Power Essay: Hard Power Vs. Soft Power

Congresswoman Linda Sanchez once said, “As a member of Congress, I’m often reminded that in baseball, as in diplomacy, you have to know when to hit, when to run, and when to show grace.” I felt that this quote impeccably describes the relationship between the many theoretical approaches involved with diplomacy. Although, there are a vast number of methods practiced in diplomacy, the two most prevalent are soft power and hard power, which were both coined by political scientist Joseph Nye. Today, there has been an ongoing debate on whether or not the international interests of the United States would be better served by the use of hard power or soft power.
According to Nye, power can best be defined as the ability to change the behavior of others in order to get what you want. The expression "soft power" first came into play in
Think of the impact of Franklin Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms in Europe at the end of World War II; of young people behind the Iron Curtain listening to American music and news on Radio Free Europe; of Chinese students symbolizing their protests in Tiananmen Square by creating a replica of the Statue of Liberty; of newly liberated Afghans in 2001 asking for a copy of the Bill of Rights; of young Iranians today surreptitiously watching banned American videos and satellite television broadcasts in the privacy of their homes. These are all examples of America’s soft power. When you can get others to admire your ideals and to want what you want, you do not have to spend as much on sticks and carrots to move them in your direction (Nye IX)
After the Vietnam War in 1975, President Carter said, “globalization is abolishing hard power”. With the world becoming more and more globalized today, soft power appears to be more effective than hard power as a result of the variety of political, economic, and informational inter-dependent relationships that exist amongst most of the leading countries of the