Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how using military and economically coercive power is not always as effective as exercising soft power, which is a more subtle and potent form of influence. The paper shows how the pervasiveness of American popular culture in the form of soft power has been both positive and negative. The paper then suggests that the waning power of American soft power seems inexorably connected to a recent overreliance on hard power to fight the so-called 'War on Terror' by the Bush administration. The paper asserts that to generate loyalty in the hearts of the people in nations such Pakistan, the U.S. must use soft, rather than hard power.

From the Paper:

"Almost everyone is familiar with what political scientists call 'hard power.' Its definition is almost self-evident. However, according to strategic theorist Joseph Nye, leaders who solely focus on compellence or military and economically coercive power do so at their peril in the new geopolitical environment. Such leaders of nations are, in his words, one-dimensional thinkers in what is now inexorably a three-dimensional game of international bargaining. A better, more subtle and potent form of influence is that of soft power, the kind of power that is extended through less obvious uses of the term. When nations wish to exert influence over other nations, Nye asserts, although the first and most obvious recourse might seem to be using a series of carrots and sticks such as threatening armed invasion or economic sanctions, often the most forceful domination is the kind that can only build over time."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hess, Charles. "American Foreign Policy," Human Rights and Human Welfare. Durham: DukeUniversity Press, 2004.
• Nye, Joseph S. Soft Power, the Means to Success in World Politics. London: PublicAffairs, Ltd,2004.
• Nye, Joseph, "Soft Power and American Foreign Policy," Political Science Quarterly. 19. 22004. pp. 255-270.
• Schelling, Thomas. Arms and Influence. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.
• Treverton, Gregory. "Framing Compellent Strategies." Washington, D.C.: RAND Monograph Report, 2000.

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