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The US Must Rely on Economic and Military Power

Paul Kennedy, The Guardian | November 18, 2008

The Bush administration destroyed American goodwill abroad. ++ Obama is a welcome change, but there are limits to what "soft power" can achieve. ++ White House glamour will be useless if Asia stops buying US treasury bonds. ++ As the IMF slips out of American hands, so does world economic leadership and we return to a multi-polar world. ++ Soft power counts for little without economic backing, and is practically worthless against missiles in Kaliningrad. ++ Obama's capacity for "hard power" is lacking when compared to earlier US presidents.

Mon, Nov 24th 2008, 18:05

Lior Petek, University of St. Gallen, Platinum Contributor (216)

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I think Mr. Kennedy - and Joseph Nye for that matter - has a narrow understanding of "soft power" as he sees it as attraction that automatically has the other states showcase a desired behavior. However, I argue that "soft power" rarely works that way and that it is rather just facilitating persuading other states to behave as one wants them to. Seen this way "soft power" can make it indeed more easy to persuade Russia not to station missiles in Kalinigrad or to persuade Asia not to stop buying US treasury bonds. As Nye has indeed confessed himself it is not about "soft" or "hard power" but about "smart power", since power is dependent on the context.

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