in the global information age became distributed in a pattern that resembles a complex three-dimensional chess game. On the top chessboard, military power is largely unipolar, and the United States is likely to retain primacy for quite some time. But on the middle chessboard, economic power has been multi-polar for more than a decade...with the United States, Europe, Japan, and China as the major players, and others gaining in importance. The bottom chessboard is the realm of transnational relations that cross borders outside of government control. It includes nonstate actors as diverse as bankers electronically transferring funds, terrorists transferring weapons, hackers threatening cyber-security, and threats such as pandemics and climate change. On this bottom board, power is widely diffused, and it makes no sense to speak of unipolarity, multipolarity, or hegemony."
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April 10, 2012
"Cyber War and Peace"
Op-Ed, Today's Zaman
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Cyber war, though only incipient at this stage, is the most dramatic of the potential threats. Major states with elaborate technical and human resources could, in principle, create massive disruption and physical destruction through cyber attacks on military and civilian targets. Responses to cyber war include a form of interstate deterrence through denial and entanglement, offensive capabilities, and designs for rapid network and infrastructure recovery if deterrence fails. At some point, it may be possible to reinforce these steps with certain rudimentary norms and arms control, but the world is at an early stage in this process."
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March 11, 2012
"What's Wrong with Transformational Leadership?"
Op-Ed, Daily News Egypt
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"A big problem in foreign policy is the complexity of the context. We live in a world of diverse cultures, and we know very little about social engineering and how to 'build nations.' When we cannot be sure how to improve the world, prudence becomes an important virtue, and grandiose visions can pose grave dangers."
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February 18, 2012
"Yes, the World Would Be More Peaceful with Women in Charge"
Op-Ed, Daily Star
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi were powerful women; all of them led their countries to war. But it is also true that these women rose to leadership by playing according to the political rules of "a man's world." It was their success in conforming to male values that enabled their rise to leadership in the first place. In a world in which women held a proportionate share (one-half) of leadership positions, they might behave differently in power."
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January 17, 2012
"Why China Is Weak on Soft Power"
Op-Ed, International Herald Tribune
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"The 2008 Olympics were a success, but shortly afterwards, China's domestic crackdown in Tibet and Xianjiang, and on human rights activists, undercut its soft power gains. The Shanghai Expo was also a great success, but was followed by the jailing of the Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo and the artist Ai Weiwei."
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January 9, 2012
"Charisma We Can Believe in"
Op-Ed, CNN.com
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Charisma tells us something about a candidate, but it tells us even more about ourselves, the mood of our country, and the types of change we desire. Hard economic times make it difficult to maintain charisma. Obama faces the continuing challenges of unemployment and a recalcitrant Republican opposition, and Sarkozy must contend with similar problems. When they are campaigning, however, their rhetoric will be freed from the need to compromise. This year's elections will be the true test of their charisma."
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December 8, 2011
"Obama's Pacific Pivot"
Op-Ed, The Korea Herald
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...[T]he November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting, held in Obama's home state of Hawaii, promoted a new set of trade talks called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Both events reinforce Obama's message to the Asia-Pacific region that the U.S. intends to remain an engaged power."
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November 21, 2011
"A Pivot That Is Long Overdue"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
The planned Marine rotation reinforces Obama's message to the region that the United States intends to remain a Pacific power. One of the great power shifts of the 21st century is the recovery of Asia, but instead of keeping our eye on that ball, the U.S. wasted the first decade of this century mired in two land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now Obama has announced that American foreign policy will "pivot" toward East Asia.
