Soft Power Diplomacy

Soft power diplomacy has played a major role in geopolitics in the global age. Soft power diplomacy refers to the application of techniques of diplomacy by diplomats as a means of exercising soft power in the pursuit of foreign policy or other national objectives.

The term soft power was popularized by Joseph Nye in his eponymous book. Contrasted with hard power, which connotes the use or threat of force by governments of nation-states to achieve policy objectives, soft power refers to the use of attraction, persuasion, and influence to win the support of an interlocutor or adversary for one's own objectives. Also known as indirect power, soft power was described by Nye as the power to get others not to do what you want but to want what you want. Soft power is closely related to Susan Strange's conception of structural power, which refers to a capacity to shape the decision horizons and rewards matrices of others. In his 1990 book, Bound to Lead, Nye argued that a hegemonic power such as the United States must rely on soft power to persuade other governments at least to acquiesce in, if not to support, its leadership of the global economy and the international system. Nye's idea of soft power evokes a dialogic process that involves listening to one's interlocutors as well as communicating to them, a process that can generate a feedback loop for the broader process of making foreign policy. Winning the support of other governments for one's objectives and policies may be undertaken through a variety of direct and indirect means. When direct appeal to another government is unsuccessful, influencing that government indirectly by winning the support of its people can be an attractive alternative. Soft power implies the ability to develop such influence.