Nye- Soft Power A Review

Review on Nye,‘Soft Power’ Foreign Policy, No. 80, Autumn 1990.

In the article "Soft Power” the author, Joseph Nye, reflects upon power change in world politics after the Cold War. He statespower is no longer defined solely by the possession of power resources but by the “ability to change the behavior of states”, as Nye puts it. Assuming the United States’ lead role, he claims itsproblem will not be as much new challenges for hegemony, but the diffusion of power and how to develop power structures to deal with it.

According to Nye, power resources are becoming diffused due toeconomic interdependence, transnational actors, nationalism in weak states, spread of technology and changing political issues. Consequently, new instruments of power – i.e effective communication,multilateral institutions- and new dimensions of security arise- threats change from military to economic and ecological.

The author states traditional instruments are not enough to control these newpower resources. Nye says the best strategy to do so is “continuity and change”: he claims military power is restricted –as it is “costly and less transferable”- and needs to be complemented withinterdependence. In other words, the author suggests there needs to be a power shift from a traditional emphasis on coercive, hard power towards a more co-optive one, what he named “soft power”, based on“cultural attraction, ideology and international institutions”.

This article assures the U.S lead role. First, Nye says the United States manages to keep soft ideological and institutional resourcesand more traditional hard power resources “than any other country”. Then, he also states the future U.S challenges will not be related to countries disputing U.S hegemony but challenges of“transnational interdependence”, which will require collective action and international cooperation.

The article succeeds in presenting a turning point from the traditional view on power resources to...