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
January 12, 2011
"Asia in the Balance"
Op-Ed, The Korea Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
India is thus unlikely to develop the power resources to become an equal to China in the next decade or two. And, while the two countries signed agreements in 1993 and 1996 that promised a peaceful settlement of the border dispute that led them to war in l962, it is worth noting that, just prior to India's nuclear tests in March l998, India's defense minister described China as India's "potential enemy number one." More recently, in 2009, the border issue flared again....Rather than becoming an ally, India is more likely to become one of the Asian countries that will tend to balance China's strategic rise.
AP Photo
November/December 2010
"The Future of American Power"
Journal Article, Foreign Affairs
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
It is currently fashionable to predict a decline in the United States' power. But the United States is not in absolute decline, and in relative terms, there is a reasonable probability that it will remain more powerful than any other state in the coming decades.
AP Photo
October 2010
"American and Chinese Power after the Financial Crisis"
Journal Article, Washington Quarterly, issue 4, volume 33
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...Asia has its own internal balance of powers, and in that context, many states continue to welcome an American presence in the region. Chinese leaders have to contend with the reactions of other countries, as well as the constraints created by their own objectives of economic growth and the need for external markets and resources. Too aggressive a Chinese military posture could produce a countervailing coalition among its neighbors that would weaken both its hard and soft power. A poll of 16 countries around the world found a positive attitude toward China’s economic rise, but not its military rise."
AP Photo
October 4, 2010
"The Pros and Cons of Citizen Diplomacy"
Op-Ed, New York Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...[T]he goals and messages of civil-society actors are often not aligned with government policies. This gives rise to the paradox of using citizen diplomacy in a global information age — decentralization and diminished control may be central to the creation of soft power, but in an age where every phone is a camera and every computer is a photo shop, the obscure pastor of a small Florida church can also wreak havoc and destroy soft power by threatening to burn a Koran. In a democracy, such risk is unavoidable, and the best response may be the type of national conversation that eventually dissuaded the unruly pastor."
AP Photo
August 19, 2010
"The Closing of America's Borders May Close American Minds"
Op-Ed, Daily Star
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Today the US is the world's third most populous country; 50 years from now it is still likely to be third (after only China and India). Not only is immigration relevant to economic power, but, given that nearly all developed countries are aging and face a burden of providing for older generations, it could help reduce the sharpness of the policy problem."
AP Photo
August 11, 2010
"Tide to be Harnessed"
Op-Ed, Boston Herald
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"If the U.S. turned inward and seriously curtailed immigration, there would be consequences for America's position in the world. With its levels of immigration, America is one of the few developed countries that may avoid demographic decline and keep its share of world population, but this might change if reactions to terrorist events or xenophobia closed the borders."
AP Photo
July 12, 2010
"The Dollar and the Dragon"
Op-Ed, The Journal of Turkish Weekly
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Judging whether economic interdependence produces power requires looking at the balance of asymmetries, not just at one side of the equation. In this case, interdependence has created a "balance of financial terror" analogous to the Cold War, when the US and the Soviet Union never used their potential to destroy each other in a nuclear exchange."
AP Photo
May 19, 2010
"China's Century is Not Yet upon Us"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Unlike India, which was born with a democratic constitution, China has not yet found a way to solve the problem of demands for political participation (if not democracy) that tend to accompany rising per capita income. The ideology of communism is long gone, and the legitimacy of the ruling party depends upon economic growth and ethnic Han nationalism. Some experts argue that the Chinese political system lacks legitimacy, suffers from a high level of corruption and is vulnerable to political unrest should the economy falter. Whether China can develop a formula that can manage an expanding urban middle class, regional inequality and resentment among ethnic minorities remains to be seen."
May 2010
"Cyber Power"
Paper
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
Power depends upon context, and the rapid growth of cyber space is an important new context in world politics. The low price of entry, anonymity, and asymmetries in vulnerability means that smaller actors have more capacity to exercise hard and soft power in cyberspace than in many more traditional domains of world politics. The largest powers are unlikely to be able to dominate this domain as much as they have others like sea or air. But cyberspace also illustrates the point that diffusion of power does not mean equality of power or the replacement of governments as the most powerful actors in world politics.
AP Photo
April 11, 2010
"Health of American Politics"
Op-Ed, The Korea Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Power conversion — translating power resources into effective influence — is a long-standing problem for the U.S. The Constitution is based on an 18th-century liberal view that power is best controlled by fragmentation and countervailing checks and balances."
