Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, and: America the Virtuous: The Crisis of Democracy and the Quest for Empire (review)

Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics is not exactly a how-to manual for would-be globalizers. For while undoubtedly capitalizing on the marketing appeal of the genre, the subtitle is subtly condescending to policy makers and presidents wanting in sophistication, who turn too readily to force as the means to illusory success in world politics. Currently dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, Joseph Nye argues that victory acquired merely through hard power is at best pyrrhic. Having coined, fifteen years ago, the contrasting term soft power—defined as "encouraging others to channel or limit their activities in ways [the encourager] prefers"—he notes that the idea has lost none of its relevance. The book is instructive, the result of experiences accumulated throughout Nye's career, most recently as chairman of the National Intelligence Council and assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration. Without denying the need for hard power, he underscores its limits, deploring the inability of the American public and policy makers to adapt to the new global reality that necessitates quantum changes in the way we conduct foreign affairs.

The book's topics include the changing nature of power, various sources of American and other power, how soft power may be used more or less effectively, and finally, recommendations for architects of US foreign policy, who are the book's principal intended audience. Meaning to contribute to a new national security strategy for America, Nye argues for a deeper and more lasting sovereignty for the world's beloved mistress, whose twin charms of democracy and prosperity should make her irresistible. For that, however, we must wield "smart power, [which] is neither hard nor soft. It is both." Whoever fails to appreciate that fact is, to put it bluntly, just not too smart.

Nye, to his credit, does not put it bluntly. He observes that any country able to skillfully use all means at its disposal—political, economic, and cultural—can wield soft power. Besides the savings in military spending, one obvious merit of using carrots over sticks is that carrots are, well, tastier. Admittedly, Nye recognizes that tastes vary even in one nation, resulting in conflicting, even self-canceling effects. For example, in China the attraction and rejection of American culture by various groups—older and more traditional versus younger and more secular—are about evenly divided; the same is obviously true of many Muslim societies. Nye acknowledges that culture is a rather dull instrument.

Soft power may be wielded not only through the amorphous channel of civil society but also by international organizations, the news media, economic aid, peacekeeping, personal contacts, visits, and exchanges funded both privately and publicly. Nye observes that globalization is a fact, so we might as well try to exploit its advantages, while realizing that the technological revolution has also rendered us more vulnerable. The Internet has reduced the costs of searching for information, increased exponentially the ability to communicate transculturally, and provided greatly improved tools for protection. Without doubt, terrorism presents the greatest and most baffling challenge to world peace, its potential for destruction unprecedented. Besides using technology in ways impossible to have anticipated even a short time ago, terrorism has also evolved in motivation, organization, and brutality. Nye describes this new threat as "the privatization of war," requiring a new approach to deterrence and method of combat.

Can America rise to the challenge? Nye is certain that it can. The world's largest economy, home to nearly half of the top five hundred global companies—five times as many as the next ranked country, Japan—America's assets speak for themselves (sometimes even louder than...