I recently gave a presentation to European students in Vienna about soft power and U.S. foreign policy. Some guffawed and a few loudly registered their disbelief. Should we in the U.S. care whether these young Europeans show their displeasure, if not opposition, to U.S. soft power? I believe we should.
The U.S., although a leading global power, functions today in a globalized world in which our power is contingent on how others perceive our underlying values of liberalism, capitalism and democratization. Our long-standing power as a global leader is and will continue to be based on the degree by which these students and others perceive the U.S. to be a legitimate moral authority.
Part of the problem is the misplaced notion that our soft power derives from attraction to cultural products. Soft power, coined by Harvard professor Joseph Nye, is the power of attraction. Typically, this attraction is based on innovative consumer products or cultural features such as the iPhone, Hello Kitty or the Chinese language. For some, the download of a movie or a cellphone app, the growth in a type of foreign cuisine or languages being learned are considered examples of soft power strength. For Nye, soft power is the perception held by foreigners of the key images, notable products and public displays of national identity. If foreigners view these images in a positive way, they and their governments are supposed to be more likely to support that country.
What I have learned from these European students is that U.S. consumer products are not the basis of our soft power. Attraction is in the eye of the beholder and what is considered to be “cool” one day will not be “cool” the next. Remember high school! Let’s move away from these products and focus on how soft power actually incorporates ethical standards of behavior and important societal norms that resonate with others in the world. These fundamental norms should not surprise us: liberal ideas of individualism, economic incentives, democracy and human rights. Implementing these liberal values over many decades has led the U.S. to our dominant global economic and political position.
But there is another problem associated with the criticism leveled by these students. They do not believe that our nation still adheres to these liberal values. Obama’s use of soft power highlights the struggle to express his Obama doctrine. Unlike the Bush doctrine, Obama’s world view is more difficult to convey. Bush’s world view was based on religious and ideological values and focused entirely on hard power.
In contrast, Obama’s adherence to soft power has been demonstrated by his willingness to use diplomacy to resolve problems. In 2010, he negotiated the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia. He successfully used diplomatic negotiations to break the impasse between the U.S. and Cuba. And recently he negotiated the nuclear energy agreement with Iran. Yet he has fallen short of the promise of soft power by wavering on important issues such as the closure of Guantanamo, not pressing charges against those who tortured prisoners, for keeping more troops in the Middle East and for an ambivalent global environmental agenda.
But soft power has an international but also a domestic component. The domestic sources of soft power include public support of a country’s government, social cohesion and institutional legitimacy. Continuous congressional paralysis, significant racial divisions and rising economic inequality point to a weakened adherence to our own national values of pluralism, toleration and economic well-being. Soft power not only concerns how others perceive us; it is how we perceive each other. And my students in Vienna perceive an erosion of another pillar of American moral authority.
The challenge called for by these students is the challenge to American leadership and, indeed, our own society. How can we develop and expand our soft power that is perceived by foreigners and ourselves as ethical and representative of our fundamental national values? The broad answer is to recognize the fundamental norms of the U.S.: democratic values and institutions, economic opportunities for all in our society, pluralism and toleration. If we directly face this challenge, soft power of the U.S. will strengthen our position in the world (morally and politically) and my students may again, one day, turn to the U.S. as a global moral authority.
Howard Lehman is distinguished Fulbright professor of political science at the University of Utah.