A Study Of Joseph S.Nye’s Soft Power

In the Western international relation theories, the theory of power has alwaysbeen a core part, and occupies an important position. After the Cold War, theinternational relations have undergone profound changes. In the face of complicatedinternational community, the hard power realism that has long been concerned overmilitary and economic strength couldn’t explain the fact of rapid development andchange of international relations fully and effectively. Many kinds of new ideas andnew factors have been introduced into the field of international relations. It is in thiscontext, soft power theory have emerged and improved itself. In the year of1990,former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense, dean of Harvard ’s Kennedy CollegeJoseph Nye first proposed the concept of soft power, he divided power into softpower and hard power, and reputed that relative to a country’s hard power just likemilitary and economic strength, culture、political values、foreign policy and theinternational system are soft power, and plays an irreplaceable role. Developing up tonow, soft power ideas are widely popular both in academia and daily life. In today’sinformation age, Joseph Nye ’s soft power thought to highlight its unique role andbecome a new coordinates that every countries pursue.This paper divided into four parts:The first part is the analysis of the theoretical background and origin of softpower, think that the idea of soft power not only the result of the deep change ofinternational relation, but also the re-examine of the traditional powers, in add, it isthe need for the U.S. international strategy development. It is formed on thetheoretical basis of use the theories of Thucydides, Gramsci, Morgenthau forreference.The second part is the main content of the soft power idea, mainly expound thebasic concepts of power、soft power and hard power of Joseph Nye, and simplydivided the development of soft power idea, in the same time, this chapter analyzesthe sources and the characteristics of soft power, and the relationships between softand hard power.The third part mainly through the cultural、 political values、 foreign policy andthe system these four aspects to analyze the use of soft power in the United States from the perspective of Joseph Nye, which grasp soft power more profoundly androundly in practice.The fourth part mainly appraises the significance and the limitations of Joseph Nye ’s soft power idea. This chapter also expounds the necessity of the construction ofsoft power in our country, and proposes the exploratory opinion.