Soft Power

      Soft Power, according to Joseph S. Nye, is a country's ability to attract others to its point of view. In other words, it is a "pull" factor in getting others to work toward a country's goals. In terms of a metaphor, it is a carrot dangled in front of a pig. Hard Power, on the other hand, is a country's ability to force others to serve its goals. Going back to the pig metaphor, this would be the stick that threatens to hit the pig should it disobey.
      Soft Power would be like the United States to get another country, say Great Britain to join in an economic agreement because that would be beneficial to both countries. Hard Power would be like the United States getting a trade agreement out of Japan because a squadron of armored gunships appeared in Tokyo harbor and it would be incredibly unwise to refuse at that moment.
      According to Nye, Soft Power comes from having an attractive culture, upstanding political values, and moral foreign policies. In his article in Foreign Policy magazine, he notes that America's substantial Soft Power comes from its culture. It makes sense to seek economic partnerships with American business because of its economy power all across the globe. At the same time, American politics stay true to American morals and its foreign policy is ostensibly aimed towards improving living conditions. (That improving living conditions coincide with advancing American interests is probably why one can both love and hate American policy overseas at the same time.) Additionally, the diffusion of American culture throughout the world makes Americans seem less scary, in contrast to our often-skewed perceptions of other countries.
      On the other hand, Nye talks about China and Russia's heavy-handed attempts to use Soft Power, which are portrayed as misguided and misunderstood. Both countries strike me as reminiscent of the to-be-colonized peoples of the European Imperial Age trying to buy firearms but not adopt the industry and discipline necessary to fight back effectively.
      China invests in Africa to combat poverty and builds schools in Manila, but continues to crack down on human rights. Russia's Putin talks about the need to use Soft Power but uses his military on Georgia. Already, they've shot themselves in the criteria that call for upstanding political values and foreign policies. The only thing that remains is having an attractive culture, of which China has some, and Russia has little. Russia, incidentally, also has few allies, while China has strong trade relations because of its manufacturing base.
     In the absence of substantial Chinese cultural diffusion, it has to keep its Soft Power policies afloat by being a massively powerful economy, which it does with aplomb. There is a phrase I heard once that would sum up China's Soft Power cornerstone for the time being: "If God made everything, He would live somewhere in China."
      If China and Russia want to have things their way by doing the political equivalent of asking nicely, they'll have to prove themselves to be "nice" countries first.