Joseph S. Nye's Inaugural Commentary
AMERICA'S ABIDING VALUES AND SOFT POWER
JOSEPH S. NYE JR.
The 45th president’s rhetoric and policy rocked American soft power. The assault began in 2017. It grew in 2020 through mishandling of the pandemic. It went into free fall when Trump supporters, from crazy fringe groups, stormed the Capitol to steal an election – egged on by the president and allies.
A country’s soft power arises primarily from three sources: its culture (when it is attractive to others); its political values such as democracy and human rights (when it lives up to them); and its policies (when they are seen as legitimate). How a government behaves at home (for example, protecting a free press and the right to protest); in international institutions (consulting others and multilateralism); and in foreign policy (promoting development and human rights), matters.
Trump’s cavalier attitude towards human rights, his abandoning of international institutions and multilateralism, and his perpetuation of a falsehood – that he won a second term as president – do not resonate with American soft power. He is responsible for the decline in American attractiveness abroad as shown in the polls.
Our allies and other countries were appalled by the democratic dysfunction. But they surely were impressed by the way the system held – at elections, in Courts, in coercive moments involving the president and officials, in State Assemblies and Congress.
America has been wracked before by protests and violence. The problems it faces are mighty and many. There have been such episodes in the past as well. America erupted after Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King were assassinated. Anti Vietnam War protests mobilised large segments of a generation. Bombs, on campuses and in government offices, became commonplace. But the American People’s genius for resilience and reform always came to its rescue - like the proverbial cavalry.
Martin Luther King’s civil rights anthem, “We Shall Overcome”, illustrated that America’s power to attract rested on its civil society - and its capacity to be self-critical and reform – not state policy. This is a “meta soft power.”
The democratic heart of America’s politics exerts soft power in like-minded people across the world. But even when there is disruption, as in the Trump Administration, there are other sources of American soft power, sources not linked to the state. American movies, television and free press, attract large global audiences. U.S. foundations and charities have enormous altruistic outreach, that is attractive. American universities are magnets for international students and researchers.
America has faced increased political polarization over the past twenty years. Trump used nativist populism to wrest control of the Republican Party from centrists. The lesson from the 2016 election was that Trump’s newly carved-out base, of ‘forgotten Americans,’ is the key to electoral victory, including in down-ballot elections. Republican Senators and Congressmembers became loathe to invite primary challenges from the Trump base.
Fortunately for American democracy, the federal system makes local state officials responsible for carrying out elections. These officials rightly chose to honour their oath of allegiance, rather than bend to the president’s will. Their speaking of truth to power was a product of American political culture – an enduring source of soft power.
American democracy has not met its demise. The voter turnout in the 2020 election was the highest ever. Many voters wanted to dislodge a president who had authoritarian tendencies. The result withstood sixty challenges in courts, including a Supreme Court with a Republican majority. The actions of Republican and Democratic state officials, the Trump-appointed Attorney General, and the Bench, not only shored up, but also reinvigorated, American democracy - and soft power.
So far, Joe Biden has been a calming voice. While it is too soon to be sure, if he can tame the pandemic, revive the economy, and provide a political center that eases the polarization, we may be witnessing the end rather than the beginning of a dangerous political period. If so, American resilience will once again lead to a recovery of our soft power.
Joseph S. Nye Jr.
University Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus. Former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
28 January 2021
Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump (Oxford University Press, 2020.