US Soft Power Research Articles

Soft Power in Hard Concrete: the Berlin Congress Hall, the Cold War and the Building of Transatlantic Relations

Summary The opening of the Congress Hall in Berlin-Tiergarten in 1957 took place during the heyday of the Cold War. Designed by American architect Hugh Stubbins, the building became a focal point in East–West confrontations. Against this backdrop, the article explores the role of architecture in national soft power by taking the example of the Berlin Congress Hall. Commencing with a discussion of architecture as a component of soft power along five criteria, it goes on to examine the planning of the Congress Hall and the significance of its unique design vocabulary. The article concludes that the building, strategically located near the sector borders separating East and West, represents a concrete embodiment of US soft power. Although not an official representational building, the Congress Hall has thus served as a political, cultural and ideational ‘embassy’ of the United States and a major building block in German–American relations up to the present.

US Soft Power and Value Transfer Modalities

Abstract The article underscores the conceptual nexus of diaspora and soft power. It analyses US soft power, its main operating mechanisms and tools, and the role of diaspora groups in the transfer of American values, using Armenia and the Armenian-American diaspora community as a case study. The paper argues that ethnic diaspora groups are increasingly important actors of soft power. Along with protecting and promoting the national interests of their country of origin, ethnic diaspora groups play a unique role in promoting the host country’s soft power by establishing links and enhancing mutual understanding between both societies and states and providing the transfer and network for the host country’s values and ideals abroad. The article highlights the role of the Armenian diaspora political parties, the Armenian-American sociopolitical and lobbying organisations, and the activities of prominent Armenian Americans and their charitable foundations in the spread of American values and ideals, and the advancement of American soft power in Armenia.

The Paradox of Visibility

Black America is not present, as it should be, in the literature on US soft power. This paper argues that Black culture exerts a powerful positive attraction abroad. This attraction, grounded in the forms of Black resistance to racial injustice, leads to a reconceptualization of America’s identity, by foreign audiences. A counter claim of what counts as “America” takes shape. The rethinking of America’s identity abroad responds to the appeal of the legacy of Black resistance. However, Black culture is, more often, unavailable to policymakers for garnering desired outcomes. Incorporating Black culture into the study of soft power helps sharpen the concept’s definition and points to when and why some forms of soft power are unavailable to decision makers.

Soft Power, Modernization, and Security: US Educational Foreign Policy Toward Authoritarian Spain in the Cold War

AbstractCold War strategic priorities led the United States to establish an enduring military alliance with General Francisco Franco's dictatorship in Spain between 1953 and 1975. This article examines the educational diplomacy carried out by the US government during the 1960s and early 1970s to foster Spain's stable modernization through the training of national development elites and the dissemination of US educational ideas. The work surveys US educational, informational, and cultural programs aimed at shaping an educational framework conducive to the expansion and legitimization of a US-oriented socioeconomic liberalization in Spain. On the one hand, this US soft power strategy sought to attract those groups who could play an important role in the capitalist modernization of the educational and economic structures of the Iberian country. On the other hand, it sought to reduce the identification of the United States with Franco's dictatorship and to link the image of the American superpower to the hopes for progress of the Spanish people. All of this was pursued in order to preserve US defensive interests in Spain. The piece also discusses US assistance to the crucial 1970 Spanish General Education Law, which allows us to explore how the US ideology of development and education was received by Spanish educational audiences. Thus, by delving deeper into the intersection between cultural diplomacy, international development, and the history of education, we aim to contribute to the integration of education into the histories of modernization and to deepen our understanding of US educational foreign policy in the Cold War.

Comparative Analysis of Soft Power Between South Korea and the United States: A Theoretical Mechanism Approach

Since Nye’s introduction of the soft power concept, there have been scholarly debates on whether it is real and how it works. Despite the vast volume of studies, there is a void in the literature on theoretically explaining and empirically testing if soft power can be generated without the support of hard power. To fill this gap in the literature, we developed two theoretical mechanisms that describe the mechanism of US soft power (great power) and Korean soft power (small country). We applied these theories to the US and Korean cases to demonstrate that (1) soft power across countries is not generated in the same way because countries do not have the same level of hard power; and (2) soft power can be generated without the support of hard power.

