Get Smart: Combining Hard and Soft Power.

• Author: Kiehl, William P.
• Position: Brief article

GET SMART: COMBINING HARD AND SOFT POWER

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65163/joseph-s-nye-jr/get-smart

By Joseph S. Nye, author of The Powers to Lead

In this "Response" from the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, Harvard University's Distinguished Service Professor Joseph S. Nye takes issue with Leslie Gelb's May/June Foreign Affairs article "Necessity, Choice and Common Sense," which is largely drawn from Gelb's new book Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy. (Readers may find a review of Gelb's book elsewhere in this journal; see: http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2009/0709/book/book_teixeira_power.html).

Nye, the author of the term "smart power," accuses Gelb of confusing "actions to achieve outcomes" with the resources used to produce them. The professor also points out that many types of resources, including military and economic ones, can contribute to "soft power." Criticizing Gelb's narrow definition of power ("getting people or groups to do something they don't want...