Soft power

Since the end of the Cold War and the subsequent ‘opening’ of the international system, the pursuit of national interests through traditional hard power has come under intense scrutiny. Using military force on foreign soil has in particular been criticised; and the high-profile examples of Iraq and Afghanistan provide fuel to arguments that such an approach cannot succeed in the complex tasks of nation-building and fighting terrorism. Within this context, the concept of ‘soft’ power has increasingly been advanced as an alternative or complementary approach. The concept of soft power was introduced by Joseph S. Nye in 1990.¹ He argued that the United States was not only the strongest nation-state in military and economic terms, but also in soft power, that is the capacity to influence other nations to identify American interests as their own. In 2001 with The Paradox of American Power, he placed soft power in the context of a broader argument about multilateralism.² And then, in 2004, with Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, he provided an in-depth treatise, defining the concept as ‘the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments’, an ability which ‘arises from the attractiveness of a country’s culture, political ideals, and policies.’³ For Nye, soft power is much more than image, public relations, and ephemeral popularity. It constitutes very real power: an ability to gain objectives.