Everything about Soft Power totally explained
Soft power is a term used in
international relations theory to describe the ability of a
political body, such as a
state, to indirectly influence the behavior or
interests of other political bodies through
cultural or
ideological means. The term was first coined by
Harvard University professor Joseph Nye, who remains its most prominent proponent, in a
1990 book,
Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. He further developed the concept in his 2004 book,
Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. Its usefulness as a descriptive theory has been challenged often, but soft power is still being used as a term that distinguishes the subtle effects of culture, values, and ideas on others' behavior from more direct coercive measures called
hard power such as
military action (
hard power) or
economic incentives.
Definition
The basic concept of power is the ability to influence others to get them to do what you want. There are three major ways to do that: one is to threaten them with sticks; the second is to pay them with carrots; the third is to attract them or co-opt them, so that they want what you want. If you can get others to be attracted to want what you want, it costs you much less in carrots and sticks. (External Link
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Soft power, then, represents the third way of getting the outcomes you want. Soft power is contrasted with
hard power, which has historically been the predominant
realist measure of national power, through
quantitative metrics such as
population size, concrete
military assets, or a nation's
Gross Domestic Product. But having such resources doesn't always produce the desired outcomes as the United States discovered in the Vietnam War. The resources from which soft power behavior is derived are culture (when it's attractive to others), values (when there's no hypocrisy in their application) and foreign policies (when they're seen as legitimate in the eyes of others). Unless these conditions are present, culture and ideas don't necessarily produce the attraction that's essential for soft power behavior. The extent of attraction can be measured by public opinion polls, by elite interviews, and case studies. Nye argues that soft power is more than influence, since influence can also rest on the hard power of threats or payments. And soft power is more than just persuasion or the ability to move people by argument, though that's an important part of it. It is also the ability to attract, and attraction often leads to acquiescence.
If I'm persuaded to go along with your purposes without any explicit threat or exchange taking place — in short, if my behavior is determined by an observable but intangible attraction — soft power is at work. Soft power uses a different type of currency — not force, not money — to engender cooperation. It uses an attraction to shared values, and the justness and duty of contributing to the achievement of those values. (External Link)
The success of soft power heavily depends on the actor’s
reputation within the
international community, as well as the flow of information between actors. Thus, soft power is often associated with the rise of
globalization and
neoliberal international relations theory.
Popular culture and
media is regularly identified as a source of soft power, as is the spread of a national
language, or a particular set of
normative structures; a nation with a large amount of soft power and the good will that engenders it inspire others to
acculturate, avoiding the need for expensive
hard power expenditures.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Soft Power'.
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