D is for democracy: Barrio Sésamo and adapting identity in the Spanish transition to democracy

ABSTRACT In 1977, Televisión Española (TVE) and the US non-profit organization Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) agreed to a coproduction of a Spanish version of Sesame Street, which would eventually be called Barrio Sésamo. I draw on memoranda issued by CTW and TVE during the production process to examine the negotiations between the coproducers over the program’s contents. These reveal differences of opinion between the American and Spanish partners over what was suitable for young viewers. They also reveal the problems produced by the US partner’s insistence that 50% of the material be CTW-generated, which hampered the Spanish partner’s wish to adapt the program to the Spanish context of the time. These ideological conflicts led to the show’s termination after one season. However, Barrio Sésamo would return later in the 1980s, the era now most associated with the show. The educational conception of the program held by both coproducers allows us to see their disagreements as a case of contested pedagogies in which differing national values were at stake. The article will consider whether the Spanish version of Sesame Street can be seen as an exercise in US soft power.

Amerikan Yumuşak Gücü ve Üzerindeki Trump Etkisi

This study analyzes the US soft power before and after President Trump took power. It argues that the US soft power had been waning before the Trump administration due to its foreign policy. While the US is still attractive in many cultural and institutional aspects, its foreign policy no longer contributes much to its soft power. In addition, there was a Trump effect on US soft power as such that his unpredictable and contradictory character and ‘America First’ policy damaged the US image. Besides, the raid into US congress hints that post-Trump period might also be problematic in terms of soft power. Yet, this study asserts that he also gave some correct decisions such as withdrawing troops from battlefields. While analyzing the US soft power, this study also questions the conceptualization of soft power and smart power and introduces new arguments. This study aims to propose new ideas about the US soft power and partly the concept of soft power via reviewing the literature.

Comparative Analysis of South Korean and American Soft Power Practices in World Politics

In the 21st century, soft power has proved its effectiveness and expediency and has become one of the most important foreign policy instruments of strong, medium and small powers. The approach proposed by Joseph Nye is considered to be a classic example of soft power politics with the United States being the leading state in this field. However, considering the intensification of glocalization processes and the growth of anti-global and anti-American sentiments, the effectiveness of the US soft power is being called into question. On the contrary, the popularity of South Korean culture has been constantly growing all over the world in recent years, which proves the possibility of successful application of the soft power policy by a non-Western (Asian) state.Aim. The aim is to compare the South Korean and American approaches to the implementation of soft power policy.Tasks. The tasks include studying the elements of the US and South Korean soft power models (culture and way of life, values and ideologies, principles of foreign and domestic policy) and comparing them with each other.Methods. The methods of cross-cultural analysis and secondary analysis of data, including official sources, were used.Results. When implementing the soft power policy, both states use the same resources (elements) distinguished by Joseph Nye (culture and lifestyle, ideology and values, principles of domestic and foreign policy).Conclusion. The difference between national models of soft power lies in the content of these elements. The United States and the Republic of Korea convey different values and prioritize different elements of soft power. The United States, placing the main emphasis on ideology, promotes democratic values, while the Republic of Korea, relying on culture in the broadest sense, appeals to humanistic and Confucian values (love for oneself, caring for others, seeking harmony, cheerfulness). Directions for further research include the analysis of the origins and prospects of such a phenomenon of international relations as Asian waves (Japanese, Korean, Chinese, etc.).

US Soft Power through Hollywood during Cold War: Rocky IV

Power has always been a concept around which many have been pondering, in a sense of trying to achieve it. International relations have mostly been about power, according to realism, amongst other shifts in the international politics, so it is crucial to understand it. Since the world, after the World Wars, shifted from violence and wars, a new power remerged, called soft power, which now relies more on the global influence, and not on hard means of power like. Soft power is best described as imposing influence on the other states, through different canals like movies, student exchanges, media, etc. USA, as a superpower, employed soft power as a mean of spreading their political and ideological influence, especially during the Cold War. One of the tools of soft power employed, was through pop culture of the 1980s, via Hollywood industry and creation of USA-themed big-grossing movies, with great actors and popular topics. US movie industry focused on creating plots of the movies which would indirectly exert influence on the wider masses, in Europe, USSR, and other countries. One of those movies is Rocky saga, which are the movies about a boxing US hero, who is unbeatable, and poses as a symbol of US power. This movie, with a focus on Rocky IV, is a great example of how USA employed soft power through Hollywood industry, and the acceptance of the movie in the 1980s by the global mass is a great example of how influential soft power can truly be.

Trump and US soft power

ABSTRACT President Trump’s leadership style departed from any other presidents in the US. Trump’s unconventional speeches, offhanded remarks, and unilateral foreign policies raised concerns among politicians and citizens around the world. This article examines perceptions of global citizens of President Trump’s leadership from his personality and policy perspectives as well as their damaging effects on US soft power. According to the analysis of the 2017 Pew Research Center’s global attitudes project, respondents from the majority of countries in the sample regard Trump’s leadership negatively, the effects mostly driven by Trump’s own personality traits. Trump’s divergent policies concerning critical global issues – the environment, immigration, Iran deal, trade relations, and religion – further curtail the favorability rating of the US and deepen anti-Americanism among citizens in other nations.

