JENNA GIBSON
In his groundbreaking 2004 book on soft power, Joseph Nye described the concept of soft power in a deceptively simple way: “A country may obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because other countries—admiring values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness—want to follow it.” At first glance, the idea that a country can get what it wants in the world without resorting to the costly and dangerous realm of more traditional, “hard” power, is incredibly appealing. However, in the decades since, scholars and policymakers alike have realized that the concept is more complicated than it first appears. What are the “outcomes” that a state might want to achieve through soft power? What values and examples do they want to share, and who is open to those same values? Who is persuadable, and under what circumstances?
Because of its nebulous nature, those who study soft power, as well as those who want to wield it, run the risk of losing track of the actual goals and potential outcomes at play. This commentary will focus on four practical considerations for thinking about when, and how, to implement a strategy to cultivate soft power. I then conclude with a discussion of how these considerations have at times facilitated, and at other times frustrated, soft-power diplomacy between the United States and South Korea.
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