The Biden administration’s approach of “multilateral restoration” has many virtues compared to the last four years of MAGA. But it has considerable shortcomings as well.
How Biden Looks at the World
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soft power
A Feminist Alternative to Trump’s Chest Beating on Iran
Foreign policy should prioritize the needs of ordinary civilians and civil society — and wars of choice should always be off the table.
The Racism Heard Round the World
When the neo-fascist National Front is more willing to condemn neo-Nazis than Trump, we have a problem.
Trump May Be Accelerating U.S. Decline, But He Surely Didn’t Start It
The more immediate danger is that as America’s soft power crumbles, the White House will lean harder on hard power — with predictably grim results.
China, America, and a New Cold War in Africa?
Is the conflict in South Sudan the opening salvo in the battle for a continent?
When Soft Power Fails
Washington has been reluctant to reevaluate “soft power” when it seems so obviously a fig leaf for the assertion of military dominance. But perhaps by looking at the palpable failures of Chinese efforts in Asia, U.S. policymakers could learn some lessons about strategy. Other countries in Asia that aspire to cultivate both hard power and soft power – Japan, South Korea – should also take note: you rarely can have it both ways.
The Limits of Information in North Korea
If North Koreans simply knew more about the world outside – or received more accurate information about their own society – they would transform their country. This is an operating assumption behind much of the policy thinking in Washington and Seoul. Both governments pour money into radio stations that beam information into North Korea. Civil society activists, perhaps impatient with the incremental pace of government policy, try to get information into the notoriously isolated country by any means possible, from floating balloons over the border to crossing into the country to proselytize in person.
Nye’s Future of Power
In his new book The Future of Power, co-founder of neo-liberalism theory Joseph S. Nye outlines a synthesis of his more than two decades of scholarship on the future of world power politics.