The Future of Power [NOOK Book]

A Recommended Resource

In his book The Future of Power, Joseph Nye analyzes the progression of power and the possible manners in which it may be used in the future. He particularly focuses on how it can be used by China and the United States and contends that the United States must reassess its current status as a “smart power” in order to keep up with the progression of power in the world. Nye supports his thesis by first establishing that power involves more than military forces and economic stability (hard power) and that soft power is also required for producing desired results. Second, he states that a nation must understand how power has transitioned and has shifted as a result of the wide availability of information through the Internet. Nye asserts that China and the United States should not view power as means of domination. Instead, he argues that cooperation would produce more political stability for both countries. According to Nye, combining the hard and soft powers of China and the United States along with an understanding of the transition of power would strenghten the two nations. Before these nations can unite, however, Nye stresses that the United States must first establish its own goals and resources (hard power), and then it must determine how those resources could be used to accomplish the goals. He refers to this combination as "smart power."

Nye successfully conveys his ideas in a clear, concise manner. He includes several examples from world history to support his ideas. The only aspect that posed as a flaw is that his extensive use of examples and analytical references throughout the book have the tendency to interrupt the flow of the book. Nevertheless, Nye's book provides a great resource for those looking to broaden their view of power in the world in the twenty-first century and beyond.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

Revolutionary ideas drowned by excessive historical examples

“Made in China.” While many Americans complain about China’s commercial dominance, few have proposed a working blueprint to dictate successful relations between China and the United States. Could China, a totalitarian government, and the United States, a democratic country, have a synergetic relationship? This book, Joseph Nye’s The Future of Power, analyzes the history and future of the ongoing power struggle between the United States and various other nations, most notably China. Nye argues that, in order to peacefully and successfully participate with the recently rapid growth of China, it is crucial for the United States to acquire a symbiotically beneficial relationship. To accomplish this fantastic feat, Nye argues that the United States must take advantage of the world’s major forms of power: cyberpower, diffusion, hard power, soft power, military power, and economic power. He defines the perfect harmony of these powers as an equilibrium called “smart power.” Nye does an excellent job of portraying his opinion that America will soon fall servant to China unless we use smart power to reach out and successfully merge Chinese commercial dominance and American democratic values. This, he claims, will form the world superpower: Chimerica.

Despite Nye’s compelling argument, I found his revolutionary ideas to be drowned by extensively lengthy historical examples. Such massive usage of past occurrences frequently made me lose interest in his main points, although my attention was soon refocused upon finding another groundbreaking concept.

The Future of Power is an outstanding novel that forces you to challenge the boundaries of common assumptions and recognize the urgency of Chinese-American relations. All those with an interest in learning more about Chimerican possibilities and international relations will enjoy this phenomenal book!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Great Book

From cover to cover, this book is filled with great information. Nye asserts that political power has fallen in the past years and states that we should therefore reassess our position in terms of power and propose a balance between powers in order to continue a growing trend in power. In the beginning, Nye covers different aspects of power within the world and claims that power it-it-of itself cannot be nailed down to a single definition. Continuing through the discussion, Nye notes specific events in United States and world histories that has effected world powers of all different sorts. By the end of the book, Nye states his claim, using many examples from throughout his book to back it up.
However, I believe that Nye utilized far more citations than was necessary and as a result of this, his overall claim began to lose itself as I read through his work. I think that the book, as a whole, was very informative and allowed me to understand some of the worlds present political conditions. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for commentary on present conditions in the world and their proposed explanations.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very well written but slightly repetitive

Dr. Joseph Nye Jr. takes a look at the abstract concept of power, and tries to put it in perspective for the odd reader who is not a professor of international relations at Harvard University. He begins the book by saying that although power cannot be concretely defined, one of the better ways to describe it is, basically, as the ability to affect others to produce the outcomes that one wants. He then says that, put simply, there are two kinds of power, hard and soft. Hard power is the use of force to achieve ones ends, a prominent example being military power, while soft power is the more subtle use of non-violent persuasion and attraction to sway another to your way of thinking. Nye says that the signs of power and the determining factors in who is the most dominant in the world are always changing, and gives examples, such as the monetary and land ownership of Spain gave them an edge in the 16th century, and how Britain’s innovation and naval prowess was the source of their power in the 1800’s. Nye’s main thesis states that as we enter the information era of the 21st century, power is likely to be defined in a new manner, by the individual, and the story of each nation, and if America does not recognize this and harness that power effectively, they are likely to slip down the world’s ladder of supremacy. Nye also states that America cannot accomplish its goals alone, if it is to succeed it must have partners. So basically, America must use “smart power,” which combines soft and hard power, while using effective strategies to coerce or attract others depending on the situation. Also, American politicians need to realize that military dominance is not the defining aspect of power anymore, and adjust to keep their influence in the world in the future.

This book is very well written, and it has many very good examples. It makes its point very quickly, and returns to it at the end of the book. It was very complicated in some places, but the summation of his main points at the end of the book was very helpful. Although the examples relate to the topic, since there were so many of them, the book seemed to stretch on, and the point was lost as he spoke about how terrorism is aided by Facebook. Therefore, the books only downfall in my eyes was that it had so many examples to support its point, that the point was forgotten in the middle of it. Other than that, I would recommend this book for its excellent thought provoking arguments.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Interesting Perspective

Joseph Nye weaves historical lessons into this analysis of America's power and influence in the 21st century. The rise of nations such as Brazil, Russia, India and China as major players in a global economy brings some legitimacy to Nye's strategy of deploying "smart power" in order to achieve desirable outcomes. There is more than a hint of Nye's political leanings through his select use of examples but certainly he raises interesting points worthy of debate. Even if you don't agree with his conclusions and methodology The Future of Power will certainly encourage thoughtful debate to important topics in international relations.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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