The Ambivalence of Soft Power

Abstract In Soft Power and the Future of US Foreign Policy, Hendrik W. Ohnesorge has collected interesting and worthwhile essays demonstrating that values, policies and personalities – as well as artists and performers, philanthropic foundations, universities, corporations and churches – are elements of American soft power. These cultural resources add to a nation’s global reputation and influence. Factors afflicting America’s reputation today include the declining quality of life for many sectors of American society, the country’s inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, recent foreign-policy disasters, and the coercive use of soft power itself. None of the contributors scrutinise the gap between promise and performance in US public diplomacy, but it seems clear that hard power undergirds soft power, and that the ability to call upon a uniquely abundant variety of means to project power is still what distinguishes the United States from all its competitors.