Soft on “Soft Power”

“Soft power” challenged the coercion aspects of foreign policy, and professed attraction instead. In the last three years, the United States seems to have unconditionally accepted this as the centerpiece of its foreign policy. As a result, its inability to make tough choices implies fear of “Market-Leninists,” Islamist theocrats, and authoritarian despots. China, on the other hand, effectively uses soft power as a means to an end—and only when it works. What America must realize is that soft power is one of the tools of exerting foreign policy, and the Obama administration should be open to employing other tools depending on their effectiveness to resolve the situation at hand.