ABSTRACT
The concept of soft power was introduced to the international relations literature by Joseph Nye in the early 1990s. In almost two decades, the concept has gained widespread acceptance and usage. In this chapter, we articulate the resemblance between Nye’s concept of soft power and Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. Nye himself provided our inspiration, as he has always acknowledged the similarities between soft power and the Gramscian concept of hegemony. Both concepts make reference to a set of general principles, ideas, values and institutions shared by, consented or regarded as legitimate by different groups, but that at the same time are resources of power, influence and control over one group by the other. Nevertheless, we argue that by not pushing the Gramscian analogy forward, Nye left open gaps in his conceptualization of soft power; Gramsci’s work has implications that the concept of soft power cannot conceive.
