ABSTRACT
Prussia’s King Frederick the Great likened diplomacy without arms as akin to “music without instruments”. The word ‘power’ evokes and leads directly the notion of exertion of some form of compulsion; ‘soft power’ is often viewed as an antipode. In reality, soft power involves rather different subsets of influences, some of them very subtle and slow-acting, e.g. attraction, emulation, persuasion and enticement. Are these captured in the word ‘power’, or should we think of some other word? How about ‘charisma’? It is interesting that Nye does not speak directly of ‘image’ or ‘country brand’, although this is implicit.
