Joseph Nye is credited with popularizing the concept of “soft power” in international relations.
Joseph Nye, the American political scientist known for co-developing the neoliberalism theory of international relations with Robert Keohane and for coining the term “soft power,” has died at 88, Harvard University announced.
During his 60-year tenure as a Harvard professor, Nye was instrumental in building the John F. Kennedy School of Government (HKS), where he also served as dean from 1995 to 2004. Many prominent American politicians are graduates of the school.
In a statement released on Wednesday, HKS noted that Nye’s “ideas on the nature of power in international relations influenced generations of policymakers, academics, and students and made him one of the world’s most celebrated political thinkers.”
The university’s statement also mentioned that the scholar “developed the concepts of soft power, smart power, and neoliberalism.”
Nye introduced the concept of “soft power” in the early 1990s. He defined it as a nation’s ability to achieve its desired outcomes with other nations “through attraction, rather than coercion or payment.” Later, he formulated the concept of “smart power,” emphasizing the value of integrating both hard and soft power into a cohesive foreign policy approach. This term gained considerable traction during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton (1993-2001) and Barack Obama (2009-2017).
President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) appointed Nye to lead his administration’s efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation. During the Clinton administration, he held the position of chairman of the National Intelligence Council and also served as assistant secretary of defense.
Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a post on X, remembered Nye as “a friend and mentor to so many, including me.” He added, “Few contributed as much to our intellectual capital, our understanding of the world and America’s place in it.”
In recent years, Nye had become increasingly critical of US President Donald Trump, accusing him of undervaluing soft power and “bullying” other nations, even those allied with the US. He stated in a March article for the Financial Times that “Extreme narcissists such as Trump are not true realists, and American soft power will have a hard time during the next four years.”
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