ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book intends to enrich the extant understandings of soft power with examples from and references to religious discourses and practices that were not originally part of the soft power debate in the West. Nye's approach to soft power left many issues unresolved: in fact, he was more interested in distinguishing the hard from the soft in his interpretation of power dynamics than in problematizing and contextualizing what attraction is and how it is socially constructed in different policy environments. Today, a quarter-century later, some of Nye's overt or covert presumptions need recontextualization and fine-tuning, along with new frames and reference points for conceptualizing soft power. In Nye's interpretation, soft power can also be understood as a means of preventing and avoiding undesirable conflicts between states.
