Soft Power and US Foreign Policy: Theoretical, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

by Inderjeet Parmar (Editor), Michael Cox (Editor)

Overview

The rise of widespread negative attitudes towards US foreign policy, especially due to the war of aggression against Iraq and the subsequent military occupation of the country – has brought new attention to the meaning and instruments of soft power. In this edited collection, an outstanding line up of contributors provides the most extensive discussion of soft power to date. Soft power is the use of attraction and persuasion rather than the use of coercion or force in foreign policy. It arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals and policies, whereas hard power develops out of a country's military or economic might.

Soft Power has become part of popular political discourse since it was coined by Harvard’s Joseph Nye, and this volume features a brand new chapter by Nye outlining his views on soft, hard and smart power and offers a critique of the Bush administration’s inadequacies. He then goes on to examine the challenges for the incoming US president. The other contributions to the volume respond to Nye's views from a range of theoretical, historical and policy perspectives giving new insights in to both soft power and the concept of power itself.

This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of this key concept in foreign affairs and is essential reading for scholars of US foreign policy, public diplomacy, international relations and foreign policy analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415492041
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/03/2010
Series:	Routledge Studies in US Foreign Policy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Inderjeet Parmar is Professor of Government and Head of the Department of Politics, University of Manchester, UK. He has published several monographs and is the co-editor of the Routledge Studies in US Foreign Policy series.

Michael Cox is Professor in the International Relations Department at LSE, UK. He is the author of numerous books and has edited several of the leading journals in international relations.

Table of Contents

Contributors vii

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction Inderjeet Parmar Michael Cox 1

1 The future of soft power in US foreign policy Joseph S. Nye, Jr 4

2 From hegemony to soft power: implications of a conceptual change Geraldo Zahran Leonardo Ramos 12

3 Soft power and strategy: developing a 'strategic' concept of power Edward Lock 32

4 The unbearable lightness of soft power Christopher Layne 51

5 The Power Game, soft power and the international historian Till Geiger 83

6 Challenging elite anti-Americanism in the Cold War: American foundations, Kissinger's Harvard Seminar and the Salzburg Seminar in American studies Inderjeet Parmar 108

7 Technological leadership and American soft power John Krige 121

8 The Military use of soft power - information campaigns: the challenge of application, their audiences and effects Angus Taverner 137

9 Public diplomacy and the information war on terror Philip M. Taylor 152

10 Soft power in an era of US decline Giles Scott-Smith 165

11 Cheques and balances: the European Union's soft power strategy Christopher Hill 182

12 The myth and reality of China's 'soft power' Shogo Suzuki 199

13 Responding to my critics and concluding thoughts Joseph S. Nye, Jr 215

Index 228

Editorial Reviews

"The volume delivers on what it sets out to do, that is to offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date discussion of the ubiquitous concepts of hard, soft and smart power." - The International Spectator, Vol. 45, No. 4, December 2010, 104–106

'...the most exhaustive analysis available to date on soft power and its application to the theory and practice of power and foreign policy.' - The International Spectator, Volume 45, Issue 4, 2010, 106

From the Publisher