Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Nye, Joseph, Jr. 2004. Soft Power: the Means to Success in World Politics. New York: Public Affairs.

Main points:

- Preface – What is soft power? It is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payment. It arise from the attractiveness of a county’s culture, political ideals, and polices.(x) [c/f also one's own good past records]

- the first chapter analysis the changing context of power in international politics, and the reason why soft power is becoming more important than in the past. (xii)

- the second chapter examines the sources of American soft power. American is not the only one with soft power; the third chapter looks at the soft power of other nations and non-state actors. Chapter 4 examines the practical problems of how to wield soft power. The concluding chapter summarizes what it all means for the foreign policy of the US in the aftermath of the Iraq war. (xiii)

- ch. 1 – at the most general level, power means the ability to get the outcome one wants. (1) Power resources cannot be judged without knowing the context. You need to understand what game you are playing and how the value of the cards may be changing (4)

- soft power rests on the ability to shape the preference of others. At the personal level, we are all familiar with the power of attraction and seduction.(5)

-hard and soft power are related because they are two aspects of the ability to achieve one’s purpose. The distinction is one of degree; there are command power and co-optive power. The types of behavior between command and co-option range along a spectrum from coercion to pure attraction. (7) Soft power resources tend to be associated with the co-optive end of the spectrum of behavior, whereas hard-power resource is usually associated with command behavior. (7)

- in international politics, the resource that produce soft power arise in large part form the values an organization or country expresses in its culture, in its internal practice and polices, in the way it handles its relation with others. (8)

- the soft power of a county rests primarily on 3 resources: its culture, its political value, and its foreign policies. Let’s start with culture. Culture is the set of values and practice that create meaning for a society. (11)

- when a country’s culture includes universal values and its policies promote values and interest that others share, it increases the probability of obtaining its desired outcome. (11)

- in a diverse world, all three sources of power –military, economic, and soft – remains relevant, although in different degrees in different relationships. (30)

- the soft power in the information is in part a social and economic by-product rather than solely a result of official government action, nonprofit institution with soft power of their own can complicate and obstruct government efforts. (32)

(to be continued)