The Rhetoric of Soft Power

Public Diplomacy in Global Contexts

By (author) Craig Hayden

Not available to order

Publication date:

15 November 2011

Length of book:

326 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739142608

The Rhetoric of Soft Power: Public Diplomacy in Global Contexts provides a comparative assessment of public diplomacy and strategic communication initiatives, in order to portray how Joseph Nye’s notion of “soft power” has translated into context-specific strategies of international influence. The book examines four cases – Japan, Venezuela, China, and the United States – to illuminate the particular significance of culture, foreign publics, and communication technologies for the foreign policy ambitions of each country.

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Evaluating Soft Power: Toward a Comparative Framework
Chapter 3: Japan: Culture, Pop Culture, and the National Brand
Chapter 4: Venezuela: Telesur and the Artillery of Ideas
Chapter 5: China: Cultivating a Global Soft Power
Chapter 6: United States of America: Public Diplomacy 2.0 and 21st Century Statecraft
Chapter 7: Conclusion

Hayden (American Univ.) offers a welcome, much-needed analysis of what has become one of the most discussed concepts in international relations--soft power. Joseph S. Nye's concept of soft power has gained much attention in recent years, yet a thorough theoretical analysis has been sorely lacking. Hayden provides this analysis by merging this concept with the notion of public diplomacy, which he defines broadly as purposive attempts by actors to communicate in global media, cultural, and information spaces. In the author's own words, the book's goal is "to develop a theoretical treatment of soft power and public diplomacy through an interdisciplinary investigation of what is demonstratively a transnational, interdisciplinary phenomenon." The book succeeds in this goal. One of Hayden's main contributions is to not only offer a fresh analysis of US debates over the use of soft power in light of increased anti-Americanism in recent years. He also offers a rich comparative analysis of how soft power is deployed in the crucial states of China, Japan, and Venezuela, demonstrating how the key soft power notions of influence and persuasion are conceived of differently in different national contexts. Summing Up: Highly recommended.