In focus
WHY NOW?
Nye was predominantly known for introducing a new concept in the field of international relations. He described soft power as a nation’s ability to get what it wants “through attraction, rather than coercion or payment”. He distinguished this from hard power, typically understood as referring to militaristic and economic strength.
The Harvard professor also served in government roles, notably in the State Department during Jimmy Carter’s presidency (1977 to 1981) and in the Defence Department during Bill Clinton’s terms (1993 to 2001).
Nye is also credited with conceptualising “complex interdependence”. He said that the functioning of states was a result of interlinking factors and relationships, rather than jousting for power and security alone, something propounded by the prevalent theory of “realism” in the 1970s.
He authored 14 books and over 200 journal articles, but soft power would be his best-known contribution.
“Soft power – getting others to want the outcomes that you want – co-opts people rather than coerces them,” Nye wrote in the 2004 book Soft Power.
When he introduced the concept, he was trying to understand the influence of the US at a time when many believed its decline was inevitable, amidst the rise of Asian challengers. “I looked at our military power and our economic power, and I said, there’s still something missing, which is the power to get what you want through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion or payment,” Nye told the Harvard Gazette in 2017.
For instance, consider Hollywood films. For non-Americans, they offer an attractive window into life in another country, and show a unique set of values and culture. Watching them could influence positive attitudes towards the United States and its policies. The recent rise of South Korean pop culture exports, from art to food, is also a case in point. It has helped a tiny Asian nation occupy significant real estate in the minds of many young people across the world.
He believed that the idea of soft power built on complex interdependence. According to him, complex interdependence helped to enmesh countries economically so the role of their military might would be diminished, which soft power could carry forward.
However, some have also criticised the concept, saying hard power was the foremost route to solidifying a country’s position in global affairs, and that soft power paled in comparison to the sheer might of weaponry and capital.
Nye expressed concern in recent years that the US was losing its grip on soft power, especially after Donald Trump was elected President in 2016.
Trump’s return to the White House “gave him a truncated view of power limited to coercion and transactions,” Nye wrote in a March essay for The Financial Times. Nye called him an “extreme narcissist” who neglected liberal values and presented a polarised view of the world, even threatening democracy.
“How else can one explain his bullying of Denmark over Greenland, his threats to Panama, which outrage Latin America, or his siding with Vladimir Putin over Ukraine, which weakens seven decades of the Nato alliance — not to mention his dismantlement of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) that John F Kennedy created? All undercut American soft power,” he added.
