In today's Huffington Post, Joseph Nye talks about Obama's "soft power" and his need for "hard power." The premise for the article is based upon Nye's reaction from traveling abroad--apparently Europeans are enchanted by Senator Obama.
Nye says "soft power is the ability to obtain the outcomes one wants through attraction rather than using the carrots and sticks of payment or coercion." In this case, soft power is the way the rest of the world feels about America/Obama--basically he has great people skills, highly emotionally intelligent and can get his point across like only a few great communicators.
Truth be told--Obama has the soft power game on lock. But hard power--let's take a look. Nye doesn't actually define "hard power," but instead provides examples on when its necessary: "Unfortunately, a President Obama will inherit a number of policy problems such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea where hard power plays a large role." Sounds to me as if hard power is simply negotiating-hard-ball--that is knowing what your "enemy" and how to counter.
I think America has a lot of 'splainin to do to the rest of the world, soft power creates the relationships necessary to renew faith in America. Let's see what happens next.
