American Soft Power
With the beginning of twenty century, especially after the first world war, occurred fundamental change in international system, and dominant order based on Euro-center to be exchanged for new America-center order. This new order didn"t endure more than tow decade, and through other war America became a global super power. this super power beside the hard power (military and economy) considered soft power, for instance, culture, mass media, public opinion, human rights, humanitarian aids, even scholarships). This research will prove that soft power despite having great and powerful army and greater economy has had very important significant role in foreign policy of America. Therefore, American leaders, in some period, forgot the role of this power.
But policy-makers and experts of this country considered it again. Of course, with analyzing and examining changes and continuity of the foreign policy of the USA and its historical directions, role of soft power completely will reveal. I should mention that this research will focus on period of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush (1992-2006). Proclaims of this research is that soft power has had/ will have key and main role in the foreign policy of America. This type of power, also, has had more significant in shaping American foreign policy in front of Iran, because applying of military actions is not possible for Iran. For this reason, United States of America resort to soft power as collapse from inside (soft regime change) vis-à-vis Iran. Of course, this assumption will reveal after introducing manses and performance mechanism of soft power.
if we examine the international practice of countries from power perspective, states are the main issue of analyzing the political actors, and we should pay attention to relevance of power between them and power distribution in international system. In investigating relevance of power among states actually was considered quantitative factors of power like grass national production (GNP), number of army, and qualitative elements or the very soft power like leadership, ideology, political legitimacy, and mentality of ordinary people and soldiers. Morgenthau H. J. states international politics is struggle and conflict on power, and argue that power is a psychological relevance among which applying power and who were applying power (Ghavam, 2001, 59). His idea is subjective and psychological concerns of states about factors of hard power, but he unconsciously with using the concept of "psychological relevance" admit that power only does not limit to quantitative elements.
If power be a "psychological relevance" among states, whereas leaders and elites are located in head of pyramid and ordinary people are located in bottom of pyramid, then the deliberation and perspective of them to component of power is very important. Thus, consideration of soft and qualitative elements of power from elites and leaders to ordinary people is significant. This essay tries to explain the role of soft power in USA foreign policy, especially in front of Iran in period of Clinton and George W. Bush presidency, and introduces practical strategies and counter policies versus American policies.
Max Weber believes that power is meant every opportunity/possibility existing within a social relationship, which permits one to carry out one's own will, even against resistance, and regardless of the basis on which this opportunity rests. Much of the recent sociological debate on "power" revolves around the issue of constraining and enabling nature of power. Thus, power can be seen as various forms of constraint on human action, but also as that which makes action possible, although in a limited scope.
Soft power is used in international relations theory to describe the ability of a political actor, such as a state, to indirectly influence the behavior or interests of other political actors through cultural or ideological means. The term was first coined by Harvard University professor Joseph Nye, who remains its most prominent proponent, in a 1990 book, bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power. He further developed the concept in his 2004 book, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. While its usefulness as a descriptive theory has not gone unchallenged, soft power has since entered popular political discourse as a way of distinguishing the subtle effects of culture, values and ideas on others' behavior from more direct coercive measures, such as military action (hard power) or economic incentives. In Nye's words, the basic concept of power is the ability to influence others to get them to do what you want. There are three major ways to do that: one is to threaten them with sticks; the second is to pay them with carrots; the third is to attract them or co-opt them, so that they want what you want. If you can get others to be attracted, to want what you want, it costs you much less in carrots and sticks. Soft power, then, represents the third way of getting the outcomes you want.
Foreign policy is a set of political goals that seeks to outline how that particular country will interact with other countries of the world and, to a lesser extent, non-state actors. Foreign policies generally are designed to help protect a country's national interests, national security, ideological goals, and economic prosperity. This can occur as a result of peaceful cooperation with other nations, or through aggression, war, and exploitation. The twentieth century saw a rapid rise in the importance of foreign policy, with virtually every nation in the world now being able to interact with one another in some diplomatic form.
The foreign policy of the United States is marked by the country's large economy, well-funded military and notable political influence. United States has the world's largest economy, the world's most well-funded military, and a large amount of political influence. The officially stated goals of the foreign policy of the United States based on repeatedly mentioned and emphasized by government officials, are:
Protecting the safety and freedom of all American citizens, both within the United States and abroad,
Protecting allied nations of the United States from attack or invasion and creating mutually beneficial international defense arrangements and partnerships to ensure this,
Promotion of peace, freedom, and democracy in all regions of the world,
Furthering free trade and furthering capitalism in order to foster economic growth, improve living conditions everywhere, and promote the sale and mobility of U.S. products to international consumers who desire them, and
Bringing developmental and humanitarian aid to foreign peoples in need. Some of these principles belong to Soft power and others are hard power policies. All of these statements are the targets of many criticisms from various sources.
Hard power is using violence or threats to gain power over someone or a group of people. It is used in contrast to soft power. This can be applied through military power which consists of coercive diplomacy, war and alliance using threats and force with the aim of coercion, deterrence and protection.
Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience such as the population of a nation-state. It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines, although mass media was present centuries before the term became common. Public media has a similar meaning: it is the sum of the public mass distributors of news and entertainment across mediums such as newspapers, television, radio, broadcasting & text publishers.
Public diplomacy in international relations is a term coined in the 1960s to describe aspects of international diplomacy other than the interactions among states. It has been closely associated with the United States Information Agency, which used the term to define its mission. It was originally used for propaganda. A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal. It is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand.
My name is Javad Alipoor, I'm from Tabrize, I'm 25years old. I have empirical science diploma. I finished high school in 1998. My A.M degree is Islamic studies and political science, Imam Sadiq university of Tehran, Iran. I finished it in 2003. I passed 190 credits in undergraduate. I'm studying 2 disciplines in M.A degree. I'm studying political science and International relations in Imam Sadiq university of Tehran, that I almost finished it. Also, I 'm studying North American studies in institute for North American and European studies, university of Tehran. I translated political articles and essays from English to Persian, and published in Persian publications and magazines.
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/
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