The US Peace Corps as a public diplomacy strategy

The US Peace Corps has been operating programs globally since 1961 with an enduring mission toward international friendship and world peace structured around clear goals that emphasize cross-cultural learning objectives. Little is known about whether the program has a positive effect on US soft power abroad and, if so, the magnitude of that influence. This paper examines the impact of Peace Corps programming in foreign states on US public diplomacy objectives. The primary research aims to understand the relationship between indicators of a foreign population’s favorability toward the US and Peace Corps participation to determine the effects of program size as well as program presence and removal. Pew Research Center US favorability scores were analyzed alongside Peace Corps volunteer cohort sizes between years 2004 and 2016 among 20 sample countries. The findings indicate a positive and statistically significant relationship between the size of the Peace Corps volunteer cohort and US favorability. Each additional volunteer increases favorability toward the US by 0.12 points. The results are robust to the inclusion of additional soft power factors. Supplementary findings illustrate that the removal of Peace Corps programming may adversely impact favorability toward the US, establishing the negative soft power effect of ceasing participation.

ПОЛИТИКА МЯГКОЙ СИЛЫ РФ И США ВО ВЬЕТНАМЕ

According to Joseph Nye, who introduced the concept of soft power in the 1980s, soft power is a form of political influence that allows one to achieve the desired results based on voluntary participation, cultural cooperation, and the attractiveness of the country as a whole. This article examines the soft power policy of the United States of America and Russian Federation in Vietnam, examines the historical events of the 20th century, the Vietnam War, its consequences and the subsequent development of relations between the countries. The strengths and weaknesses of both countries are analyzed. The causes and consequences of the decline of Russian influence in Vietnam since the 21st century are revealed. As a result of the analysis, the author identifies the reasons for the low efficiency of Russian soft power in Vietnam, and the reasons for the high efficiency of US soft power. Author have analyzed such areas as (political, economic, cultural, etc.) in which the Russian Federation and the United States cooperate with Vietnam. In conclusion, the author draws conclusions about the effectiveness of the soft power of Russia and the United States in Vietnam, based on the analysis of bilateral relations between Russia-Vietnam and the United States-Vietnam.

Anglo-American Relations and Soft Power: Transitioning the Special Relationship

This article argues that British soft power is a hitherto under-recognised factor in explaining the survival and changing character of the Anglo-American special relationship during the so-called long-1970s. First, the long-term interpenetration of UK and US soft power became a shared resource that British and American governments used to cohere their bilateral relations and provided for a ‘common cast of mind’ that facilitated high levels of policy congruence. Second, the particular international and domestic political changes that occurred during the long 1970s elevated the relative importance of soft power and thereby gave the British, within American calculations of mutual utility, a means of offsetting, in part at least, the relative decline of their hard power capabilities.

China’s Challenge to the Institutions of Global Governance and US Soft Power

China stands on the brink of surpassing the US in material capability and is pushing the world towards an increasingly multipolar order. This paper assesses the constraints on the growth of China's non-coercive influence in global politics. However, the constitutional groundings of global economic governance in US ideology and their institutional stickiness make China’s prospects of altering the mandates and structures of the IMF, WB, and WTO highly unlikely. Furthermore, by examining the outcomes of China's lending strategies in developing countries using Angola as a case study, this paper highlights China's inability to supplant growing IMF and WB agreements in developing countries and their failure to institutionalize their influence in partner countries. In sum, this paper concludes that liberal values, and by extension the non-coercive influence of the US, are likely to be upheld during China's rise by the institutions of global governance, namely the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organisation.

American soft power and public diplomacy in the Arab world

This position article applies the concept of soft power as developed by Joseph Nye to the Arab world and US public diplomacy in that area. Evaluating public opinion and the challenges of public diplomacy in the Arab world is difficult because of the absence of hard data on polling and public diplomacy issues. However, American diplomats who have served in the Arab world, including this author, know that most Arabs are critical of US foreign policy but that they have positive attitudes towards America as a country, due in part to American cultural and commercial products and education. This essay first discusses the impact of the digital revolution on the American public diplomacy effort and on soft power. The expansion of private communication channels has provided challenges to the US effort and has impacted its soft power. Many Arabs have exaggerated expectations about America’s ability to solve their problems. Sometimes the behaviour of private American citizens has created new challenges for our public diplomacy and damaged our soft power. This essay then analyzes several other new issues that have arisen recently affecting American soft power. One is the private dissemination of American cultural products abroad. Another is the question of whether foreign audiences still regard the US political system as a model, which they once did. A third is the exchange of persons programme, which remains an important vehicle for soft power, but which is underfunded. New security measures made necessary by terrorism also impact US soft power and public diplomacy. Futhermore, the Pentagon’s communications “mission creep” competes with the State’s public diplomacy. At the end of the essay the author takes issue with the thesis that American power generally has declined. This article is published as part of a collection on soft power.

