| Since its birth,the Soft Power Theory has raised enormous attention and discussions,also with fierce criticism and scorn.In its hometown---America,the conservative administrations looked down to soft power,while the democratic governments(gave high priority to it)still failed to rescue America’s fame from decline.The theoretical and practical dilemmas already leaded to a self-examination:was soft power really a low-cost,high-return and practical policy tool? Under this situation,it is needed to review Joseph S.Nye’s theory scholarly and practically,so that we can correct its defects and make it better.Therefore,the research arranged two tasks to fulfill.The first one was to review the connotation and evolution of the theory,especially Joseph S.Nye’s corrections and other scholars’ criticisms,through which we could understand its advantages and weaknesses.The second task was analyzing why America’s soft power and fame reached high peak after the cold war,and why it declined so rapidly? The case study centered on America’s soft power could not only help verify the the good and bad sides of the theory,but bring us clues to make it more complete.Specifically,the two tasks were designed to be completed in five chapters.The first chapter reviewed the background and connotation of the theory,and Joseph S.Nye’s amendments.This chapter pointed out that Joseph S.Nye’s concept of soft power was a evolving process.At first,he tended to identify soft power with the tangibility/intangibility of power resources.Later,he corrected his identification,and utilized two-dimension standard,which combined power resource and power behavior.The second chapter generalized the critical opinions put by other scholars.One of the opinions was about the concept of soft power and the standard to identify it.Some scholars agreed with the one-dimension standard,while emphasized that there were more intangible soft power resources,such as racial spirit,historical heroes,citizen quality.Some argued that the two-dimension standard was more proper.There were also some opinions which suggested to build a three-dimension standard.Another voice criticized that Joseph S.Nye failed to give and identify the moral value of soft power theory.Furthermore,some scholars put critical views on Joseph S.Nye’s concept of culture and tangibility.Based on those opinions,this chapter finally pointed out that attraction both came from material success,like economy,military,science and technology,and immaterial achievements,such as culture,values and regimes.Therefore,we should utilize the two-dimension standard to identify the concept of soft power.Also,it was certain that soft power was just a policy tool,which should only be invested with tool attribute rather than moral attribute.The third chapter turned into the analysis of the transition of American soft power.This chapter analyzed the reasons that made America the only superpower on soft power.Reason one was that America owned very strong strength of economy,military,science and technology.Reason two was that America owned attractive culture,value and regimes.Reason three was about America’s ways to deal with foreign affairs,such as hegemonic leadership,democratic diplomacy and public diplomacy.The fourth chapter focused on the strikes that American soft power met since the year of 2000,and the reasons in the background.The first fundamental reason was the financialization of its economy,which caused the shrink of entity industry,the growth of unemployment and income gap,and the polarization of domestic politic.It also resulted in the wrong turn of America’s power behavior in international society,which was to say,America’s role changed from world leader and public goods provider to financial rent-seeker and exploiter.The second fundamental reason was related to the exposure of the hypocrisy and predation of America’s discourse system.The last chapter analyzed the intention and attempts of Joe Biden’s administration to recover America’s strength and fame and maintain its hegemonic status.The main conclusion was that the new administration had made plausible plans,which aimed to rebuild the entity industry and middle-class society.If executed well,those polices could help release the decline of American soft power,while could not stop it.Because those plans were too gentle to touch and resolve the core problem---the financialization of American economy.Today,big capitalists and financial interest groups had already controlled American parties,the Capitol,the White House,medias and intellectual elites,which made it nearly impossible to approve fundamental reform plans.Based on above analysis,we can draw three important theoretical enlightenments.First,the long-term maintenance of soft power is fundamentally dependent on the balanced development of material strengths.Second,if using hard power resources on confrontation,we should obey the principle of self-defence.Third,the attraction of non-material resources(like culture,values and regimes)only comes from identity rather than enforcement. |
