SOFT POWER
AP Photo
November 11, 2009
"South Korea's Growing Soft Power"
Op-Ed, Daily Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"...South Korea has the resources to produce soft power, and its soft power is not prisoner to the geographical limitations that have constrained its hard power throughout its history. As a result, South Korea is beginning to design a foreign policy that will allow it to play a larger role in the international institutions and networks that will be essential to global governance."
AP Photo
November 9, 2009
"Who Caused the End of the Cold War?"
Op-Ed, The Huffington Post
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Ultimately the deepest causes of Soviet collapse were the decline of communist ideology and the failure of the Soviet economy. This would have happened even without Gorbachev. In the early Cold War, communism and the Soviet Union had a good deal of soft power. Many communists had led the resistance against fascism in Europe, and many people believed that communism was the wave of the future....Although in theory communism aimed to instill a system of class justice, Lenin's heirs maintained domestic power through a brutal state security system involving lethal purges, gulags, broad censorship, and the use of informants. The net effect of these repressive measures was a general loss of faith in the system."
AP Photo
Summer 2009
"Hard Decisions on Soft Power: Opportunities and Difficulties for Chinese Soft Power"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Harvard International Review, issue 2, volume 31
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and Wang Jisi
"But just as China's economic and military power does not yet match that of the United States, China's soft power still has a long way to go as demonstrated by a Chicago Council on Global Affairs poll. China does not have cultural industries like Hollywood, and its universities are not yet the equal of the United States. It lacks the many non-governmental organizations that generate much of US soft power. Politically, China suffers from corruption, inequality, and a lack of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. While that may make the "Beijing consensus" attractive in authoritarian and semi-authoritarian developing countries, it undercuts China's soft power in the West. Although China's new diplomacy has enhanced its attractiveness to its neighbors in Southeast Asia, the belligerence of its hard power stance toward Taiwan hurt it in Europe when China sought to persuade Europeans to relax their embargo on the sale of arms. Given the domestic problems that China must still overcome, there are limits to China's ability to attract others, but one would be foolish to ignore the gains the country is making."
AP Photo
September 14, 2009
"American Power in 21st Century"
Op-Ed, The Korea Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
The problem for American power in the 21st century is that there are more and more things outside the control of even the most powerful state. Although the U.S. does well on military measures, there is much going on that those measures fail to capture.
AP Photo
September 2009
"Public Diplomacy: Ideas for the War of Ideas"
Discussion Paper
By Stephen Van Evera, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1978-1981 and 1984-1987 and Peter Krause
The United States cannot defeat al-Qaeda by strength of arms alone. It must also change the terms of debate in the Arab/Muslim world, especially in its radical wing. How can this best be accomplished? What strategy should the United States adopt for what is often called the “war of ideas” against radical Islam?
AP Photo
August 12, 2009
"Making of Great Communicators"
Op-Ed, The Korea Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
As president, Obama continues to communicate effectively, but an American president has a problem of dual audiences. Sometimes rhetoric that fares well at home — such as Bush's second inaugural address — sounds hypocritical to foreign ears. In contrast, Obama's inaugural address was well received both at home and abroad....[B]ut effective leadership is also communicated by actions and policies. At this stage, it is too early to determine whether Obama's policies will reinforce or undercut the effects of his words.
As we await the results, it helps to remember the complexity of the relation between effective leadership and communications.
Summer 2009
"The Waning of U.S. Hegemony—Myth or Reality? A Review Essay"
Journal Article, International Security, issue 1, volume 34
By Christopher Layne, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 1995-1996
Over the next two decades, international politics will be shaped by whether the international system remains unipolar or is transformed into a multipolar system. Can the United States sustain its primacy? Or will the emergence of new great powers reorder the distribution of power in the international system?
AP Photo
June 18, 2009
"Foreign Students are an Opportunity, Not a Threat"
Op-Ed, politics.co.uk
By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program
"...[W]e should resist the temptation to react to the fear of terrorism by turning inwards, reducing ties to foreign countries, and denying more students entry. Reducing the number of foreign student Visas would be counterproductive. The US tried it after September 11th, but has now reversed its approach, realising the harm it is doing. To do the same would be to be cowed into becoming a more closed society. We must remain open, outward-looking and vibrant. It is precisely many of these foreign students who will help their countries to reduce terrorism over the long run."
June 5, 2009
"Obama’s Worthy Gesture"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
In his speech in Cairo, Barack Obama sought a new beginning, which we all badly need. So let's put away the Bible and Quran classes, hear from Arab, Iranian and Israeli leaders -- and get down to the tough business of forging better policies.
AP Photo
May 13, 2009
"Taking Democracy to the People"
Op-Ed, Globe and Mail
By Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor
"Equally important to the foreign-policy methods used to support democracy abroad are the ways in which it is practised in the United States. When Americans try to impose democracy, they tarnish it. When they live up to their own best traditions, they can stimulate emulation and create the soft power of attraction. This is what Ronald Reagan called the 'shining city on the hill.'"
