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Joseph Nye is the dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He coined the term "soft power" which is a country's power (or influence) derived from the attractiveness of its culture, political ideals and political policies. Political ideals are separately stated from a countries political policies as the two, in reality, often differ. Exhibit A is the Bush Administration which espouses wonderful, long-standing American ideals such as liberty, justice, freedom yet allows rampant prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay (and other military prisons). Mr. Nye states that these negative policies undercut a country's soft power.
The point of the book (and the concept of soft power) is to bring awareness to the fact that a country's true power on the world stage derives from much more than the power of its military. America clearly dominates the world militarily; however, its soft power (the attractiveness of its political and social culture) have significantly declined in recent years.
What's the best historical example of the effectiveness of soft power? The collapse of the Soviet Union. The American military merely stalemated the Soviets. It was American (and Western European) culture--i.e., music, television, standard of living, freedom of expression--that was the trogan horse that ate way the power of the Soviet Union from within. Try as the communist officials might to block the influence of American culture in their society, they could not keep it out. With the advent of satellite television and the internet, it is clear that the pace at which western culture shall invade a closed society such as that in Iran or China is quickening.
I very much agree with the concept of soft power as presented by Prof. Nye. My problem with the book is that he took 147 pages to present something that could have easily been boiled down to 70. But what should one expect from a college professor?
JJR
6-27-2007
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