Soft power

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In politics (and particularly in international politics), soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce (in contrast with hard power). It involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. Soft power is non-coercive, using culture, political values, and foreign policies to enact change. In 2012, Joseph Nye of Harvard University explained that with soft power, "the best propaganda is not propaganda", further explaining that during the Information Age, "credibility is the scarcest resource".^[1]

Nye popularised the term in his 1990 book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power.^[2]

In this book he wrote: "when one country gets other countries to want what it wants might be called co-optive or soft power in contrast with the hard or command power of ordering others to do what it wants".^[2] He further developed the concept in his 2004 book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics.^[3]