Limits of US soft power in the Arab world (2003–15)

Soft power, according to Joseph Nye, in 2004, is ‘the ability to affect others through the co-optive means of framing the agenda, persuading, and eliciting positive attraction in order to obtain preferred outcomes’. The United States is applying many initiatives and policies of soft power in the Arab world. No other state holds as much widespread cultural attractiveness around the globe as much as the United States. Yet, America’s political and cultural popularity in the Middle East, including the Arab world, is still relatively low when compared with other regions of the world. In 2014, from the 10 states that were most unfavourable toward the United States, five were Arab states. Therefore, like hard power, soft power also has its own limits. This article focuses on the reasons and conditions that impose such constrictions and limits on US soft power in the Arab world.

A declining or stable image? An assessment of the United States' soft power in Africa

While the concept of soft power was coined by US scholar Joseph Nye in the early 1990s, the scholarly analysis of the US soft power in Africa remains scarce. This article seeks to engage with the question of soft power arising from US policies, political values and cultural exports in Africa. It employs both primary and secondary data, and focuses on the soft power impact of AGOA and PEPFAR on African perspectives on the US, as well as the impact of US popular culture, brands and educational exchange. The article found that, despite surveys pointing to increasing anti-US sentiments globally in the 21st century, Washington still wields significant soft power in Africa.

The Hypocrisy Trap and US Soft Power

In US foreign policy, the rhetoric does not always follow the reality. A consistent pattern of hypocrisy is evident in US foreign aid where words are matched by neither deeds nor outcomes. A hypocrisy trap is embedded in the logic of democratic politics. Democratically elected leaders cannot admit to the public that foreign aid is an important part of the arsenal of bribery used to gain policy compliance from foreign elites. They have to frame foreign aid as serving a greater cause. In so doing, they create a gap between rhetoric and reality. This institutionalized hypocrisy can be concealed from domestic audience more easily than from the public in the recipient regime who react by rejecting U.S. global leadership. Moreover, publicly available data published by the US government allows documents that the inflow of aid is often accompanied by the deterioration of institutional quality and a contraction of public good provision in the recipient countries. US efforts at extending soft power to win hearts and minds in the developing world are undermined.

The disjunction of image and word in US and Chinese soft power projection

This article compares US and Chinese national soft power strategies, using the cases of the US Shared Values Initiative for the Middle East in the aftermath of 9–11 and the present operation of Chinese Confucius Institutes in the US. Comparing these two national programs, I describe a consistent disjunction between visual image and spoken word for each. Regardless of variations in national approaches to soft power, this disconnect between seeing and talking is a limitation of soft power as a cultural tool of diplomatic communication. First, public diplomats’ unexamined folk theories about culture’s instrumental role in messaging emphasize spectacle in ways inimical to reciprocal engagement. Second, as a cultural policy of display, soft power image projection discourages opportunities for inter-cultural dialogue. Third, government-sponsored national image management and branding are often controversial elsewhere, in the process touching off boundary-patrolling public debates instead of helping to build international relationships.

The ‘pivot’ and its problems: American foreign policy in Northeast Asia

This paper posits four ranked, generic goals of state foreign policy, maps them against the American ‘pivot,’ and concludes with possible handicaps of that shift. Drawn broadly from realism and liberalism, those abstract goals are as follows: national security, economic growth, prestige among the community of states, and the promotion of cherished national values. Applying this framework specifically to Northeast Asia, the USA, regarding security, is likely to increasingly ‘hedge’ China, and its North Korean client, with regional allies, off-shore balancing, and a shift toward AirSea Battle. On trade, the USA will continue its decades-long effort to reduce Asian mercantilism by tying Asian traders into multilateral, neoliberal rule sets. Regarding prestige, the ‘Beijing Consensus’ is a growing challenge to US soft power which the pivot seeks to refute. In addition, on values, the USA will continue to nag especially China to conform to US standards of law and human rights. The USA will continue to push the broad liberalization of Asian polities and economies. The democratic peace and liberal trade are the ideological frame and motivation of the pivot. Nevertheless, significant US handicaps may slow the pivot: American cultural distance from Asia means little public support and understanding of its necessity; strong regional allies will tempt the USA toward offshore balancing on the cheap; and the dire US budget shortfall will reduce the resources necessary to fund it.