SOFT POWER
AP Photo
November 10, 2008
"Joy in America"
Op-Ed, Agence Global
By Rami Khouri, Senior Fellow, The Dubai Initiative
"George W. Bush and his band of zealots used the anger-based emotional high after 9/11 to simultaneously misdiagnose themselves, their enemies, their friends and their place in the world. Consequently, they pursued catastrophic domestic and foreign policies. Obama must beware such pitfalls. He and his senior officials must understand more accurately how the United States and the world actually interact, in good times or bad, in order to forge policies based on credible analyses that are free of self-congratulatory emotionalism or pride."
AP Photo
November 7, 2008
"The New President and the Future of American Power"
Op-Ed, Daily Star
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
"The challenge for Barack Obama is that more and more issues and problems are outside the control of even the most powerful state. Although the US does well on the traditional measures of power, those measures increasingly fail to capture much of what defines world politics, which, owing to the information revolution and globalization, is changing in a way that prevents Americans from achieving all their international goals by acting alone....As the world's largest economy, American leadership will remain crucial. The problem of American power in the wake of the financial crisis is not one of decline, but of a realization that even the most powerful country cannot achieve its aims without the help of others. Fortunately, Barack Obama understands that."
AP Photo
October 27, 2008
Reducing Terrorism over the Long Term
Policy Memo
By Azeem Ibrahim, Research Fellow, International Security Program
The UK will be at the center of an increase in extremism caused by geostrategic and population trends over the next few decades, Azeem Ibrahim said during a powerful keynote speech to the Leaders' Summit on Security and Cohesion at Portcullis House, Westminster, London, on October 7, 2008. He added that radicals should be re-educated by reformed jihadi fighters and that the key to preventing violent extremism is minimizing the motivation to radicalize.
This policy memo is based on Mr. Ibrahim's speech.
AP Photo
October 15, 2008
"Beware an October Surprise from bin Laden"
Op-Ed, Financial Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
"...Mr bin Laden is involved in a civil war within Islam. He wants the US to pursue policies that create the appearance of a clash of civilisations. Anything that polarises the mainstream of Muslim opinion helps his recruiting. As the deputy director for analysis at the CIA commented at the time: 'Certainly, he would want Bush to keep doing what he’s doing for a few more years.'..."
AP Photo
October 13, 2008
"America's Crisis Election"
Op-Ed, The Korea Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
"Some people worry that Obama might be good for American soft power, but not for its hard power. Machiavelli famously said that it is more important for a prince to be feared than to be loved.
Machiavelli may be correct, but we sometimes forget that the opposite of love is not fear, but hatred. And Machiavelli made it clear that hatred is something a prince should carefully avoid.
When the exercise of hard power undercuts soft power, it makes leadership more difficult ― as Bush found out after the invasion of Iraq. Both McCain and Obama possess impressive hard-power political and organizational skills; otherwise, they would not be where they are today...."
AP Photo
September 2, 2008
"Guns and Gold of August"
Op-Ed, The Korea Times
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
"...Military force is obviously a source of hard power, but the same resource can sometimes contribute to soft power behavior. The impressive job by the American military in providing humanitarian relief after the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 and the South Asian earthquake in 2005 helped restore America's attractiveness....By bombing, blockading, and occupying many parts of Georgia, delaying its withdrawal, parading blindfolded Georgian soldiers, and failing to protect Georgian citizens, Russia lost its claims to legitimacy and sowed fear and mistrust in much of the world...."
AP Photo
September 1, 2008
"China's Winning Olympic Spirit"
Op-Ed, The Boston Globe
By Xiaohui (Anne) Wu, Associate, International Security Program/Project on Managing the Atom and Jason Qian
"...The "one world, one dream" ideal even transcended Chinese nationalism when some globetrotting Chinese coaches led foreign teams in the Games. Indeed, many Chinese felt proud of the Chinese gymnastics coach of US gold medalist Shawn Johnson and the Chinese coach of the US silver-winning women's volleyball team. One dream for the world's celebration of sports does not sound like such an empty slogan in such cases...."
AP Photo
August 24, 2008
"Soft Power and Beijing Olympics"
Op-Ed, Real Clear World
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
"The enrollment of foreign students in China has tripled from 36,000 to 110,000 over the past decade, and the number of foreign tourists has also increased dramatically to 17 million per year even before the Olympics. In addition, China has created some 200 Confucius Institutes around the world to teach its language and culture, and while the Voice of America was cutting its Chinese broadcasts from 19 to 14 hours a day, China Radio International was increasing its broadcasts in English to 24 hours a day.
But just as China’s economic and military power does not yet match that of the United States', China’s soft power still has a long way to go...."
AP Photo
Summer 2008
"Identities, Interests and the Resolution of the Abkhaz Conflict"
Journal Article, Caucasian Review of International Affairs, issue 3, volume 2
By Ondrej Ditrych, Former Research Fellow, International Security Program, 2007-2008
"The recent crisis in Abkhazia reveals a fundamental qualitative change in the conflict in which the balance among three main actors is shifting, and increasingly the conflict plays a more important role in the triangular relations between Georgia, Russia and the West. The search for a new equilibrium in the conflict, one that would be an optimal outcome for the actors involved, will require rethinking the mutually constitutive roles (identities) and interests they want to assume with respect to the conflict and the entire South Caucasus...."
AP Photo
July 11, 2008
"Follow the Leader: We Must Go Beyond the 'Big Man' Approach"
Op-Ed, Globe and Mail
By Joseph S. Nye, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations
"History is often written in terms of military heroes, but the enormous potential of human leadership ranges from Attila the Hun to Mother Teresa. Most everyday leaders remain unheralded. The role of heroic leadership in war leads to overemphasis of command and control and hard military power. In America today, the presidential debate is between Senator John McCain, a war hero, and Senator Barack Obama, a former community organizer.
The image of the warrior leader lingers in modern times. Writer Robert Kaplan points to the birth of a new "warrior class as cruel as ever and better armed," ranging from Russian Mafiosi and Latin American drug kingpins to terrorists who glorify violence just as ancient Greeks did in the sacking of Troy....Indeed, an oversimplified image of warrior-style leadership in President George W. Bush's first term caused costly setbacks for America's role in the world...."
