Abstract
Most research on soft power has focused on particular strategies or specific practices deployed by states at the meso- and micro-levels to enhance their attractiveness; however, its operation at the macro-level has been largely left unexamined. This paper contends that this level is crucial to better understanding how soft power functions in the international system. To incorporate this level into our analysis, this paper proposes reconceptualizing soft power by distinguishing between the descriptive and prescriptive elements present in Nye’s definition to produce a concept more narrowly focused around attractiveness as the source of soft power. Further, this reconceptualization allows for the concept to now be situated within the fourth face of power. Drawing on a Foucauldian approach, this move is significant because it recognizes that, at the global level, attractiveness is the result of discursive production rather than a property immanent to the international system. In addition, this move acknowledges that soft power can now be understood as a form of competition to define what constitutes attractiveness. For international politics, this competition takes place between states who are attempting to position themselves as attractive relative to other states. In the current period, the competition to define attractiveness is playing out in the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China. As such, their respective soft power strategies using selected media outlets is analyzed to test the operation of this new conceptualization of soft power.
Presenters
Peter Sandby ThomasAssociate Teaching Professor, Political Science, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Power, Discourse, Media, Geopolitics, Foucault
