Regime Change with Chinese Characteristics

American Affairs 4.4 (Winter, 2020)

There is something a little unsettling about a nation that deliberately sets about increasing its “soft power.” Soft power, in the classic 1990 formulation by the Harvard political scientist Joseph Nye, is a nation’s ability to persuade other countries to follow its lead willingly, thanks to the appeal of its culture, political values, and foreign policies. This contrasts with “hard power,” the capacity to coerce other countries using superior wealth or military force. As the idea of soft power has developed in the last three decades, it has come to include a country’s ways of doing business, its digital environment, its wider patterns of international engagement, and its educational resources. As military force has become less effective as a solution to problems, and as the gap between rich and poor nations has closed, soft power has assumed ever greater importance in international relations. Countries that want to keep or acquire dominance among the world’s nations have to make sure that they are the kind of places where global elites want to do business, to visit as tourists, and to live as skilled professionals. Their political systems need to pass moral smell tests of legitimacy, transparency, goodwill, and respect for human rights. Their institutions need to earn trust and build a reputa­tion for consistency and reliability.

All admirable goals, to be sure. Still, deliberate attempts to acquire soft power are unsettling. In Nye’s original formulation, some nations were persuasive internationally simply because of what they were…

Read more